About this title: Discusses the appeal of mass movements, types of potential converts, factors promoting self-sacrifice, and good and bad mass movements. Reissue.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: True Believer by Eric Hoffer, New American Library, paperback, thoughts on the nature of mass movements, 1951, 160 pages, fair condition. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Perennial (HarperCollins)
Date Published: 1989-11
ISBN-13:9780060916121ISBN:0060916125
Description: Good. A Great Deal! ! ! ! /Book contains underlining or highlighting inside/ Media mail is very slow sometimes...for fastest delivery, select "Expedited shipping"! / Buy from me and you won't be let down! ! ! / APO/FPO Orders Appreciated! ! ! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780060916121ISBN:0060916125
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Pristine condition unused and unmarked book. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 177 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: 3rd printing since 1958. MD228.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: A Mentor Book / The New American Library, New York
Date Published: 1961
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. Foxing; age-toning. Underlining in both ink and pencil. Sligth chipping, top spine ends. Short crease, rear top corner. 160 p. Mass-market PB. Notes by Chapter. Psychology / Philosophy. A fanatic is one 'who is anxious to join a cause--any cause--and if necessary to sacrifice lives for that cause--his life, or your life...if you let him, ' from back cover. Hoffer's report analyzes and dissects motives, responses, potential, and power of ... read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Time Incorporated, New York
Date Published: 1963
Description: Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Time Reading Program. A kind of restrained, urbane diatribe against faith, hope and many forms of charity. Wraps are lightly scuffed with a drink ring on the front. Binding is very tight, spine unbent. Pages clean, text unmarked. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780060505912ISBN:0060505915
Description: Good. Cover shows some edge wear and creasing. A few pages have been creased or wrinkled. A few pages have highlighting. Slight creasing or wear on some page edges or corners. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Perennial Library
Date Published: 1966
Description: Fair. Perennial Library 1966 light wear to cover, cover has slipped back exposing the pages beyound the cover, text underlined with notes in red pen throughout. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: The New American Library, [New York]
Date Published: 1964
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. Underlining in text. 160 p. 18 cm. "A Mentor book" Bibliographical references included in "Notes" (p.152-160) read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780060916121ISBN:0060916125
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Light edge wear to covers, remainder mark on bottom page ends. Clean and unmarked inside, tightly bound. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 177 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"This book can serve as either a cautionary text or a guidebook for aspiring warlords. Sadly, many of the issues raised would likely fall on deaf ears on either political side, specifically the overarching desire by many to repudiate themselves as individuals."
"I liked the book fairly well overall. We are in agreement on a lot of points; my sole issue with Hoffer was when he went to the history books to demonstrate those points. I know, that's bad. This should not be an issue at all. But more often than not, the examples are rather shallow (a line or two here and there) and don't add any strength to his arguements. Sometimes--at their worst--they can be cliche or even racist. It's amazing that a book which can so accurately distill within its slim spine the nature of mass movements (which can only be done by examining history) would screw up so thoroughly in that department, but there you go.
And yet, he manages to distill the nature of mass movements to its universal truths with clear, presice writing, examples be damned. Anyone can read The True Believer and draw their own connections between the text and the world (past and present). I wished he would have left them out of the book, but they're there. Oh well.
On Make-believe:
"Glorly is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience..."
"The desire to escape or camoflauge their unsatisfactory selves develops in the frustrated a facility for pretending--for making a show--and also a readiness to identify themselves wholly with an imposing spectacle."
Coincidently, the first time I watched Fight Club was at the exact time I was reading The True Believer. That was a hoot."
"This little book, written in the 50s by a self-educated stevedore, is truly a gem for those studying mass movements, or can be a textbook for those interested in starting one. Hoffer went on to teach at various prestigious colleges in spite of his lack of formal education. It is short, but well written and thorough."
"This book cranked open my head. I hadn't thought a lot about how the psychological/political world works before then. I should go back and read it again, see if it holds up. (It might be embarrassing.) We've had a lot of mass movements since then, a lot of water under the bridge. I thought the book, and the author, were wonderful. I think I may have also read The Ordeal of Change, but I won't give myself credit for it because I'm not sure."
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