ARTICLES

Hoffer wrote many articles for publication in magazines and newspapers throughout the years. In 1939, he wrote his first and submitted it to a magazine called Common Ground. It was rejected, but the editor, Margaret Anderson, sent the article on to the publishers Harper & Row, who wanted Hoffer to write an autobiography. He refused, but kept in contact with Mrs. Anderson, who continued to encourage him throughout the 1940's during his writing of The True Believer. When the publication of that book brought him fame in the 1950's, he was able to publish articles in various national magazines. A few of them eventually made it into his books, including some of those printed in The Temper of Our Time and First Things, Last Things.

In 1968, Hoffer began to write a syndicated column that was published in over two hundred newspapers every Sunday. Titled "Reflections" or "Eric Hoffer," the column dealt with contemporary issues such as Israel, the black revolution and the student riots on university campuses across the nation. These short articles exemplified Hoffer's conviction that any idea could be adequately expressed in just two hundred words.

The magazine articles not published in Hoffer's books can only be found by hunting through the shelves of the library for bound copies of old periodicals. The newspaper articles can be found on the microfilm of any major newspaper from January 1968 through April 1970. Depending on the quality of your local university or public library, most of the following should not be too difficult to track down.

(The list of magazine articles has been taken from the selected bibliography of Eric Hoffer, which is a study by James T. Baker of Hoffer's life and thought.)

Magazine Articles

"The Role of the Undesirables."
Harper's Magazine, December 1952, pp. 19 ff.

"God and the Machine Age."
Reporter, 23 February 1956, p. 36.

"The Rise and Fall of the Practical Sense."
Reporter, 11 December 1958, pp. 27-28.

"Thoughts on the Brotherhood of Men."
New York Times Magazine, 15 February 1959, pp. 12 ff.

"How Natural is Human Nature?"
Saturday Evening Post, 13 January 1962, pp. 26-27 ff.

"The Negro Is Prejudiced Against Himself."
New York Times Magazine, 29 November 1964, pp. 27 ff.
(Reprinted in U.S. News and World Report, 28 December 1964, pp. 48-52.)

"A Time of Juveniles."
Harper's Magazine, June 1965, pp. 16 ff.

"Automation is Here to Liberate Us."
New York Times Magazine, 24 October 1965, pp. 48-49 ff.

"A Strategy for the War with Nature."
Saturday Review, 5 February 1966, pp. 27-29 ff.

"Making a Mass Elite."
Holiday, March 1966, pp. 10 ff.

"Comments on the Human Condition."
Harper's Magazine, November 1966, pp. 90-91

"Man, Play, and Creativity."
Think, September-October 1967, pp. 8-10.

"Some Thoughts From Eric Hoffer."
N.E.A. Journal, February 1968, pp. 54-57.

"Leisure and the Masses."
Parks and Recreation, March 1969, pp. 31-34 ff.

"Whose Country is America?"
New York Times Magazine, 22 November 1970, pp. 30-31 ff.

"Thoughts of Eric Hoffer."
New York Times Magazine, 25 April 1971, pp. 24-25 ff.
(Abstracted as "Reflections of a Waterfront Man." Reader's Digest, August 1971, pp. 133-35.

"The Wisdom of Eric Hoffer."
Family Weekly, 24 September 1972, pp. 6-7.

"Get Mad, Americans."
American City, September 1973, pp. 38 ff.

"What We Have Lost."
New York Times Magazine, 20 October 1974, pp. 110 ff.

"What America Means to Me."
Reader's Digest, September 1976, pp. 169-709.

"Work and Days."
Harper's Magazine, October 1978, pp. 73-78.

"Beware the Intellectual."
Harper's Magazine, October 1979, pp. 10-11.


Newspaper Articles

"Extremist Minorities Can Shake Us--and Shape Us"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday January 14, 1968, Section G-7.

"Negroes' Greatest Need: Pride"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday January 21, 1968, Section G-7.

"Automation: the Escape Hatch"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday January 28, 1968, Section F-7.

"Cold War of the Intellectuals"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 4, 1968, Section G-7.

"Youth is a Time of Ferment"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 11, 1968, Section G-7.

"Negro Revolution is Rootless"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 18, 1968, Section G-7.

