Eric HofferBorn in New York City, Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) was self-educated. He worked in restaurants, as a migrant fieldworker, and as a gold prospector. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he worked as a longshoreman in San Francisco for twenty-five year. The author of more than ten books, including The Passionate State of Mind, The Ordeal of Change, and The Temper of Our Time, Hoffer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.