Crowds and Power

Crowds and Power is a revolutionary work in which Elias Canetti finds a new way of looking at human history and psychology. Breathtaking in its range and erudition, it explores Shiite festivals and the English Civil war, the finger exercises of monkeys and the effects of inflation in Weimar Germany. In this study of the interplay of crowds, Canetti offers one of the most profound and startling portraits of the human condition.

User reviews

LibraryThing member rozzief

This book has been a great influence on my thinking. I recommend it highly. The author won a Nobel Prize.

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LibraryThing member axelp

"There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown."

LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind

Interesting view of the behavior of crowds and leaders and how they interact and grow. Uses many anthropoligical examples, although some links are more tenuous than others. Extremely interesting.

LibraryThing member 4bonasa

A deductive study of the human psyche within all of us. The author leads the reader through the maze of human thought using detailed reports of the behavior of primitive cultures, well documented historical figures and mental health patients. Pealing back the protective shell we all construct

around ourselves he reveals the hidden 'survivor' within each of us, the desire to be the last one standing. He shows how the 'survivor' reaches the highest form in tribal leaders, kings, despots and politicians, the most dangerous being the paranoid despot.

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LibraryThing member aleph123

While waiting for another book in a library, saw it on an open shelf, and remembered that few times somebody quoted it, but I still had not read it.

Well, I liked the style and language structure, but my German isn't yet good enough to read it fast enough.

So, picked up also the Italian version, and

once in a while looked at both.

My main interest was the discussion about "mass", "meute" (pack), and other associated structural elements , as well as the taxonomy of behavioral patterns, as part of my review of material on cultural anthropology for some digital transformation publications.

Hopefully will re-read it in whole in German in due time.

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