This book is about the role of crowds in American society, culture, and politics. It offers a detailed description of Gustave Le Bon's The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (published in English in 1896 and thus in the public domain), and a discussion of Sigmund Freud's 1921 book on group psychology, among other things.

I use so much from Le Bon that it might be correct to cite him as a coauthor of this book, but I quote him because his ideas are central to my argument and I want my readers to be able to see, in some depth, what he had to say about crowds.

I also make extended use of material from Wikipedia on a variety of topics. I like Wikipedia because it offers valuable overviews and readable discussions on many topics of interest to me in this book. I recognize that some academics frown on using material from Wikipedia, but I have always found its articles extremely useful.

This book deals with some important aspects of American society, politics, and culture. It seeks to answer questions such as what do Trump's followers (his crowds) see in him and why did so many people become insurrectionists on January 6, 2021, and try to prevent the counting of the electoral votes leading to the election of Joe Biden, and attack the Capitol? I also consider crowds and cults and the role of crowds in COVID and vaccine hesitancy and opposition to vaccinations in the United States and elsewhere (Figure 1.1).

In my books, I like to use quotations from authors so that my readers can see how authors expressed themselves. Except for the material from Le Bon's book, and Wikipedia, the quotations in this book are all less than 350 words and thus qualify as fair use, and I give credit to the writers for all materials that I quote. My book has, then, something of a documentary quality about it. We can think of the quotations I use as the equivalent of statements by expert witnesses in a trial.

The classic text on crowds is Gustave Le Bon's The Crowd, first published in 1895 in French and 1896 in English. It is recognized as one of the most important social psychology studies ever published and my book is an application of Le Bon's ideas about crowds to contemporary American society, politics, and culture.