True Believer Paperback – 19 January 2010

All the books met my expectations in terms of content

A good book to read and learn

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 complete this book, your perspective on a mass movement will change forever!

Read it. It's worth your time. Just read it.

A book with important insights into the human condition.

Very interesting and correct

Very poor print quality not worthy of the price.

I read this book 40 years ago, and still have that paperback. Eric Hoffer throws some light on the mystery of how some people are driven to extreme causes, be they political movements, cults or revolutionaries. The motivation to sacrifice themselves to a mass movement is not always noble. It may be personality flaws within these exceptional individuals who create or join mass movements. People not satisfied with their own lives are ready to destroy the world and try and remake it in their own vision. He discussed how the mass movements use drama and illusions which enable the followers to make extreme sacrifice, be ready to suffer and inflict suffering on the non believers.The examples given by Hoffer are about mass movements of the last century like Nazis and Fascism of last century but they are equally true even in this century ( look at ISIS) and maybe for all human history.A word of caution, there can be genuine noble and altruistic reasons too why people sacrifice their lives for a noble cause, but that is not the subject here.