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When he was age five, his mother fell down a flight of stairs with Eric in her arms.

By the age of five, he could read in both German and English. Hoffer was born in the Bronx, New York City in 1902 (or possibly 1898), the son of Knut and Elsa Hoffer, immigrants from Alsace.

In 2001, the Eric Hoffer Award was established in his honor with permission granted by the Eric Hoffer Estate in 2005. His first book, The True Believer, published in 1951, was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, although Hoffer believed that his book The Ordeal of Change was his finest work. He produced ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983 by President of the United States Ronald Reagan. Awards-Presidential Medal of Freedom-February, 1983Įric Hoffer was an American social writer and philosopher.Completely relevant and essential for understanding the world today, The True Believer is a visionary, highly provocative look into the mind of the fanatic and a penetrating study of how an individual becomes one. The True Believer-the first and most famous of his books-was made into a bestseller when President Eisenhower cited it during one of the earliest television press conferences. This best-selling analysis of fanaticism and mass movements is an important addition to the field of sociology.Ī stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, Eric Hoffer wrote philosophical treatises in his spare time while living in the railroad yards. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements