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'''The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements''' ISBN 0-06-050591-5 was Eric Hoffer's first and most successful book, published in 1951. It discusses the psychological causes of fanaticism.
The premise of the book is as follows: Mass movements spread by promising a glorious future, and they need people to be willing to sacrifice all for that future, including themselves and others. To do that, they need to devalue both the past and the present. Therefore, mass movements appeal to the frustrated; people who are dissatisfied with their current state, but are capable of a strong belief in the future and to people who want to escape a flawed self by creating an imaginary self and joining a compact collective whole to escape themselves. Some categories of such people are the poor, the misfits, the creative thwarted in their endeavors, the inordinately selfish, the ambitious facing unlimited opportunities, minorities, the bored, and sinners. The book also explores the behavior of mass movements once they become established (or leave the "active phase").
With their collapse of a communal framework people can no longer defeat the feelings of insecurity and uncertainty by belonging to a compact whole. If the isolated individual lacks vast opportunities for personal advancement, development of talents, and action (such as those found on a frontier), he will seek substitutes. These substitutes would be pride instead of self-confidence, memberships in a collective whole like a mass movement, absolute certainty instead of understanding.
''The True Believer'' evaluates (and sometimes disparages) Communists, Fascists, Nationalists, and early Christians. Part of Hoffer's thesis is that movements are interchangeable and that fanatics will often flip from one movement to another.
Hoffer does not take an exclusively negative view of "true believers" and the mass movements they begin. Examples he gives of positive true believers are Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi. There are also positive reflections in the final sentence of the book.
There have been 23 editions of ''The True Believer'' published between 1951 and 2002. A library of 4 million volumes may have 15 copies. It is considered a classic of Social Psychology.

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See also

★ True believer syndrome related but not identical to the subject of the book

External links

★ The True Believer Revisited by Tim Madigan from ''Philosophy'' Now ''a magazine of ideas'' Issue 34.