http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
Despite what politicians, philosophers and the press have long told us, every peaceful crowd is not a violent mob in waiting. Dan Hancox argues that it is time to rethink long-held assumptions about crowd behavior and psychology, as well as the part crowds play in our lives. The story of the modern world is the story of multitudes in action. Crowds are the ultimate force for change: the bringer of conviviality, euphoria, mass culture and democracy. Behind the establishment's long war against crowds is the work of eccentric proto-fascist Gustave Le Bon. Having witnessed the revolutionary Paris Commune, he declared the crowd barbaric, the enemy of all that was civilized. In the twentieth century, his theory influenced Mussolini, Hitler and Freud alike. It molded the policing of our communities and the new industry of public relations, shaping our cities and politics. From raucous football matches and raves to rubber-bullet-riddled riots, Dan Hancox takes us into the crowd's pulsating heart to pose the questions that will define our age. Is the madness of crowds real? What did the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill share with the Nuremberg rallies? What fresh dangers are posed to free assembly by the surveillance society? And how has a radical new generation of psychologists begun to change everything, even the policing of protests?
This book argues that crowds are the harbinger of and a force for change.
Introduction: The Age of the Crowd -- Paris Is Burning: Revolutionary Crowds -- The Nuremberg Spectacle: Authoritarian Crowds -- 'Feral Thugs': Protest and Riot Crowds -- Among the Slum People: Football Crowds -- The World Turned Upside Down: Carnival Crowds -- The Invention of Modern Life: Urban Crowds -- Myths and Scapegoats: Fatal Crowds -- Conclusion: There to Be a Crowd.
Includes bibliographical references and index.