Inspirational Quotes by Abbie Hoffman (American Political Activist)

Abbie Hoffman (1936–89,) fully Abbot Howard Hoffman, was an American political and social activist and anarchist. He founded the Youth International Party (Yippies.) He remains an icon of the anti-war movement and the counterculture era.

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Hoffman received psychology degrees from Brandeis University 1959 and Berkeley 1960. He was active in the civil rights movement before organizing protests against the Vietnam War and the American economic and political system.

In 1968, Hoffman secured his status as a countercultural icon when he organized thousands of protesters outside the Democratic Party’s national convention in Chicago. The demonstrations disintegrated into a street battle between police and protesters. In the ensuing Chicago Seven trial (1969,) he was convicted of crossing state lines with the intent to riot; the conviction was later overturned.

Hoffman was arrested on charges of selling cocaine in 1973. He skipped bail, went underground, had plastic surgery, took the name Barry Freed, and worked as an environmental activist in New York State. He re-emerged in 1980 and served a year in prison before taking up again his ecological efforts. He died of an intentional phenobarbital overdose in 1989.

Hoffman was the author of such books as Revolution for the Hell of It (1968,) Steal This Book (1971,) and an autobiography, Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture (1980.) Hoffman’s life was dramatized in the film Steal This Movie (2000.)

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