"The 'New Poor' and Revolution"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 25, 1968, Section G-7.

"The Rude Awakening of Asia"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 3, 1968, Section G-7.

"Talent's No Scarce Commodity"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 10, 1968, Section G-7.

"The Occident, Mystery of the World"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 17, 1968, Section G-7.

"A Kind Word for Intellectuals"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 24, 1968, Section G-7.

"Our Century of Juveniles"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 31, 1968, Section G-7.

"Freedom and the Need to Work"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 7, 1968, Section G-7.

"Fugitives From the Present"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 14, 1968, Section G-7.

"Plenty of Presidential Timber"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 21, 1968, Section G-7.

"Creativity, Child of Playfulness"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 28, 1968, Section G-7.

"Results of Unchecked Rioting"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday May 5, 1968, Section G-7.

"The Upsurge of the Intellectual"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday May 12, 1968, Section G-7.

"Man's Real Habitat: the City"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday May 19, 1968, Section G-7.

"Israel's Peculiar Position"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday May 26, 1968, Section G-7.

"...but Colleges Aren't for Kids!"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday June 9, 1968, Section G-7.

"Pig Heaven vs. Pig Sty"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday June 16, 1968, Section G-7.

"Working Hard for the Soft Life"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday June 23, 1968, Section G-7.

"A Blur in De Gaulle's Grand Vision"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday June 30, 1968, Section G-7.

"Intellectual's Rejection of the U.S."
Los Angeles Times, Sunday July 14, 1968, Section G-7.

"The Problems of Imitation"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday July 21, 1968, Section G-7.

"The Majority Must Act!"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday July 28, 1968, Section G-7.

"Why Not Disenfranchise the Educated?"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday August 4, 1968, Section G-7.

"Backward Czechoslovakia"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday August 11, 1968, Section G-7.

"Forty Years in the Desert"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday August 18, 1968, Section G-7.

"The General Subservience of the Practical"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday August 25, 1968, Section G-7.

"Release of the Common People"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday September 1, 1968, Section C-7.

"Soviet Man, or Life in Lower Slobovia"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday September 8, 1968, Section G-7.

"Will Middle Class Fight Back?"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday September 22, 1968, Section G-7.

"From Prophets to Pollsters"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday September 29, 1968, Section F-7.

"Tomorrow Has Become a Dirty Word"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday October 13, 1968, Section G-7.

"The Clamor for Instant Happiness"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday October 20, 1968, Section G-7.

"Man's Most Useful Work: Play!"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday October 27, 1968, Section G-7.

"The 'Stupid Americans' Myth"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday November 3, 1968, Section G-7.

"The Avant-Garde's Usefulness"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday November 10, 1968, Section G-7.

"Anti-Semitism Among Negroes"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday November 17, 1968, Section G-7.

"Europe's Restless Intellectuals"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday November 24, 1968, Section G-7.

"Crime and the Social Surgeon"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday December 1, 1968, Section G-7.

"Intellectuals vs. Common Folk"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday December 8, 1968, Section G-7.

"Certain Effluvia of Affluence"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday December 15, 1968, Section G-7.

"Just Who Are the Sick Americans?"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday December 22, 1968, Section G-7.

"False Cliches About America"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday December 29, 1968, Section G-9.

Today's History Makers: Youth"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday January 5, 1969, Section G-7.

"The Age of the Common Monster"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday January 12, 1969, Section G-7.

"An Ill Wind Blows for Israel"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday January 19, 1969, Section F-7.

"Toughness on Campus Wanted"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday January 26, 1969, Section F-7.

"Labor Pains of Negro Communities"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 2, 1969, Section G-7.

"Mankind's Affinity With the Heavens"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 9, 1969, Section G-7.

"Just Who 'The Intellectual' Is"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 16, 1969, Section G-7.

"Latin-Americanization of the World"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 23, 1969, Section G-7.

"The Talents of the Average American"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 2, 1969, Section G-7.

"The Jealousy of the Intellectuals"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 9, 1969, Section G-7.

"The Beauty of an Alibi for Failure"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 16, 1969, Section G-7.

"Borrowing Without Indigestion"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 23, 1969, Section G-7.

"Sputnik and the Misplaced Activists"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 30, 1969, Section F-7.

