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Before the Sabbath
A collection of thoughts inspired by daily events, this six-month diary, begun in November 1974, contains Hoffer's reflections on history, current affairs, world conflicts, inflation, democracy, working, retirement, and growing old
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1979
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About the author
Eric Hoffer
42 books592 followersEric Hoffer was an American social writer and philosopher. He produced ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983 by President of the United States Ronald Reagan. 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. In 2001, the Eric Hoffer Award was established in his honor with permission granted by the Eric Hoffer Estate in 2005.
Early life
Hoffer was born in the Bronx, New York City in 1902 (or possibly 1898), the son of Knut and Elsa Hoffer, immigrants from Alsace. By the age of five, he could read in both German and English. When he was age five, his mother fell down a flight of stairs with Eric in her arms. Hoffer went blind for unknown medical reasons two years later, but later in life he said he thought it might have been due to trauma. ("I lost my sight at the age of seven. Two years before, my mother and I fell down a flight of stairs. She did not recover and died in that second year after the fall.I lost my sight and for a time my memory"). After his mother's death he was raised by a live-in relative or servant, a German woman named Martha. His eyesight inexplicably returned when he was 15. Fearing he would again go blind, he seized upon the opportunity to read as much as he could for as long as he could. His eyesight remained, and Hoffer never abandoned his habit of voracious reading.
Hoffer was a young man when his father, a cabinetmaker, died. The cabinetmaker's union paid for the funeral and gave Hoffer a little over three hundred dollars. Sensing that warm Los Angeles was the best place for a poor man, Hoffer took a bus there in 1920. He spent the next 10 years on Los Angeles' skid row, reading, occasionally writing, and working odd jobs. On one such job, selling oranges door-to-door, he discovered he was a natural salesman and could easily make good money. Uncomfortable with this discovery, he quit after one day.
In 1931, he attempted suicide by drinking a solution of oxalic acid, but the attempt failed as he could not bring himself to swallow the poison. The experience gave him a new determination to live adventurously. It was then he left skid row and became a migrant worker. Following the harvests along the length of California, he collected library cards for each town near the fields where he worked and, living by preference, "between the books and the brothels." A seminal event for Hoffer occurred in the mountains where he had gone in search of gold. Snowed in for the winter, he read the Essays by Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne's book impressed Hoffer deeply, and he often made reference to its importance for him. He also developed a great respect for America's underclass, which, he declared, was "lumpy with talent."
Longshoreman
Hoffer was in San Francisco by 1941. He attempted to enlist in the Armed forces there in 1942 but was rejected because of a hernia. Wanting to contribute to the war effort, he found ample opportunity as a longshoreman on the docks of The Embarcadero. It was there he felt at home and finally settled down. He continued reading voraciously and soon began to write while earning a living loading and unloading ships. He continued this work until he retired at age 65.
Hoffer considered his best work to be The True Believer, a landmark explanation of fanaticism and mass movements. The Ordeal of Change is also a literary favorite. In 1970 he endowed the Lili Fabilli and Eric Hoffer Laconic Essay Prize for students, faculty, and staff at the University of California, Berkeley.
Hoffer was a charismatic individual and persuasive public speaker, but said that he didn’t really care about people. Despite authoring 10 books and a newspaper column, in retirement Hoffer continued his robust life of the mind, thinking and writing alone, in an apartment.
Early life
Hoffer was born in the Bronx, New York City in 1902 (or possibly 1898), the son of Knut and Elsa Hoffer, immigrants from Alsace. By the age of five, he could read in both German and English. When he was age five, his mother fell down a flight of stairs with Eric in her arms. Hoffer went blind for unknown medical reasons two years later, but later in life he said he thought it might have been due to trauma. ("I lost my sight at the age of seven. Two years before, my mother and I fell down a flight of stairs. She did not recover and died in that second year after the fall.I lost my sight and for a time my memory"). After his mother's death he was raised by a live-in relative or servant, a German woman named Martha. His eyesight inexplicably returned when he was 15. Fearing he would again go blind, he seized upon the opportunity to read as much as he could for as long as he could. His eyesight remained, and Hoffer never abandoned his habit of voracious reading.
Hoffer was a young man when his father, a cabinetmaker, died. The cabinetmaker's union paid for the funeral and gave Hoffer a little over three hundred dollars. Sensing that warm Los Angeles was the best place for a poor man, Hoffer took a bus there in 1920. He spent the next 10 years on Los Angeles' skid row, reading, occasionally writing, and working odd jobs. On one such job, selling oranges door-to-door, he discovered he was a natural salesman and could easily make good money. Uncomfortable with this discovery, he quit after one day.
In 1931, he attempted suicide by drinking a solution of oxalic acid, but the attempt failed as he could not bring himself to swallow the poison. The experience gave him a new determination to live adventurously. It was then he left skid row and became a migrant worker. Following the harvests along the length of California, he collected library cards for each town near the fields where he worked and, living by preference, "between the books and the brothels." A seminal event for Hoffer occurred in the mountains where he had gone in search of gold. Snowed in for the winter, he read the Essays by Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne's book impressed Hoffer deeply, and he often made reference to its importance for him. He also developed a great respect for America's underclass, which, he declared, was "lumpy with talent."
Longshoreman
Hoffer was in San Francisco by 1941. He attempted to enlist in the Armed forces there in 1942 but was rejected because of a hernia. Wanting to contribute to the war effort, he found ample opportunity as a longshoreman on the docks of The Embarcadero. It was there he felt at home and finally settled down. He continued reading voraciously and soon began to write while earning a living loading and unloading ships. He continued this work until he retired at age 65.
Hoffer considered his best work to be The True Believer, a landmark explanation of fanaticism and mass movements. The Ordeal of Change is also a literary favorite. In 1970 he endowed the Lili Fabilli and Eric Hoffer Laconic Essay Prize for students, faculty, and staff at the University of California, Berkeley.
Hoffer was a charismatic individual and persuasive public speaker, but said that he didn’t really care about people. Despite authoring 10 books and a newspaper column, in retirement Hoffer continued his robust life of the mind, thinking and writing alone, in an apartment.
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May 10, 2024Before the Sabbath was written by Eric Hoffer in anticipation of his death. It takes the form of a diary, kept for about six months in 1974, when he was 72. It was composed, he confessed, as a kind of literary experiment, to see if he was still capable, in the decline of age, of producing one last book of substance before he was called to the grave. The product is less a work of coherent philosophy than a scattershot of reflections, editorials, reminiscences, literary analyses, and social observations. It touches on subjects as varied as the tragedies of history, religious psychology, the state of the novel, and contemporary events.
Was the experiment successful? On the whole, I have to say, with regret, no. It's not that I found nothing to appreciate here. I did. Hoffer was too erudite, too eloquent, and too thoughtful to produce a worthless book at any stage of his career. And this book has additional interest as a window of insight into the Watergate era, as seen through the perspective of a reluctantly and ambivalently conservative intellectual contemplating the condition of the world in his twilight years. But I found Before the Sabbath too random, too repetitive of themes and ideas he'd already explored, more incisively and in greater detail, in his earlier works, and too full of resignation and bitterness to derive much pleasure or profit from it. In a word, I expected more value than I received.
I was not surprised, therefore, to find Before the Sabbath had only seven reviews on Goodreads preceding this one. Hoffer's most famous book, The True Believer: Thoughts On the nature of Mass Movements, by contrast, has over 1,200 reviews to date. It's still in print after over seven decades, and somehow only seems to gain relevance with each passing year. But despite the enduring popularity of that book, this late career effort of the author has all but been forgotten. Nor can I say I think it deserves to be remembered. That saddens me, a bit. One might have wished for a better career overture for a great writer and thinker like Eric Hoffer.
Still, he did leave a few aphorisms here. I'll share a few that struck my fancy:
...(M)en of action metamorphosized into men of words are more readily corrupted by power than conventional men of action. Words are a potent source of self-righteousness; they serve to mask questionable motives, and justify ruthlessness. Paradoxically, the metamorphosed man of action has faith in the magical powers of words. He becomes irrational and primitive and is a threat to civilized life. Though we find it hard to accept that 'In the beginning was the Word,' and that words created the world, we know that words can ignite genocidal passions and squash civilized societies. it is not hard for us to believe that words may eventually destroy our world.
It is an aspect of the human paradox that the attempt to transcend humanity often results in a return to animality. Post-human often means pre-human. There must be many examples of this passage from 'post' to 'pre.' I can think of two: post-Christianity often means a return to paganism, and post-industrialism a return to pre-industrialism. There is a circularity in human affairs--if you go far enough you return to where you started. Is this because we are living on a circular planet?
