Tarde Opinion and Crowd

6 9 -1 8 ,4 7 2
EM M ANUEL, Artemis, 1923-

GABRIEL TA RDE’S L TOPINION E T LA
FOULE: A RE-EVALUATION OF ITS
RELEVANCE TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF
PUBLIC OPINION.
The American University, Ph.D., 1969

Sociology, general
U n iv e rs ity M ic ro film s , Inc., A n n A rb o r, M ic h ig a n
(C)Copyright by
Artemis Emmanuel
1969
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
GABRIEL T A R D E 'S L ' OPINION ET LA F O U L E ;
A R E ~ E V A L U A T I O N *OF ITS RELEVANCE TO
THE SO CIOLOGY OF PUBLIC OPINION
by
Artemis Emmanuel
Submitted to the
Fac ult y of the College of Arts and Sciences
of the Ameri ca n University
in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree
of
Doctor of Philosophy
in
Sociology
Dean of the College
AMERICAN u N . VL r t o
L IB R A R Y
1969
MAY 2 2 1961:
The A m e r i c a n University
Washington, ,D..C. W a s h in g t o n , n . r
3 1 ^ 3
PREFACE
This study has been conceived and designed in response
to current trends in sociology toward a creative r e- ex am in a
tion of problems and perspectives formulated in earlier
times and different lieus, trends stimulated and accelerated
b y a broader need for the continuous extending and deepening
of the scope of sociological inquiry.
In carrying out this study, the specific purpose and
approach of which are d iscussed in the first two chapters, I
have had the invaluable guidance and assistance of an ad v i s
ory committee composed of distinguished scholars, sociolo
gists. and academic teachers. Dr. A us ti n Van der Slice, the
Chairman, an intent student of Gabriel T a r d e 's work, provided
generously important advice and sustained my confidence d u r
ing my .inquiry into T a r d e 1s L 'Opinion et la F o u l e , this
largely unknown text of the "forgotten sociologist."
Dr. Gillian L. Gollin received enthusiastically the idea of
this study, and she contributed liberally helpful direction
throughout the successi ve stages of this work and especially
in the effort to deal with the intricate question of the
convergence of "classical" theory and empirical studies in
public opinion research, a question which is at the center
lii
of her academic interests and research endeavors. Dr. Morris
Rosenberg has g re atl y helped me with his stimulating teaching
as well as w ith his instructive suggestions and enlightened
judgment. Dr. Robert T. Bower, Director of the Bureau of
SocxaJ Research, well-known for his contributions to the
field of public opinion study, by his interest in my work
and by accepting to be a member of the dissertation committee,
has given me special encouragement. I am deeply indebted
and immensely grateful to all.
I woul d also like to express my sincere thanks and
appreciation to the prominent French scholars and s o c i o l o
gists, Professor Raymond Aron of the Ecole Pratique des
Hautes Etudes, Professor Jean Stoetzel and Professor Georges
Friedmann of the Centre d ‘Etudes S o c i o l o g i q u e s , and Professor
Serge Moscovici by the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes,
who in answering promptly to my inquiry about Gabriel Tarde
reinforced me in my aspiration to deal with and present his
ideas .
TABLE OF CONTENTS
P R E F A C E .................................................... iii
Chapter Page
I. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM ............... 1
Gabriel T a r d e 's L 'Opinion et la F o u l e :

A Case of Co nv ergence of Early Theory
and Current Sociological Concerns
II. THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE S TU DY . . . . . . 8
The Analysis
The Assessmen t
III. GABRIEL TARDE: THE "FORGOTTEN SOCIOLOGIST". . 19
Tarde Seen t hrough the Eyes of his

Contemporaries
The Provincial Magistrate
T a r d e 's Intellectual Formation: "The
Tour of the S c i e n c e s " ; the Disciple of
Cournot; His Own Master
The "Individualist Sociologist," an
International Figure
Gabriel Tarde; "A Sociologist Ah ea d of
his Time"
IV. THE FIELD OF PUBLIC OPINION: A MULTI

DISCIPLINARY P E R S P E C T I V E 55
The Pre -h is to ry of the Public Opinion

Concept
The Em ergence of the Public Opinion
Concept
E ar ly Theories of Public Opini on in the
Contex t of Theories of the State
Toward a Scien ce of Public Opinion
Toward an In te r-disciplinary Ap proach
Chapter Page
V. SOC IO LO GY AND THE STUDY OF PUBLIC OPINION . . 88
F r o m "Crowd Psychology" to"Collective

