The Behavior of Crowds

The Behavior of Crowds is a probing work of early twentieth-century social psychology, examining how individuals surrender judgment, moral responsibility, and intellectual independence when absorbed into collective movements. Written in a lucid, argumentative prose rather than a narrowly technical idiom, the book belongs to the tradition of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter while also reflecting the anxieties of the postwar democratic age. Martin treats crowds not merely as street mobs but as psychological formations-political parties, sects, fashions, and reform movements-capable of intensifying emotion and simplifying thought. Everett Dean Martin, an American lecturer, editor, and adult educator associated with the People's Institute and the New School milieu, brought to the subject a deep concern for liberal education and civic maturity. His background in public instruction and social criticism helps explain the book's central preoccupation: the fragile capacity of modern citizens to resist propaganda, mass enthusiasm, and ideological conformity. This volume is recommended to readers interested in political psychology, democratic culture, and the intellectual history of mass society. Though historically situated, its warnings about credulity, group passion, and manipulated opinion remain strikingly pertinent.