Lenin sprung a leak in the cesspool of Russian history and the stench has poisoned the civilized world.
I hang on to my prejudices. They are the testicles of my mind.
It is a strange thing that Vienna, the capital of the decaying Hapsburg empire, should have contributed so greatly to the decline of the Occident. It produced both Freud and Hitler.
And finally, perhaps chillingly given contemporary events:
I cannot help feeling Russia is destined to destroy western civilization.
Sorry to conclude on such a downer, but that's just how this book made me feel.
Was the experiment successful? On the whole, I have to say, with regret, no. It's not that I found nothing to appreciate here. I did. Hoffer was too erudite, too eloquent, and too thoughtful to produce a worthless book at any stage of his career. And this book has additional interest as a window of insight into the Watergate era, as seen through the perspective of a reluctantly and ambivalently conservative intellectual contemplating the condition of the world in his twilight years. But I found Before the Sabbath too random, too repetitive of themes and ideas he'd already explored, more incisively and in greater detail, in his earlier works, and too full of resignation and bitterness to derive much pleasure or profit from it. In a word, I expected more value than I received.
I was not surprised, therefore, to find Before the Sabbath had only seven reviews on Goodreads preceding this one. Hoffer's most famous book, The True Believer: Thoughts On the nature of Mass Movements, by contrast, has over 1,200 reviews to date. It's still in print after over seven decades, and somehow only seems to gain relevance with each passing year. But despite the enduring popularity of that book, this late career effort of the author has all but been forgotten. Nor can I say I think it deserves to be remembered. That saddens me, a bit. One might have wished for a better career overture for a great writer and thinker like Eric Hoffer.
Still, he did leave a few aphorisms here. I'll share a few that struck my fancy:
...(M)en of action metamorphosized into men of words are more readily corrupted by power than conventional men of action. Words are a potent source of self-righteousness; they serve to mask questionable motives, and justify ruthlessness. Paradoxically, the metamorphosed man of action has faith in the magical powers of words. He becomes irrational and primitive and is a threat to civilized life. Though we find it hard to accept that 'In the beginning was the Word,' and that words created the world, we know that words can ignite genocidal passions and squash civilized societies. it is not hard for us to believe that words may eventually destroy our world.
It is an aspect of the human paradox that the attempt to transcend humanity often results in a return to animality. Post-human often means pre-human. There must be many examples of this passage from 'post' to 'pre.' I can think of two: post-Christianity often means a return to paganism, and post-industrialism a return to pre-industrialism. There is a circularity in human affairs--if you go far enough you return to where you started. Is this because we are living on a circular planet?
Lenin sprung a leak in the cesspool of Russian history and the stench has poisoned the civilized world.
I hang on to my prejudices. They are the testicles of my mind.
It is a strange thing that Vienna, the capital of the decaying Hapsburg empire, should have contributed so greatly to the decline of the Occident. It produced both Freud and Hitler.
And finally, perhaps chillingly given contemporary events:
I cannot help feeling Russia is destined to destroy western civilization.
Sorry to conclude on such a downer, but that's just how this book made me feel.
January 24, 2018
The Sabbath he refers to is the end of his life. This is a collection of his thoughts, more or less random, as he deals with aging and retirement. One quote I wanted to share - " My faith in America is partly faith in its digestive process - its capacity to absorb and assimilate foreign bodies" Seems like USA needs reminder about that these days.
while many of his words apply today there is some where he is more dated - particularly his views on the Black and Latino populations. Maybe had he lived he might have changed - he seems unique in his ability to admit errors in thinking and move on.
while many of his words apply today there is some where he is more dated - particularly his views on the Black and Latino populations. Maybe had he lived he might have changed - he seems unique in his ability to admit errors in thinking and move on.
August 30, 2022
This book is a compilation of a series of observations written in the form of short essays on a daily basis during a 6 month period from November 1974 through May 1975 by the retired longshoreman and self-taught philosopher best known for his writings about mass movements. The essays contain the author’s thoughts on life, growing old, politics, society, culture and history. Some, such as his observations on jettisoning fossil fuels and developing alternative sources of energy, are prescient. Others are not politically correct, as they reflect the prejudices of the time, but nevertheless still relevant today. And some have proved with hindsight to be wrong.
