The philosopher and the tycoon, how Eric Hoffer Predicted the last election

In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, Desautels Finance Professor Reuven Brenner examines the 1970 essay Whose Country Is America? by Eric Hoffer. Professor Brenner looks at how the essay seems to have predicted the tenor of the last US presidential election, as well as the histrionics that have rocked America since.

Hoffer made the case that there is an “ordeal of affluence” that is guiding society towards anarchy, and he laid the blame squarely at the feet of intellectuals and those who try to cure society’s ills with injections of money. In contrast, he said, common folk know that just throwing money at poverty won’t solve anything.

Read full article: Wall Street Journal, February 27, 2017