thoughts on the nature of mass movements

The result for me was frequent amazing insight and more than a few times where I wanted to pull out my history books to get caught up. The author does very little to give detail on why he sees things a certain way, but he is fully expecting the reader to already be up to speed on what he is talking about.

You will then avoid feeling frequently like you just showed up - finally - for the last class of the semester when the professor summarizes everything that will be on the final exam, leaving you knowing what the professor just said, but not not why it was said. Simple unquestioned history like George Washington chopping down a cherry tree is simply not up to the task. You need to know some real details, including any significant disagreements between scholars on what and why certain things happened in each. In fact, watching two-hour PBS documentaries on each will not suffice either. Just knowing the terms and a bit about associated leaders will not do. Go ahead, read all you can about the birth of Islam, the Protestant Reformation, the Puritan reforms, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution and the rise of Communism, the Third Reich, and the Greater Japanese Empire. The self-educated American Eric Hoffer wrote The True Believer based on a series of observational wisdom and philosophical treatises during his time as a longshoreman at the San Francisco docks in the 1940s. The True Believer became an instant bestseller after President Eisenhower cited it during a television press conference. He discusses the particular ideals that have been shown to aid in breeding fanaticism among these guides and their disciples. Hoffer points out that these leaders arise from the rabble somewhat predictably, based on psychological and sociological predispositions. Eric Hoffer delves into the commonalities from revolutions, and other mass movements, with specific interest in the people who start and circulate them. This fascinating text applies a variety of arguments from world history and social psychology to explain the how and the why of mass movements that challenge the status quo.

The True Believer is an eye-opening study into the mind of the fanatic and a piercing investigation into how an individual becomes one.

Thoughts on the nature of mass movements