Behavior"
Sociological Theorists of Public Opinion
The Emergence of a Met hod ological
Orientation
Co nve rgence of Theoretical and M e t h o d o l o g
ical Concerns
VI. GABRIEL TARDE ON PUBLIC OPIN ION .............. 122
T a r d e 's Broader Theoretical Fr amework

Public Opinion a Central C o n c e r n of
Tarde's Sociology
Gabriel Tarde's L 'Opinion et la F o u l e :
The development of Public Opinion
The Crowd and the Public: The Two
Poles of Social Evolution
The Emergence and Development of the
Public
Types of Crowds and Publics
Conversation, a Factor of Public
Opinion
L 'Opinion et la F o u l e , a W o r k Rich in
Significant Implications
VI.I. SOCIOLOGICAL I MPLICATIONS IN TARDE 'S

AP P R O A C H TO THE STUDY OF PUBLIC OPINION . . 154
Problems and Areas of Public Opinion

Researc h
Highlights Among Tarde's General
Propos itions
Concluding Remarks
A PP EN DI X ................................................. 163
Opinion and the Crow d by Gabriel Tarde

in an English Translation from the
French First Edition
Reproduced with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Chapter Page
BIBLI OGR APH Y ..................................... 358
Books b y Gabriel Tarde

Articles b y Gabriel Tarde
Translations of T a r d e 1s Works
Reviews and Analyses of Tarde's Works
Biographical and Critical References
to Gabriel Tarde
Selected References on Public Opinion
Researc h and Theory
vii
C H APT ER I
INTRODUCTION; THE PROBLEM
Gabriel T a r d e 's L 'Opinion et la F o u l e ;

A Case of Converg en ce of Early Theory
and Current Sociological Concerns
The purpose of this study is to present and to
analyze a sociological theory of public opinion. The field
of public opinion has not been fully explored by sociologists.
Though it is receiving increasing attention, the findings
derived from sociological studies have not yet b e e n s y s t e m a t
ically coordinated or related to the findings of other
social scientists, in particular political scientists and
economists. A review of the literature on public opinion
in various disciplines reveals that most authors ignore the
views and findings developed in the "other" disciplines.
A certain degree of parochialism seems to c h a ra ct er
ize contemporary so ciology as a whole although there are
positive signs of efforts to overcome this tendency. As
a rule, there is little interest shown in other d i s c i
plines: concentrating on what is "current" research, sociol o
gists give scanty attention to past work to the h is tor y of
) ?
the discipline; finally, little is read of what is not writ
ten in English.
W i l l i a m R. Catton, Jr., referring to the first trend
advocates that sociologists today should
. . . resist the temptation to define only sociologists

as the in-group, excluding contact with theories and con
cepts from other disciplines, for histor y permits the
conclusion: Sociological thought has sufficiently come
of age so that it can afford to lower its protective
intellectual tariffs.^
Paul F. Lazarsfeld's article "Public Opinion and the
Classical Tradition" emphasizes the merits of considering
the history of one's discipline:
. . . If we were dealing with a field like chemistry,

or any other natural science, we would be rather confi
dent that any new phase incorporated what was of value
in past work; . . . . In the social sciences the situa
tion is not as simple . . . . First, empirical develop
ment usually furnishes sharper conceptual tools . . .
what was only dimly perceived before can now often be
discerned wi t h clarity, and, as a result, new implica
tions of all sorts can be brought to light . . . .
Secondly, the very act of inspecting this classical
material brings to our attention ideas which might
otherwise have been overlooked . . . . Because . . .
empirical researchers are likely to be guided too much
by what is a manageable topic at the moment, rather than
by what is an important issue . . . .^
W. R. Catton, Jr., "The Development of Sociological

