Gustave Le Bon

Born in Nogent-le-Rotrou, France, in 1841, Gustave Le Bon trained as a physician but quickly ranged far beyond medicine. Over the course of his long career, he wrote on anthropology, archaeology, psychology, sociology, and science, building a reputation as a restless and remarkably prolific intellectual.

He is most closely associated with The Crowd (Psychologie des foules), first published in 1895. In that book, he argued that people in groups can think and behave differently from how they do alone, an idea that became highly influential in discussions of mass politics, persuasion, and social behavior.

Le Bon also traveled widely in Europe, North Africa, and Asia, and his writing reflects both his curiosity and the limits of the era in which he lived. He died in 1931, but his work continues to be read both for its historical importance and for the debates it still sparks.