Gustave Le Bon

About the author

Gustave Le Bon (1841–1931) was a French polymath whose restless intellect ranged across anthropology, psychology, sociology, medicine, and physics. Born in Nogent-le-Rotrou, he qualified in medicine at the University of Paris in 1866 but never practiced, turning instead to writing. Firsthand experience of the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune shaped his worldview, while extensive travels through Europe, Asia, and North Africa fed his anthropological thinking.

He is best remembered for The Crowd (1895), a foundational text of crowd psychology, which argued that collective behavior produces an entirely new psychological entity distinct from its individual members.