T h o u g h t , " The Ha ndbook of Modern S o c i o l o g y , ed. by Robert
E. L. Faris (Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1964), p. 947.
2
Paul F. Lazarsfeld, "Public Opinion and the Classical
Tradition," Public Opinion Q u a r t e r l y , XXI (1957), 40-41.
3
Everett C. Hughes also refers to both the lack of a
creative consider at io n of the w or k of past sociologists
and the reluctance to overcome the language barrier,
We tend rather to sketchy and stereotyped know led ge of

sociologists of previous generations . . . . The matter
of language is related to our kno wledge of past work,
for much of it is in other languages, and we Americans,
the world's lin gui stically most crippled of all people
who claim to be scholars, are completely dependent upon
the accidents of translation for whateve r is wri tt en
in other languages . . . .
Still, there is in sociology today a slowly growing
concern about bringing ba ck into focus the viable c o n t r i b u
tions of the leading men in its history. Much of what is
pub lished in soc iology at present is indicative of this p r e
occupation. The settling of the questio n of what is " c l a s
sical theory" in soci olo gy is of particular interest.. Indeed,
as Robert K. Me rto n points out in his essay "On the His to ry
and Systematics of Sociological Theory," in sociology "the
hi st or ic al ly recurring tension between erudition and o r i g i n a l
ity is a p ro bl em yet to be solved. ..." However, though
. . . the physicist qua physicist has no need to steep

himself in Newton's Principia or the biologist qua b i o l o
gist to read and re-read Darwin's Prig in of S p e c i e s , the
sociologist qua sociologist, rather than as hi s t o r i a n of
sociology, has ample reason to study the works of a
Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel. . . .^
Êverett C. Hughes, " Tarde's Psycholoqie E c o n o m i q u e :

An Unkn own Classic by a Forgotten Sociologist," The A m e r i c a n
Journal of S o c i o l o g y , LXVI (1961), 555.
n
Robert K. Merton, On Theoretical Sociology, Five
It is in this spirit that T a r d e 's w o r k is introduced.
Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) a French sociologist with an inter
national reputation at his time,'*' has be en gra dually fading
out of the consciousness of modern sociologists, both Ameri
can and French. Though his major works w e r e translated into
several languages almost immediately after their publication
in French, his work in its whole is r el ati ve ly unknown at

2
present. Ask ed if Tarde is in France as much the "forgotten
sociologist" as E. C. Hughes implies that he is in the United
States, leading French sociologists answered affirmatively.
Raymond A r o n said that "for various reasons that the soci
ology of French sociology would bring to light, the work of
Tarde is little known today and holds a very little place in
the teaching of sociology today" and he agreed that "this

3
oblivion is not without some injustice." Jean Stoetzel,
E s s a y s , Old and New (New York: The Free Press, 1967),

pp. 34-35.
■'"Celestin Bougie was writing in 1905, "When the gen

eral public wants to have an idea about what sociology may
be today, it most often goes to the wo rk of Tarde. . . ."
("Lorsque le grand public veut prendre un apercu de ce que
peut etre a u j o u r d 1h u i .la sociologie, il se reporte le plus
souvent a l’beuvre de Tarde. ... ") "Un sociologue individual-
iste: Gabriel T a r d e , ” Revue de P a r i s , III (1905), 294.
2
Translations of Tarde's books and articles were pub
lished in Russian, Italian, English, Spanish, Polish, and
Rumanian,
^Letter to the author from Professor Raymond Aron,
with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
w ho is know n for his w or k both in public opinion and in
social psychology, thinks that it is right that the wo rk of
"this outstanding forerunner" should be brought back to the
attention of sociologists..1 Georges Friedmann also observed
that Tarde's work is almost never me ntioned in current French
textbooks of sociology; however, he feels that a certain
"current in favor of T a r d e 's ideas seems to be developing in
the conversations of French sociologists „ . . One could
speak of a kind of 'sociological public opinion' in his

2
favor." Serge Moscovici attributed the neglect of Tarde
by French sociology to Durkheim's impact which has been fur-

3
ther reinforced by sociological st ructuralism and Marxism.
The approach in this study to the work of Gabriel
Tarde centers on determining his place in the "classical
tradition" of sociology by examing his work for relevance and
contributive value in the light of current developments
in the field.. As Robert K. Merton has
of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sciences Econom.iques

et Sociales, Paris, October 18, 1968.
^Letter to the author from Professor Jean Stoetzel,

of the Centre d'Etudes S o c i o l o g i q u e s , Paris, October 22.,
1968 .
2
Letter to the author from Professor Georges F r i e d
mann, of the Centre d'Etudes Sociologiques, âris, November 7,
1968.
Letter to the author from Professor Serge Moscovici,

of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, October 28,
1968 .
6 6
pointed out,
. . . what is to be found in writings of the past is

