Article
ID: CBB000772496

“Panic”: The Impact of Le Bon's Crowd Psychology on U.S. Military Thought (2007)

unapi
African Americans and science Psychology Science and war; science and the military Social psychology Science and race 20th century, early Le Bon, Gustave

The controversial crowd psychology of Gustave Le Bon has been both praised as an incisive contribution to social theory and also condemned as a doctrine of irrationality and mass manipulation associated with fascism. New archival documentation now demonstrates that Le Bon exercised significant influence on U.S. military thinking and practice through World War II. Army writings and officer training on morale, leadership, and battlefield psychology rested substantially on his theory of crowds, particularly regarding races and panic. Le Bon's racial psychology took on additional importance when the African-American 92nd Infantry Division panicked during combat in Italy. This new evidence offers an excellent case study of the direct and enduring impact of a peculiar type of social psychology on the institutional culture of the army from the classrooms at the Army War College to the battlefield itself.

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Description On Le Bon's influence on US military thinking and especially on the importance of his racial psychology when, during combat in Italy, the African-American 92nd Infantry Division panicked.

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000772496/

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Authors & Contributors
Chittka, Lars
Jeffrey P. Morgan
Dona, Hiruni Samadi Galpayage
Zumwalt, Rosemany Lévy
Zenderland, Leila C.
Young, Terence
Journals
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
History of Psychology
Science
Russian Studies in History
Journal of the History of Biology
Journal of American History
Publishers
State University of New York at Buffalo
University of North Carolina Press
Transaction
Roderer
Allyn & Bacon
American Philosophical Society
Concepts
Science and race
African Americans and science
African Americans
Social psychology
Psychology
Anthropology
People
Du Bois, William Edward B.
Boas, Franz
Imes, Elmer Samuel
Ellwood, Charles Abram
Turner, Charles Henry
Révész, Geza
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
Places
United States
Germany
Southern states (U.S.)
Eastern Europe
New York City (New York, U.S.)
Australia
Institutions
Association of Black Psychologists
American Museum of Natural History, New York
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