"Judging the Quality of a Society"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 6, 1969, Section G-7.

"Times When Words Are Dangerous"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 13, 1969, Section G-7.

"Israel: Alone Among the Nations"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 20, 1969, Section G-7.

"Maintenance: A Peculiar Notion"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 27, 1969, Section G-7.

"The Accomplishments of the Weak"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday May 4, 1969, Section G-7.

"Portrait of the Artist as a Child"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday May 11, 1969, Section F-7.

"No Fight Left in Fighting Words"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday May 18, 1969, Section F-7.

"Reformers and Guilty Feelings"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday May 25, 1969, Section G-7.

"The Revolution of the Young"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday June 1, 1969, Section G-7.

"Liquidated Are the Meek..."
Los Angeles Times, Sunday June 8, 1969, Section F-7.

"The Vulnerability of the Social Body"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday June 15, 1969, Section F-7.

"Some Good Words About America"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday June 22, 1969, Section F-7.

"What Do the Young Really Want?"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday June 29, 1969, Section G-7.

"Hoi Polloi: Don't Disturb Marcuse"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday July 6, 1969, Section F-7.

"Evils Past and Evils Yet to Come"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday July 13, 1969, Section F-7.

"Real Pride Doesn't Come in Cans"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday July 20, 1969, Section G-7.

"Rudeness, Weapon of the Fanatic"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday July 27, 1969, Section F-7.

"Limits of Sociologists' Knowledge"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday August 3, 1969, Section F-7.

"Man: Human and Non-Human"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday August 10, 1969, Section G-7.

"The Joylessness of Today's Youth"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday August 17, 1969, Section G-7.

"God and the Machine Age"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday August 24, 1969, Section G-7.

"Change Isn't that Easy"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday August 31, 1969, Section C-7.

"God, Man and the Devil"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday September 7, 1969, Section G-7.

"Where the Power Today Isn't..."
Los Angeles Times, Sunday September 14, 1969, Section G-7.

"Does the Past Lie in Our Future?"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday September 21, 1969, Section G-7.

"Passage From Boyhood to Manhood"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday September 28, 1969, Section G-7.

"History's Real Makers--the Masses"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday October 5, 1969, Section G-7.

"Arrogant Idiocy of the Minority"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday October 12, 1969, Section G-7.

"Wealth of Talent Remains Unmined"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday October 19, 1969, Section G-7.

"Nature is Mankind's Real Enemy"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday October 26, 1969, Section G-7.

"What Happens to Intellectual Refugees"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday November 2, 1969, Section G-7.

"Revolution Is a Fearful Word"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday November 9, 1969, Section F-7.

"The Trader's Role in History"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday November 16, 1969, Section F-7.

"The Tragic Paradox of Our Cities"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday November 23, 1969, Section G-7.

"In Time of Rapid Change..."
Los Angeles Times, Sunday November 30, 1969, Section G-7.

"Man and Nature Are Not One"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday December 7, 1969, Section G-7.

"Civilization: Parent and Transplant"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday December 14, 1969, Section G-7.

"Real Makers of History: People"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday December 21, 1969, Section G-7.

"Negro Must Be His Own Ancestor"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday December 28, 1969, Section H-9.

"Luxuries: The Root of All Good"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday January 4, 1970, Section G-7.

"The Dangers Lurking in Affluence"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday January 11, 1970, Section G-7.

"Israel Stands Alone in the World"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday January 18, 1970, Section G-7.

"Power of Things Yet to Be"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday January 25, 1970, Section F-7.

"Who Really Does the Work?"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 1, 1970, Section F-7.

"Country of the Workingman"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 8, 1970, Section G-7.

"Rich and Oh, So Righteous!"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 15, 1970, Section G-7.

"Revolutions Are Not Revolutionary"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 1, 1970, Section G-7.

"Some Effects of the Negro Revolution"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday March 15, 1970, Section G-7.

"Some Capsule Views of Mankind"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 5, 1970, Section F-7.

"Man's Ascent From Playful Savagery"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 12, 1970, Section E-7.

"Some Reflections About America"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 19, 1970, Section E-7.

"Lonely on the Face of the Earth"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday April 26, 1970, Section G-7.