The Psychology of Crowds

The masses, gripped by some idea, have appeared on the stage of history from ancient times. However, it was only with the beginning of the era of great revolutions that the masses turned into an independent political force capable of overthrowing one power and establishing another. They were distinguished from the usual participants in political competitions by everything: numbers, composition, mindset, ability to self-organize, and to act without a clear leader. One had to speak to the masses in their language, negotiate by their rules, but few were able to learn this language and master the rules in the frantic pace of historical change.

Almost a hundred years passed since the Great French Revolution before the first, even if general, sketches of teachings on the psychology of the masses appeared in the social and philosophical thought of France. One of the works on this topic, "The Psychology of Crowds," belongs to the pen of Gustave Le Bon. The book was published in 1895 and since then has been distributed in millions of copies, although the author himself called it just a brief summary, a summarization of his research.

Reading the book, it's easy to understand that the author was clearly modest - the ideological and substantive scale of his work is striking, in just over a hundred pages he presented a complete exposition of the properties and qualities of the mass, of the crowd as a collective subject.