The True Believer

The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements ISBN 0060505915 was Eric Hoffer's first and most successful book, published in 1951. It discusses the psychological causes of fanaticism.

Table of Contents

As it appears in the Harper and Row edition, Perenial Library imprint (160 pages).

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• Preface
• PART ONE. THE APPEAL OF MASS MOVEMENTS
• 1. The Desire for Change
• 2. The Desire for Substitutes
• 3. The Interchangeability of Mass Movements
• PART TWO. THE POTENTIAL CONVERTS
• 4. The Role of the Undesirables in Human Affairs
• 5. The Poor
• The New Poor
• The Abjectly Poor
• The Free Poor
• The Creative Poor
• The Unified Poor
• 6. Misfits
• 7. The Inordinately Selfish
• 8. The Ambitious Facing Unlimited Opportunities
• 9. Minorities
• 10. The Bored
• 11. The Sinners
• PART THREE. UNITED ACTION AND SELF-SACRIFICE
• 12. Preface
• 13. Factors Promoting Self-sacrifice
• Identification With a Collective Whole
• Make-believe
• Deprecation of the Present
• "Things Which Are Not"
• Doctrine
• Fanaticism
• Mass Movements and Armies
• 14. Unifying Agents
• Hatred
• Imitation
• Persuasion and Coercion
• Leadership
• Action
• Suspicion
• The Effects of Unification
• PART FOUR. BEGINNING AND END
• 15. Men of Words
• 16. The Fanatic
• 17. The Practical Men of Action
• 18. Good and Bad Mass Movements
• The Unattractiveness and Sterility of the Active Phase
• Some Factors Which Determine the Length of the Active Phase
• Useful Mass Movements
• Notes