Born November 30, 1936
Worcester, Massachusetts
Died April 12, 1989
New Hope, Pennsylvania

Social activist and author

Abbie Hoffman was one of the most outspoken and outrageous radicals in American history. He combined biting humor with traditional organizing techniques to protest racism, war, capitalism, greed, polluting industries, and moral puritanism. In an effort to ridicule and devalue institutions he felt were evil, Hoffman threw money on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, tried to “levitate” the Pentagon, and turned a Chicago, Illinois, courtroom into a circus. Hoffman also made headlines as environmentalist “Barry Freed” (an alias Hoffman used) while on the run from cocaine charges in the 1970s.

A troublemaker from the start

Abbie (full name Abbott) Hoffman was born on November 30, 1936, in Worcester, Massachusetts, the oldest of three children of John Hoffman and Florence Schanberg. John Hoffman was a pharmacist who, in the...