Nevertheless they remain of interest as they provide insights into the author’s beliefs, and his earlier works that still play a seminal role in understanding why and how mass movements such as populism develop, and are able to thrive.
Nevertheless they remain of interest as they provide insights into the author’s beliefs, and his earlier works that still play a seminal role in understanding why and how mass movements such as populism develop, and are able to thrive.
March 13, 2016
Not his best but still excellent.
June 9, 2021
Hoffer has more original thoughts per day than I have in a month! I have something that made me go "aha" on every page. I had picked up The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements somewhere along my journey and found it fascinating. This book was quoted a few times in a book by Sowell that I read earlier. I picked it up at the library and have been working my way through it slowly, savoring the depth and breadth of Hoffer's thinking.
I recommend this book highly.
I recommend this book highly.
January 13, 2022
Eric Hoffer provides his conclusions on life in this small book, BEFORE the SABBATH. For a year, he notated an idea, usually small in size but big in concept.
His life's beginnings are an unknown mystery. There is no record of where or when he was born. At a young age, both his parents died. He wandered the West Coast for decades until he became a longshoreman. When not working, he read.
In 1964, surprisingly, he was hired as an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Reading this book makes me long to have been his student. Wisdom and the ability to share it was his goal. He died at the age of 80 having written 11 books.
His life's beginnings are an unknown mystery. There is no record of where or when he was born. At a young age, both his parents died. He wandered the West Coast for decades until he became a longshoreman. When not working, he read.
In 1964, surprisingly, he was hired as an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Reading this book makes me long to have been his student. Wisdom and the ability to share it was his goal. He died at the age of 80 having written 11 books.
March 21, 2022
Book Review
Eric Hoffer
"Before the Sabbath"
3/ 5 stars
Spotty. Needed more focus.
*******
This is my third Eric Hoffer book.
The major problem with this book is that it seems to not explore any one single theme carefully enough.
Yes, the book was written in the last year of his writing life and it is unified in that way. But the book revisited many of the same topics several times throughout the brief text-- any one of which could have been developed into a whole book. (I have deliberately chosen only three examples, but there were many more throughout this short book.)
For example:
1. Hoffer mentioned several times: the 1960s, Russia (which was actually the Soviet Union), the problem of laziness in British workers, and the role of intellectuals in different places and times (he even called out that idiot Noam Chomsky-- who was whining about the same things then as now). These topics could have easily been expanded into a whole book.
2. He correctly identified that the situation of black people under black governments in Africa was actually much worse than the situation of the same people under colonial governments. This could have been followed up/ analyzed at greater length.
3. He could have spent some time talking about the differing perceptions of intellectuals about any of the above situations as a function of where they were in space, time, or position of power. (He mentioned their beliefs as a function of relation to centers of power in "The True Believer" and could have taken it up at greater length here.) He did briefly mention that they like to complain and destroy the status quo because they believe that whatever comes along after will be anxious for their input (TRUE), but he dropped without further development.
On some things, the book was actually WAY off.
Example 1: He talked about how "only superior people like Chinese and Jews can make Communism work" (p.51).
We see how *that* went down in history.
Sorry, but no one has ever been able to make Communism work nor will they ever.
Example 2: "The agitation about the population explosion is persuading many enterprising Americans to have fewer children" (p.25).
Um, sorry, but the cost of having children is what persuades people to have fewer. The net balance of evidence is that the people who have the most children are the ones that can least afford to take care of them.
Example 3: He talks at various stages about China, but does not seem to have known that they were in the throes of tearing themselves apart during the Cultural Revolution even as he wrote (and would for another year and some change after the book was finished).
Hoffer also lacked an understanding of some Economic concepts-- and this is putting it charitably.
1. So, he talked about the Arabs (because this book was written around the general time of the Arab embargo) and would have us believe that the West was at their mercy.
What he did not know (because perhaps enough had not been written about this topic to come to a definite answer) was that:
(a) The shortage of oil was mostly because of price controls put in place within the United States;
(b) There is this thing called the "Resource Curse/ Paradox" that explains why countries with lots of natural resources have not taken over the world;
(c) The embargo only lasted about 2 months (because the Arabs/ Persians were shooting themselves in the foot by cutting of their sole source of forex)
2. He mentioned at some point having people retire at 40 years old to make room for new workers.
Whoa!
