Steal This Book
by Abbie Hoffman · first published 1971
21% recommend74% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
A counterculture guide from the 1960s, an early influence on hacker thinking and a look back at that era. It works better as a historical document than as a practical manual.
Common criticism: Much of the information is described as outdated and it was seen as more meme than real guide.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In 1967 a book called "F--k The System" was published privately under the pseudonym George Metesky, a favorite fake name of political theater artist Abbie Hoffman. It was the prototype for this edition, in 1971 greatly expanded and retitled "Steal This Book" and distributed by Grove Press from a label called Pirate Editions. Both books were designed to help political radicals on the lam from the authorities maintain their existence off the radar screens of polite society. The latter book (in three sections, Survive!, Fight! and Liberate!) describes late 1960's resources for free food, cloth
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…it would be about Abbie Hoffman's book. I read it in highschool just after Jerry Rubin's Do It!, because Rubin talks about Hoffman's book in his own. To this day Do It! is still my favorite book, and Steal This Book is close to second. It was my first encounter with what I naturally called "hacking" outside of the computer field.
on “Time Series Analysis and Its Applications: With R Examples” ↗Steal this book, by Abbie Hoffman [0]. Certainly not unknown, but not exactly something you find by accident. It's a book detailing 60s counterculture activities, and took a lot of work to find a publisher. Really interesting…
on “Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?” ↗>The real OG of hacking Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book and Kevin Mittnick taught me the noun form meaning of exploit. RIP
on “Kevin Mitnick has died” ↗…writing and publishing books about subjects "the government doesn't want you to know" that strongly influenced early hacker subculture. C.f., e.g., William Powell (The Anarchist Cookbook), Abbie Hoffman (Steal This Book; my personal favorite, while much of the information is outdated, the style is charming, and where else can you find information about phone phreaking, hitchhiking, shoplifting, street fighting, cooking…
on “OpenAI Backs Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths” ↗Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman
on “What's the most radical book you've read?” ↗I am a huge fan of “Steal this Book,” as I hope the forward conveys. Nevertheless, your point is well taken and I am updating the book landing page accordingly. Thank you. p.s. Steal "Steal This Book:" http://www.semantikon.com/StealThisBookbyAbbieHoffman.pdf
on “Steal This Book” ↗In my opinion it also lacks "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment", "Hackers and Painters", "The Cathedral & the Bazaar", "Free as in Freedom", "Rice Tea", "Free Culture", "Steal This Book", "Do it!", "Little Brother", "For The Win"... just to quote those which pop into my head as I'm writing this. But it's a great idea to have such a list!
Steal This Book: https://leanpub.com/stealthisbook (Apparently no longer available from LeanPub... heres's a dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qm6vkabvd8jc3le/stealthisbook.pdf?... ) Don't Just Roll the Dice:…
on “Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?” ↗Being a fan of antiauthoritarian classics, I was a bit disappointed to find that this was not the Steal This Book. The photo of Abbie Hoffman didn’t help! Still, I liked many of these blog posts and have nothing against Mr. Braithwaite—other than feeling perhaps slightly misled. ;)
on “Steal This Book” ↗This reminds me of the story of Abbi Hoffman with his book "Steal This Book". The people who wanted it just did as title told them and stole it from the bookshelves. Bookstores didn't want to carry it if it's stolen half the time.
on “TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay – Away From Keyboard by Simon Klose” ↗I think it's important to distinguish between what Amazon books Amazon ought to sell and what books ought to be allowed to be sold. In the 70s, Abbie Hoffman wrote a book called "Steal this book!" It contains instructions for committing revolutionary acts we would call terrorism today. I went to buy a copy out of nostalgia, and in a stunning act of irony, it was in my bookstore's "American History"…
on “Pedophilia How-To Book Removed From Amazon” ↗…get labeled "communist" and quickly dismissed as deeply anti-American and the thin end of the feared socialist wedge. Nice to see a new generation discovering what Tolstoy and Abbie Hoffman proposed: Steal This Book.
on “Ask HN: What should the amendment abolishing copyrights and patents be called?” ↗…calling a clever trick "hacking" is less harmful (well, it's even harmless IMHO). Getting back to your comment, I feel that here it is a valid usage of the word. Take something similar for instance: calling Steal This Book [1] a kind of society hacking cookbook (it is mostly outdated though) feels completely right to me. Defending the meaning of the word may be important, but wanting to restrain its usage all the time…
on “Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals” ↗…Rubin and Abbie Hoffman a few decades ago did the college circuit holding (mock?) debates regarding "hippy-ism". Abbie Hoffman at this time still looked something like a radical(who, FWIW, wrote a book, "Steal This Book") and claimed that the hippies sold-out and became the yuppies. Jerry Rubin, dressed very much as you would expect a yuppy to dress, didn't disagree but argued, "And why not?" So it became a schism:…
on “Whatever became of the summer of love?” ↗> The only way they wouldn't get prison terms was if the secession succeeded, which it did not. “The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.” ― Abbie Hoffman, Steal This Book