Educated in Paris where he received his PhD in medicine, Le Bon spent a number of years traveling in Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East. He was interested in archaeology and anthropology and wrote books on these subjects before turning his interest to social psychology. In 1894, he published The Psychology of Peoples which put forth his views on the progress of history and sociological influence. He developed a special interest in crowd behaviour and in 1895, published The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, undoubtedly his best work and one which is still relevant today. In his later years, he was professor of psychology and allied sciences at the University of Paris. Le Bon's work on crowd psychology had a great influence on some of the 20th century's more nefarious characters such as Hitler and Mussolini, both of whom derived their theories on propaganda and manipulation of the populace from his work. Le Bon's other works include Man and Society (1881), The Civilisation of Arabs (1884), Psychology of Socialism (1896), Psychology of Education (1902), Evolution of Forces (1907), Psychology of Revolution (1912), Psychology of the Great War (1916), World in Revolt (1921) and World Unbalanced (1924). |
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