anything but fixed, once and for all. It changes as
our intellectual sensitivities change; the more we
learn on our own account the more we can learn b y re
reading from our freshly gained perspective . . . .^
Tarde's book, L 'Opin io n et la Foule (1901) , touches
on issues such as public opinion, the public, the press,
and communication media, all of them questions that are gain
ing every day increasing attention as they constitute cru
cial questions in life today. They are the object of inten
sive study and research bo th practical and scientific, A
survey of the field of public opinion studies shows that
there is a growing concern for systematic propositions on
the phenomena observed. It is indeed to this concern that
the analysis of T a r d e 's w o r k can contribute the most by draw
ing attention on the merits inherent in the sociological
approach to the study of public opinion phenomena. On the
other hand, as Professor Stoetzel noted not too long ago,
Public opinion not only constitutes one of the links

of . . . social structures but is also the essence of
an original social grouping that can be understood only
through it. This type of grouping that Tarde was the
first to attract attention to (1901, L 'Opinion et la
F o u l e ) is the public or rather' the publics . . . .
S o c io log y is not reduced to the study of publics. But
one must admit that soci ety is increasingly divided
"^Robert K. Merton, _On the Shoulders of Giants (New

York: The Free Press, 1965), p. 45.
7 7
into publics a division that is superimposed on the

existing divisions, through the latter's own efforts
Sociology cannot but make the study of public opinion and
the related phenomena a central concern, and in doing so
it ma y take advantage of the work of its earlier theorists,
such as Gabriel Tarde.
Thus, we do not attempt the retrieval of T a r d e 's work
as an exercise of sterile erudition but in view of the impor
tant function that, according to Merton, the acquaintance
with the old masters can have in sociology, namely "the
interactive effect of developing new ideas by turning to
older writings within the context of conte mp or ar y knowledge."
X" ... 1'opinion constitue 1'un des liens de toutes

ces structures sociales, mais encore qu'elle est 1'essence
d'un type de groupement social original, qui ne peut se com-
prendre que par elle. Ce type de groupement sur lequel
Tarde le premier attira l'attention (1901, L'Opinion et la
F o u l e ) c'est le public, ou plutot les publics. ... La soci-
ologie ne se reduit pas a l 1etude des publics. Mais il
faut avouer que cette division de la societe en publics
tend de plus en plus a se superposer aux autres par 1'effort
meme de celles-ci. ..." Jean Stoetzel, Esquisse d 'une
Theorie des opinions (Paris: Presses Universitaires de
France, 1943), p. 6.
2
Merton, _0n Theoretical Soci olo gy . . ■ , p. 37.
CH AP TE R II
THE NATURE AND THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The volume L 'Opinion et la F o u l e , like other works
of Tarde, contained material that had already appeared in
the form of articles in Fren ch reviews, it consists of
three essays; two of them, "Le Public et la Foule" and
"L'Opinion et la Conversation," wer e published in the Revue
de Paris in 1898 and in 1899 r e s p e c t i v e l y ;^ the third essay,
"Les Foules et les Sectes criminelles" had appeared in 1893
in the Revue des Deux Mondes and in the Melanges S o ci ol ogi -
ques (1895), a collection of T a r d e 's essays. It is the first
two essays that constitute T a r d e 1s presentation of his
theory of public opinion. As he explained in the Preface
of the volume, he had decided to attach at the end the other
study, in order to place it in its right context. That he
consid ere d the first two essays the main content of his
book is also indicated by what he said in a footnote to his
article " L 'Interpsychologie" (1904): "L 'Opinion et la Foule
“^Gabriel Tarde, "Le Public et la Foule," _La Revue de

