The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind

By: Gustave Le Bon

Narrated by: Joseph Gomez

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind is a seminal work on crowd psychology by Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931), a French social psychologist. He observes that a crowd forms when an influential idea unites a number of individuals and prompts them to act towards a common goal. In a crowd, the conscious personality of the individual is submerged and dominated by the collective mind. Furthermore, every sentiment becomes contagious to a degree that individuals readily sacrifice their personal interest to the collective. Le Bon discusses the general characteristics, ideas, reasoning power, imagination, morality and mental unity of the crowd, including the behavior of criminal juries and parliamentary assemblies. Crowds often act in an immoral manner because mankind’s primitive instincts that lie dormant in the isolated individual, are unleashed by the dynamics of the crowd. Le Bon’s fascinating work also examines the ways in which a nation’s generally accepted beliefs influence the processes of history.

Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks

The Mobs

How to interpret the crowd’s reactions. Very helpful and goes with the current events. A must to understand the recent behavior in the United States.

Oftentimes feels like a mouthful

The content of this book is the first thing that stands out, but deciphering that content might take a little rereading. Solid messages, references, descriptions, all to say it could stand to be a bit clearer. Reader did a great job, I think I may have just had trouble with his specific voice.

A must read in terms of group psychology....

At our current moment in history, this book speaks volumes. I'd say that we are at a huge turning point and this book showcases things that at this moment, ring alarm bells. Worth listening to thrice....

Written over 100 years ago - parts could have been written yesterday

Mob mentality could have been to subtitle and not much was new - but this is an old book.

There were some outdated beliefs expressed by the author, but it was interesting when you remembered the era in which this book was written.

You’ll be hard pressed not the think of the January 6 events when reading much of this book.

Terrible performance, focus on the content.

The reader can only seem to string together 3 words at a time and it is a most distracting rhythm. However, the book is so damn interesting I don’t want to take away from it. It is still worth the listen, but be prepared to be frustrated at times with the reader.

Everyone in the USA should read this

Brilliant work that describes really the USA today. The USA is now a mad crowd.

Expected More Insight

I thought the book would bring more insight on crowd thinking. The thoughts behind the book seemed common sense to me.

Interesting but hard to listen, better to read.

The reader keeps saying "exetera" instead of "et cetera". Small detail but hurts my ears.

The performance is terrible

Sadly this great book is done a great disservice by the pathetic performance on the recording. It would be beneficial to rather read the book or, if you cannot do that for some reason, have someone read it to you.

The only criticism on the actual book is that the storyline is weak but since it is a research book that is not a train smash.