The world is having a hard enough time figuring out what to do with people retiring in their 60s. (By this, I mean that every country in the world is dealing with the same demographic issues separately but all with the same result.)
Hoffer read quite a bit, but I get the impression that he spent much of his time in the History and Philosophy sections of the library and didn't get to the Econ section
In summary: I'm not sure what to get out of this book. It came across as a bunch of floating abstractions-- even though it could have been different if any of the other points had been developed at greater length.
Yes, the idea of someone writing in the style of aphorisms is nice, but it can only go so far toward making a case for something. Yes, it was a light read and can be finished in a few hours.
And yes, it was like reading a snapshot of time taken by an intelligent/ competent person (that is probably the strongest point), but it's not quite enough to save the book.
I bought it second-hand for a couple of dollars, and that is about all it was worth.
Eric Hoffer
"Before the Sabbath"
3/ 5 stars
Spotty. Needed more focus.
*******
This is my third Eric Hoffer book.
The major problem with this book is that it seems to not explore any one single theme carefully enough.
Yes, the book was written in the last year of his writing life and it is unified in that way. But the book revisited many of the same topics several times throughout the brief text-- any one of which could have been developed into a whole book. (I have deliberately chosen only three examples, but there were many more throughout this short book.)
For example:
1. Hoffer mentioned several times: the 1960s, Russia (which was actually the Soviet Union), the problem of laziness in British workers, and the role of intellectuals in different places and times (he even called out that idiot Noam Chomsky-- who was whining about the same things then as now). These topics could have easily been expanded into a whole book.
2. He correctly identified that the situation of black people under black governments in Africa was actually much worse than the situation of the same people under colonial governments. This could have been followed up/ analyzed at greater length.
3. He could have spent some time talking about the differing perceptions of intellectuals about any of the above situations as a function of where they were in space, time, or position of power. (He mentioned their beliefs as a function of relation to centers of power in "The True Believer" and could have taken it up at greater length here.) He did briefly mention that they like to complain and destroy the status quo because they believe that whatever comes along after will be anxious for their input (TRUE), but he dropped without further development.
On some things, the book was actually WAY off.
Example 1: He talked about how "only superior people like Chinese and Jews can make Communism work" (p.51).
We see how *that* went down in history.
Sorry, but no one has ever been able to make Communism work nor will they ever.
Example 2: "The agitation about the population explosion is persuading many enterprising Americans to have fewer children" (p.25).
Um, sorry, but the cost of having children is what persuades people to have fewer. The net balance of evidence is that the people who have the most children are the ones that can least afford to take care of them.
Example 3: He talks at various stages about China, but does not seem to have known that they were in the throes of tearing themselves apart during the Cultural Revolution even as he wrote (and would for another year and some change after the book was finished).
Hoffer also lacked an understanding of some Economic concepts-- and this is putting it charitably.
1. So, he talked about the Arabs (because this book was written around the general time of the Arab embargo) and would have us believe that the West was at their mercy.
What he did not know (because perhaps enough had not been written about this topic to come to a definite answer) was that:
(a) The shortage of oil was mostly because of price controls put in place within the United States;
(b) There is this thing called the "Resource Curse/ Paradox" that explains why countries with lots of natural resources have not taken over the world;
(c) The embargo only lasted about 2 months (because the Arabs/ Persians were shooting themselves in the foot by cutting of their sole source of forex)
2. He mentioned at some point having people retire at 40 years old to make room for new workers.
Whoa!
The world is having a hard enough time figuring out what to do with people retiring in their 60s. (By this, I mean that every country in the world is dealing with the same demographic issues separately but all with the same result.)
Hoffer read quite a bit, but I get the impression that he spent much of his time in the History and Philosophy sections of the library and didn't get to the Econ section
In summary: I'm not sure what to get out of this book. It came across as a bunch of floating abstractions-- even though it could have been different if any of the other points had been developed at greater length.
Yes, the idea of someone writing in the style of aphorisms is nice, but it can only go so far toward making a case for something. Yes, it was a light read and can be finished in a few hours.
And yes, it was like reading a snapshot of time taken by an intelligent/ competent person (that is probably the strongest point), but it's not quite enough to save the book.
I bought it second-hand for a couple of dollars, and that is about all it was worth.
June 22, 2016
Many many ideas that were important in the 1970's that are just as relevant in 2016. Thought provoking...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews