Manifesto!

Episode 52: True Believers and the Case of the Writer Turned Congressman

Manifesto!

Show Notes

Jake and Phil are joined by former Michigan Congressman Peter Meijer to discuss longshoreman philosopher Eric Hoffer’s 1951 book, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, and the poem “On Reading Crowds and Power,” by Geoffrey Hill.

The Manifesto (an edition with some very cool cover art):

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

https://archive.org/details/truebelieverthou0000hoff/mode/2up

The Art:

On Reading Crowds and Power

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/49285/on-reading-crowds-and-power

More from Manifesto!

Sep 24, 2026

Phil Klay is joined by Kathleen Kilcup, author of Between the Light and Me: A Memoir of Beauty and Violence, to discuss Flannery O'Connor's The Church and the Fiction Writer and the 12th century icon The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Aug 27, 2026

Phil is joined by Dan Walden, formerly a professor in the honors college at the University of Tulsa, to discuss Dan's essay "The Left Case for Great Books," alongside Plato's Symposium.

Jun 16, 2026

Phil and Jake are joined by the philosopher Ian Marcus Corbin, whose new book To Arrive Where We Started: Belonging in the Modern World, is out today. We discuss Nancy Fraser and bell hooks.

May 28, 2026

Jake and Phil are joined by Jenn Frey, a philosopher at the University of Virginia, to discuss Iris Murdoch and Madame Bovary

Apr 29, 2026

Jake and Phil are joined by Vladislav Davidzon to discuss Kazimir Malevich's The Manifesto of Suprematism and the poetry of Serhiy Zhadan.

See all episodes →