The True Believer

Eric Hoffer, an American social philosopher and San Francisco dock stevedore, examines why mass movements arise and what draws people into them. He argues that movements of every kind, religious or secular, nationalist or political, radical or reactionary, are broadly interchangeable, tending to draw the same kinds of malcontents and use similar tactics. Converts, in his account, feel their lives are spoiled beyond repair and seek to lose themselves in a collective cause, with the resentful New Poor as prime recruits. Examples include Saul becoming Paul and the contest between Communists and Nazis for the same recruits in interwar Germany. His first and best-known book, it became a bestseller after President Eisenhower cited it at an early televised press conference.

Marc Andreessen called it an excellent study of mass movements and collective psychology, and Mark Manson put it on his list of the 11 best books on politics, noting it was reportedly Eisenhower's favorite. It also appears among Reid Hoffman's picks in a What CEOs are reading roundup.