The outbreak of World War I saw the collapse of socialist
notions of class solidarity and reaffirmed the enduring strength of
nationalism. The workers of the world did not unite, but turned on
one another and slaughtered their fellows in what was then the
bloodiest war in history. There have been many efforts to explain
the outbreak of war in 1914, but few from so intimate a perspective
as LeBon's. He examines such questions as why German scholars tried
to deny Germany's obvious guilt in the war, and what explained the
remarkable resolve of the French army to persevere in the face of
unprecedented adversity.
To such questions, LeBon proposes answers built upon principles
well articulated in the larger body of his work. He transforms the
character of the debate by demonstrating how psychological
principles explain more persuasively both the causes of German
academic ignominy and the origins of French valor. Convinced as he
was that only psychology could illuminate collective behavior,
LeBon dismisses purely economic or political interpretations as
ill-conceived and inadequate precisely because they fail to
appreciate the role of psychology in the collective behavior of
national statesmen, prominent scholars, and ordinary soldiers.
The Psychology of the Great War provides a bridge to study both
crowd behavior and battlefield behavior by illustrating how
ordinary people are transformed into savages by great events. This
element in LeBon's thinking influenced Georges Sorel's thinking, as
he had seen the same phenomenon in those who participated in
general strikes and revolutions. And in a later period and
different context, Hannah Arendt gave this strange capacity of the
ordinary to be transformed into the extraordinary the name
"banality of evil." The book will be of interest to social
theorists, psychologists concerned with group behavior, and
historians of the period.
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