Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World

Modern history is the history of the crowd. But why are we so frightened of what happens when we come together? Philosophers, politicians and psychologist pronounce that they are dangerous and need to be controlled. In contrast, Hancox argues that they are the harbinger of and a force for change, the bringer of joy and conviviality. In the 1870s, following the Paris Commune, Gustave Le Bon was the first to claim that the crowd was a dangerous animal that consumed individuals. Since then his thinking has influenced city building, policing, criminology and politics. From scenes of the Nuremburg Rally to the January 6 insurrection on the Capitol, the contagion of mob violence is palpable. They can be dangerous. But the crowd can also be a place of liberation, passion, collective joy. The politicians are so afraid of what happens that they will do whatever they can to keep us apart. In Multitudes, Dan Hancox celebrates the history of the crowd. The crowd is the human embodiment of democracy. It is a testament to the incredible things that happen when we gather with strangers in pursuit of a common goal - whether that is to throw a rave, or overthrow a dictator. We will see how crowds have the power to change history, and how joining crowds changes us for the better, too.

Table of Contents:
Preface: El Carnaval de Cádiz Introduction: The Age of the Crowd 1. Paris Is Burning: Revolutionary Crowds 2. The Nuremberg Spectacle: Authoritarian Crowds 3. 'Feral Thugs': Protest and Riot Crowds 4. Among the Slum People: Football Crowds 5. The World Turned Upside Down: Carnival Crowds 6. The Invention of Modern Life: Urban Crowds 7. Myths and Scapegoats: Fatal Crowds Conclusion: There to Be a Crowd Acknowledgements Notes Index

About the Author :
Dan Hancox is a native Londoner who writes about music, politics, gentrification, social exclusion, protest and the margins of urban life, chiefly for the Guardian, but also the New York Times, Vice, The Fader, Dazed & Confused and XXL.

Review :
British journalist Dan Hancox, in his new book Multitudes goes much further than his scholarly forebears in the effort to defend the crowd from its defamers. He is an unstinting admirer of crowds and crowd action, not just as a means of social change but as a heady social experience of transcendence. This useful history reconsiders the crowd stretching back to the Paris Commune, and examines the influential work of one conservative psychologist that laid the ideological groundwork for crackdowns against future mass movements. Thought-provoking ... a celebration of the positive capacity of crowds to liberate. An examination of the rich history of crowds in entertainment, sports, and politics. Multitudes will make you question everything you thought you knew about crowds, even the ones you've been a part of. Hancox delivers a compelling case for understanding crowds as an essential force in modern history and as a powerful way of connecting to our shared humanity' Hancox provides, in lucid and passionate prose, a compelling account of the new psychology of crowds. He shows an impressive command of the technical literature, the historical record and contemporary events, resulting in a broadside against the reflex condemnation of crowds that we hear so often in the mouths of politicians and journalists. He has thereby produced a book of great value that will be hard to refute or ignore. Read this book. And, when you have finished, you will never use the word 'mob' again.' Shaking us out of the pandemic's dogmatic social distancing, Dan Hancox inspires us to seek again a vital source of strength and creativity -- the joy of crowds Joining crowds brings us joy, spontaneity, new connections, they're empowering and they represent democracy in their purest form - no wonder they are always demonised by those in power. Hancox's energetic reporting and deep dive into the history of crowd behaviour, helps us see them in a completely new light. A brilliant eulogy to the power and joy of the human throng. Hancox not only grasps the logic of crowds, but evokes their feeling with sparkling prose A compelling reappraisal of the history and politics of crowds, which teases out the political project behind the spectre of the "angry mob". Based on meticulous and enthusiastic research, it is an engaging - and unexpectedly touching - analysis of the lure of the crowd today Champions the erotic, capitalism-subverting, ego-transcending crowd ... blindsidingly touching. Elegant and persuasive ... if by this point [Hancox] hasn't persuaded you to switch off the dross you're binge watching on Netflix and hotfoot it to a festival or football match, nothing will. Eloquent and soulful ... a work of Benjaminian optimism about the potential of mass populism and collective epiphany to enrich and expand the radical future. Convincingly challenges Le Bon's influence on the prevailing social analysis of crowd behaviour. Lively and compelling ... [the] reframing of crowds as imbued with agency, even freedom, is a welcome corrective.