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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.484
EAN: 9780060916121
ISBN: 0060916125
Label: Perennial (HarperCollins)
Manufacturer: Perennial (HarperCollins)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: 1989-11
Publisher: Perennial (HarperCollins)
Studio: Perennial (HarperCollins)
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
A highly provocative, bestselling analysis of the fanatic -- the individual compelled to join a cause, any cause -- and a penetrating study of mass movements from early Christianity to modern nationalism and Communism.Reporting on the true believer, Air Hoffer examines with Machiavellian detachment mass movements, from Christianity in its infancy to the national uprisings of our own day. His analysis of the psychology of mass movements is a brilliant and frightening study of the mind of the fanatic, the individual whose, personal failings lead him to join a cause, any cause, even at peril to life -- or yours.
Average Rating:
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This book was a huge disappointment to me. I ordered THE TRUE BELIEVER based on its exceptional reputation and the intriguing subject matter (mass movements and human psychology), but what I found when the book arrived was a sort of irrational screed. Hoffer's reasoning is not -- well, to be honest there is not really any reasoning to speak of in this book. It is a series of assertion statements that are apparently intended to be taken on faith and then are haphazardly elaborated upon. I suppose ... Read More
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You'll think it was written in whatever year you happen to be reading it- truely timeless.
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Conservative "intellectuals" exist largely as tokens, figures around which intelligent yet hopelessly incorrect people can rally to assert their erudition and defend the respect that comes with the claim to a tradition of thought. It doesn't seem to matter much whether they have anything original or accurate to say about the world, so long as they can say it articulately with enough fancy words. This was the case with William F. Buckley, a reactionary creep of the highest order who managed to forestall, ... Read More
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This book has many disconnected thoughts and ideas about "mass movements" but nothing really sticks. He never seems to have compelling arguments for his generalizations. a book on modern social psychology has much better explanations for his concept of "mass movements". He spends a lot of time dividing people into categories and classifications. If some of his generalizations don't fit some of his examples, he simply dismisses them. The last paragraph of the book, the capstone you might call it, blew ... Read More
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I had forgotten how much I owe this book, first read in the mid sixties. Want to know what drives the "Tea Bagger" movement and the idiotic pro Palin crowd? Read Hoffer, one of our greatest advocates for true freedom and intellectual honesty in the age of Fox News.
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