Crowds and Power () is a 1960 book by Elias Canetti, dealing with the dynamics of crowds and "packs" and the question of how and why crowds obey power of rulers. Canetti draws a parallel between ruling and paranoia. The book analyzes the memoirs of Daniel Paul Schreber and Sigmund Freud's book on them, and Gustave Le Bon.
The book was translated from German into English by Carol Stewart in 1962 and published by Gollancz.
Overview Although wide-ranging in its erudition, this essay is not scholarly or academic in a conventional way. Canetti uses "we" in his text and does not dissociate from humanity.
On asking questions: "On the questioner the effect is a feeling of enhanced power. He enjoys this and consequentially asks more and more questions; every answer he receives is an act of submission. Personal freedom consists largely in having a defence against questions. The most blatant tyranny is the one which asks the most blatant questions."Crowds and Power, p. 285
This work remains important for the insights it provided into the Eastern European upheaval which can be understood within the framework Canetti puts forth.Kiss (2004), p.730 It shows the growth of crowds and their power against even the power of the state.
See also Multitude
Notes
Bibliography
McClelland, John: "The Place of Elias Canetti's Crowds and Power in the History of Western Social and Political Thought." Thesis Eleven 1996 45: 16–27.