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Here’s Your FREE Copy of My Bestselling Book . . .
The Ben Hart Letter is a FREE weekly dispatch. Just for signing up (subscribing), I will send you a FREE digital copy of my bestselling book POISONED IVY: A Student at Dartmouth in 1981 Witnesses The Origin of the “Woke Mind Virus.”
The instant you subscribe by entering your email, your free book download will arrive via email. So be sure to use your primary email address.
I am mostly retired now, so everything I offer here is free. But if you want to buy me coffee, at some point, I will accept it happily and with appreciation.
I write about politics, the news, tips for success, entrepreneurship, health, fitness, and philosophy of life — topics that interest me and that might interest you.
About Ben
Ben has been in the advertising business for more than thirty-five years. His direct response advertising and marketing campaigns have generated more than one billion dollars for his clients over the decades. Ben has written a number of books, including:
BITCOIN: A Beginner’s Guide—Your Off-Ramp from the Corrupt Political System and Protection from Economic Collapse (2022)
WIN LIFE: Life: Success Skills Schools Don’t Teach (2023)
How to Write Blockbuster Sales Letters (2004)
AUTOMATIC MARKETING: How to Use the Internet to Automate Your Sales (2005)
How To Use Google Ads to Build Your Business (2005)
FUND YOUR CAUSE: Secrets of Successful Direct Mail Fundraising (2004)
FAITH & FREEDOM: The Christian Roots of American Liberty (1988)
POISONED IVY: The War on Freedom of Thought by America’s Elite Colleges (1984)
Ben wrote speeches for many leading political figures in the 1980s and ’90s, including President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign and President George H.W. Bush’s 1988 campaign.
Ben went on to start a speechwriting business. This transitioned into an advertising agency that built the Christian Coalition to more than 1,000,000 members during the 1990s, along with a number of other influential conservative organizations. The Christian Coalition was described by Time magazine as the most influential conservative lobby of the1990s.
Other notable pro-freedom and right-of-center organizations Ben’s marketing campaigns helped launch and build include Judicial Watch and Faith & Freedom Coalition (now 3.2 million members and supporters).
Ben conducted his first fundraising mailing for the pro-freedom cause as a student at Dartmouth in 1980, when he a a group of students founded The Dartmouth Review.
Approximately $100,000 in donations arrived in answer to Ben’s letter, which translates to about $1,000,000 in 2026 dollars. This taught Ben the marketing power of a well-written letter.
Some of the best known editors of The Dartmouth Review included Laura Ingraham (FOX News), Dinesh D’Souza, and Harmeet Dhillon. The Dartmouth Review cartoonist Steve Kelly went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartoons.
The success of The Review and publicity generated by the paper inspired the launch of more than 150 pro-freedom student newspapers on campuses across America in the 1980s, including The Stanford Review, cofounded by Peter Thiel in 1987.
Thiel, the future tech multi-billionaire who partnered with Elon Musk to launch
PayPal, explicitly modeled The Stanford Review after The Dartmouth Review.
Ben is a freedom “maximalist,” which is why he developed a keen interest in Bitcoin in 2016 and became part of the Bitcoin movement. His book on Bitcoin ranked as high as #2 in Amazon’s “Money & Monetary Policy” category.
Ben started writing Poisoned Ivy in 1981 when he was a senior at Dartmouth. This book chronicles the founding of The Dartmouth Review and was the first book to describe what Elon Musk in 2022 called “The Woke Mind Virus” . . . and what Ben, in this book, first labeled as The Ethos.
Surprisingly, this book received favorable reviews in The New York Times and most of the press at the time it came out. The Washington Post published a long feature article on Ben and this book for the front page of its “Style” section. Poisoned Ivy became a national bestseller.
At age 68, Ben is probably the world’s oldest actively competing break dancer. He took up this activity at age 54 because he thought it looked like a fun way to get in shape. He has appeared twice on ABC’s “Good Morning America” show for his break dancing and was featured in the “Health & Fitness” section of The Wall Street Journal. A number of Ben’s break dancing videos have gone viral. Ben has been involved in athletics all his life, believing that healthy living and healthy thinking are closely connected.
Ben and his wife Wanda were married in 2006 and have six children from previous marriages.
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