The True Believer

Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

By: Eric Hoffer

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

“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.

Fantastic source

Great read. Things like this really help you understand where we’ve been historically and where we are headed.

Warning – frustrated humans will follow whoever promises to end frustration.

This was a very thought-provoking book. I wish I’d read it 40 years ago. It explains a lot about politics at every level, local, national, international, formal, and informal.

Is everyone not like this?

I had the sense that not everyone feels like they were born wrong. Yet it’s still odd to have it spelled out in such detail. I’d say, “Must be nice”, but it kind of sounds awful to be so wedded to yourself.

a framework to understand now

history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes, how did this person wrote a book in the 1940s the describes our current reality?

Old truths can be more accurate than new truth

That a 75 year old observation is still accurate today — many parts could have been written after 2022