The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind Audiobook By Gustave Le Bon cover art

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind

By: Gustave Le Bon
Narrated by: Joseph Gomez
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.99

Buy for $20.99

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

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 Classics History Philosophy Political Science Politics & Government Popular Culture Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Psychology & Interactions Social Sciences
All stars
Most relevant  
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.

The Mobs

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.

Oftentimes feels like a mouthful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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....

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.

Terrible performance, focus on the content.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Brilliant work that describes really the USA today. The USA is now a mad crowd.

Everyone in the USA should read this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I thought the book would bring more insight on crowd thinking. The thoughts behind the book seemed common sense to me.

Expected More Insight

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The reader keeps saying "exetera" instead of "et cetera". Small detail but hurts my ears.

Interesting but hard to listen, better to read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.

The performance is terrible

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.