Who is the True Believer?

According to Eric Hofer...

He's a guilt-ridden hitchhiker who thumbs a ride on every cause from Christianity to Communism. He's a fanatic, needing a Stalin (or a Christ) to worship and die for. He's the mortal enemy of things-as they-are, and he Insists on sacrificing himself for a dream impossible to attain. He is today everywhere on the march.

Reporting on the true believer, Mr. Hofier 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 man whose personal failings lead him to join a cause, any cause, even at peril to his life-or yours.

"This brilliant and original inquiry into the nature of mass movements is a genuine contribution to our social thought."-Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.