While residing in the train yards, Eric Hoffer spent his free time writing philosophical essays. President Eisenhower highlighted The True Believer, his first and most well-known book, during one of the first news conferences broadcast on television, turning it into a bestseller. This seminal work in social psychology, hailed by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. as “a brilliant and original inquiry” and “a genuine contribution to our social thought,” is absolutely pertinent to understanding the world of today. It offers a penetrating examination of how one becomes a fanatic as well as a visionary, highly provocative look into the mind of the fanatic.
