The crowd : a study of the popular mind

One of the greatest and most influential books of social psychology ever written, The Crowd had a profound impact not only on Freud but also on such masters of crowd control as Hitler and Mussolini, who might have used its observations as a how-to handbook for stirring up the passions of the populace. As the author writes, "The masses have never thirsted after truth. . . . Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim." Though its focus is on crowd psychology, the book is also brilliantly instructive on the effects of the generally accepted beliefs of a nation's citizens on the processes of history. The Crowd is a must-read volume not only for every student of history, sociology, law, and psychology, but for every politician, statesman, investor, and marketing manager. An unabridged republication of a standard English translation of the work originally published in 1895 in France as La psychologie des foules. xv, 139 pages ; 22 cm