Background
He was born at Nogent-le-Rotron, May 7, 1841.
He was born at Nogent-le-Rotron, May 7, 1841.
In his Psychology of Peoples (English edition, 1898 and 1924), he presented the conclusion reached from all his studies of history and civilization: namely, that the destinies of mankind are decided by something other than the institutions that man's will can create, and that the faith in the possibility of rebuilding society cherished by the philosophers and legislators of the French Revolution was naive. This theme was pursued in the Psychology of Revolution (English edition, 1913), and is related to the theories expounded in the many editions of his Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1897). The crowd mind, he states, is the home of sentiment and emotion. Ideas are propagated through it by contagion, and, when widespread, become difficult to dislodge. Le Bon attached importance, although only as a cynical observer, to religions as the core of cultures.
For this application of his psychology of crowds and peoples, see The Psychology of Socialism (English edition, 1899). For his anti-German bias, see The Psychology of the Great War (English edition, 1917). His later volumes, The World in Revolt, A Psychological Study of Our Times (English edition, 1921) and The World Unbalanced (English edition, 1924), reveal that men before World War II also believed that they lived in chaos or a time of trouble.
Le Bon was an avowed opponent of socialist pacifists and protectionists, who he believed were halting France's martial development and stifling her industrial growth.
Le Bon was an implacable foe of socialism and of the great illusion of equality on which he believed socialism to be based.
In his opinion, every people has an invisible soul which finds expression in its life, arts, and institutions; progress is uncertain, reform is unavailing.
Quotations: Le Bon states: "An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will".