Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer": An Analysis of the Dynamics of Mass Movements

Joseph Myren: AWESOME

Canada on Sep 19, 2023

Amazon Customer: Read it. It's worth your time. Just read it.

India on Jul 11, 2023

Rajesh GopinathanRajesh Gopinathan: This is a small book but it may take a lot of time to finish, not because the language is difficult rather exact opposite. Eric Hoffer's Lucid language makes this book an easy read but at the same time, this book evokes a phenomenal thought experiment in each small section (Its has 125 sections sometimes one paragraph is numbered as a separate section) the book has been comprised of.

Why it may take a lot of time to finish this book?

Erich Hoffer packs an enormous insight in a paragraph of say five lines. So once you come across such an insight you just search for a contemporary mass movement which fits that exact description. And for your surprise each and every section will have a contemporary example.

Each section will take a lot of time to process and you will never want this book to end. You may disagree with lot of his arguments but you cannot deny the fact on which it has been argued.

In Eric Hoffer's Word "....But this is not an authoritative textbook. It is a book of thoughts, and it does not shy away from half-truths as long as they seem to hint at a new approach and help to formulate new questions." (p-60)

I am pretty sure after you...

India on Aug 26, 2020

Henry J: Revolutions and other mass movements all have commonalities, chief among them are the people who start and promulgate them. This short, concise book breaks down and organizes the characteristics of these people: The True Believers - and the movements they promote. This is a book of genius, comparable to ‘The Prince’ or ‘Rules for Radicals,’ in its simplicity and insights into human nature and organized political action. Hoffer wrote this book after the Second World War while the memories and realities of Fascism and Communism were very present.

If you’ve ever been part of a mass movement, or ever contemplated participating in one, this book will open your eyes to what you can expect as a mass movement gets underway and develops through its active phase. It’ll provide you with an understanding of the motivations and designs of the movement’s leaders, and insight into your own and your fellow believers’ psychology. If you have the ambition to be the next Christ or Hitler to lead a mass movement, this is your blueprint.

In summary:

I. THE APPEAL OF MASS MOVEMENTS
The desire for change starts and lives in the hearts of frustrated people....

United States on Aug 31, 2018

Athan: Much like the book by the unmentionable author who figures on the cover of my paperback edition of “The True Believer,” and for all the endnotes and references, this is but a list of largely unsubstantiated assertions and aphorisms. Eric Hoffer admits as much on page 60:

“This is not an authoritative textbook. It is a book of thoughts, and it does not shy away from half-truths, so long as they seem to hint at a new approach and help formulate new questions.”

With that caveat out of the way, it has to be said that this is a tremendous exploration of the motivations of mass movements and the fanatic in particular. The thoughts described in this book clearly derive from the experiences leading up to the horrors of the first and second world war, as well the wars themselves. They pertain to the conditions that lead to the creation of populist mass movements, the leaders these movements require and the state of mind of the fanatic.

I guess that’s why I picked it up in 2017. It’s been in print for a good 60 years, but had not seemed relevant for some time…

Fanaticism is built on humiliation. It is himself (most often his humiliated, debased,...

United Kingdom on Feb 27, 2017

enthymeme: A very engaging and insightful work is this, well researched and academic, to the point where it would be dry were it not for the subject matter and Hoffer’s engaging turn of phrase, which gives not only a theoretical view of the world of the fanatic, but a deep analysis of how the fanatic and his world came about.
Hoffer is very even-handed in his discussion, drawing examples from the Nazi party, the French Revolution, postwar Palestine, Stalinist Russia, the Crusades and Imperial Japan. No period or aspect of life is left unexamined as he walks through the rise of the mass movement, who is motivated to join them and why, and how each religious, political and revolutionary current transitions through various stages, changing its rhetoric, members and even its aims in the pursuit of-what? Something which they all have in common but claim is unique only to their own race of believers.
You could page through it and find multiple parallels with his time and our own, from Nazi Germany to North Korea, and radical Islam to the radical right. Like any good work of history, this shows the reader how parts of the modern world came about and persist today, and how we might be ( or...

United Kingdom on Aug 07, 2015

Tim F. Martin: The True Believer_ by Eric Hoffer is a short though rather intense and pithy book. His basic premise is that there are traits common to all mass movements, whether they are religious, social, or nationalist in nature. He stresses that while not all movements - and followers of such mass movements, the titular true believer - are identical nevertheless (be they Communism, the French Revolution, Islam, or Christianity) all share certain essential characteristics. He also stresses that he is not making value judgments; that while few would dispute that Nazism was evil many mass movements produced positive benefits (for instance the rapid modernization of Japan and Turkey would not have been possible without a revivalist nationalist movement).

The true believer in any mass movement shares many key characteristics. One is that he or she is discontented and blames the world for his or her problems. Second is that he possesses some sense of power, whether real or imagined (those who are in awe of the world he wrote do not think of change, no matter how miserable); the true believer is not destitute, as those who are living hand-to-mouth, unsure of food on a daily basis, don't join...

United States on Sep 30, 2004