Eric Hoffer
Eric Hoffer (July 15, 1902 – May 21, 1983) was an American moral and social philosopher. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer (1951), was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, although Hoffer believed that The Ordeal of Change (1963) was his finest work. The Eric Hoffer Book Award is an international literary prize established in his honor. Berkeley College award an annual literary prize named jointly for Hoffer.
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) was a longshoreman for decades, loading and unloading cargo from ships. He was also a farmer, a railway man, and a lay scholar. After being temporarily blinded from ages 7 to 15, he read voraciously for fear that the blindness might return. Hoffer was also a prolific writer, and though he taught at Berkeley in the 1960s, he rejected the label “intellectual,” always preferring to think of himself as a longshoreman. His admiration of the poor and belief in their potential show up in his 1951 work The True Believer, in which he explores the fundamental aspects of mass movements and the people those movements attract.
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