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The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

by Eric Hoffer

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A compact inquiry into fanaticism and collective belief

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A compact inquiry into fanaticism and collective belief

First published as Eric Hoffer’s best-known work, The True Believer examines political fanaticism and the dynamics of mass movements. Drawing on social and political thought, it considers the figure of the “true believer”: how an individual may come to subordinate personal identity to a larger cause, and how collective movements gather force. The book’s subject is not a particular movement or historical episode, but the underlying patterns Hoffer associates with zeal, belonging, and ideological commitment. Its concise format makes it a focused entry in political philosophy and social psychology, centered on the relationship between individual discontent and organized mass conviction.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in political philosophy and social psychology
  • Those studying fanaticism, ideology, and mass movements
  • Readers seeking a short, idea-driven work on collective belief

Themes

Political fanaticismMass movementsIdeologyIndividual identityCollective belief

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"Its theme is political fanaticism, with which it deals severely and brilliantly." --New Yorker

The famous bestseller with "concise insight into what drives the mind of the fanatic and the dynamics of a mass movement" (Wall Street Journal) by the legendary San Francisco longshoreman.

A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, Eric Hoffer wrote philosophical treatises in his spare time while living in the railroad yards. The True Believer--the first and most famous of his books--was made into a bestseller when President Eisenhower cited it during one of the earliest television press conferences.

Called a "brilliant and original inquiry" and "a genuine contribution to our social thought" by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., this landmark in the field of social psychology is completely relevant and essential for understanding the world today as it delivers a visionary, highly provocative look into the mind of the fanatic and a penetrating study of how an individual becomes one.

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