# The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer

3 Hacker News commenters recommended The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as an introduction to authoritarian personality research, and a free online ebook of it is available.

## Why people recommend it

- Free online ebook available (2 comments): "There's a free ebook from 2006 that tries to dive into it as a personality spectrum" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47525766)) "Please go read https://theauthoritarians.org/" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46687058))
- Recommended for learning about authoritarianism (2 comments): "Anyone interested in learning more about this should read" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46705004)) "Please go read https://theauthoritarians.org/" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46687058))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/courage-to-be-disliked.md): 7 recommend
- [Influence by Robert Cialdini](https://hackerapproved.com/p/influence.md): 7 recommend
- [The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey](https://hackerapproved.com/p/inner-game-of-tennis.md): 4 recommend
- [The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/happiness-hypothesis.md): 3 recommend
- [Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert](https://hackerapproved.com/p/stumbling-on-happiness.md): 3 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+Authoritarians+by+Bob+Altemeyer&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer", https://hackerapproved.com/p/authoritarians/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).