P a r i s , V4 (1899), 287-306, 615-35; Gabriel Tarde "L'Opinion
et la Conversation," JLa Revue de P a r i s , VI 4 (1899) , 689-719
and V I 5 (1900) , 91-116.
that should have been titled _Le Public et 1'O p i n i o n ." ^
Indeed, in them Tarde invites us to engage wi th him
in a ki n d of conversation, of a dialogue, on the topic of
public opinion. Tossing it around, he leads us to observe
it from various angles and in its various versions and rami
fications; to trace its origin; to analyze it into its vari
ous components, to discern the factors that favor its expan
sion and those that inhibit it; to consider its effects and
its functions, manifest or latent. W e are thus induced to
participate in the study, sharing the insights and under
standing that are developed in the process, b u t also making
at the same time discoveries of our own.
His method is often discursive. Taking one road, his

thinking hesitates, then it is resolved and all of a
sudden it darts forth, to fall ba c k after the volley.
. . . Now it digresses, to return later to its original
direction; now it passes s w if tl y over all the stages
and then retraces its steps. It is like a series of
sudden inspirations . . . .2
^Gabriel Tarde, "L 'Opini on et la Foule qui aurait

du etre intitule Le Public et 1'O p i n i o n ." Les Archives d'
A n t h ro po lo gie C r i m i n e l l e , X I X (1904) , 537.
2
" ... Sa methode est souvent discursive. Se lancant
dans une direction sa pensee kesite, puis elle se decide et
tout a coup elle s 'elance en avant pour retomber apres la
volee ... Tantot elle s'ecarte pour retourner plus tard a
sa premiere direction; tantot elle brule les etapes et
retour ne sur ses pas. Elle est comme une serie d 1inspira
tions soudaines ... ." Henri Bergson, "Preface" in Gabriel
Tarde: Introduction et Pages choisies par ses fils (Paris: F.
Alcan, 1909), p. 38.
Bergs on attributed Tarde's style, which he so vividly
described, to the author's background. Like most early soci
ologists Tarde came to sociology from another field. But,
what is more relevant in his case is the fact that he elabor
ated and wrot e his ideas while he was a magistrate at Sarlat,
a provincial town in the Southwest of France. So, whi le the
com munity there served as his field of observation, it was
not the public to which he addressed his writings. Thus,
all that time he was working without any intimate and direct
communication w ith a well defined public. He was a "self-
made scholar, grown up in solitude and self-communion, far
removed from any contact wi th the powerful university and
academic conventicles of the French metropolis . . . ." ^
Free from the logical requirements and restrictions
deriving from such an interaction, he developed a style that
shows less concern with structure and organization than with
presenting all the possible nuances and leads of the point
under discussion. In a typically French manner, Emile
Faguet called this trait in Tarde's style "a beautiful fault"
. . . The fault, the beautiful fault that everybody

envies Mr. Tarde for, is indeed the overabundance of
ideas . . . the sequence of the general ideas
^Gustavo Tosti, "The Sociological Theories of G.

T a r d e , " Political Science Q u a r t e r l y , XII (1897) , 490.
14 11
interrupted b y the intervention of incidental ideas

which are as general and as important as those whose
sequence they interrupted . . . ,^
2
It is this wid el y recognized trait that explains the facil
ity with which some hasten to dismiss T a r d e 's work as an
old-fashioned literary or speculative exercise as well as
the insistence of others that it is an unexplored mine of
important and germinal insights.
Many of those who discussed T a r d e 1s work recognized
that his teaching experience had an impact on his writings.
Thus, the writings that took shape in the process of prepar
ing his courses at the College de France bear the mark of a
logical adjustment, of an effort to order his thoughts and
findings into a somewhat organized whole. In the editor's
note about the article " L 'Inter-psychologie," whi ch was pub
lished posthumously, it is pointed out that " . . . though
unfinished and interrupted by death, this last course will
... Le defaut, le beau defaut, que tout le monde

envie a M. Tarde, c'est a savoir la surabondance d'idees ...
la serie des idees generates, interrompue par 1' intervention
d'idees incidentes qui sont aussi generates et aussi impor-
tantes que celles qu'elles interrompent ... " Emile Faguet,
"Review of G. Tarde, Les Trans formations du p o u v o i r ," Revue
Litteraire et Po litique— Revue B l e u e , XII (1899), 7 77.
2
E.g., " . . . Tarde himself was certainly one of the
most stimulating and varied of writers, . . . ." John Dewey,
"The Need for Social Psychology," Psychological R e v i e w , XXIV
(1917) , 267 .
be published for it gives the finished and precise form of
his sociology . - . .
However, it must be pointed out that T a r d e 's style
was not just the result of the circumstances described above.
It was also developed consciously and b y design for Tarde
considered such an approach more productive than one involv
ing a more strictly logical organization. It actually
reflects Tarde's constant concern with "possibilities," with
2
what may be, with what perhaps exists, rather than with
3
certainty. His interpretation of the concept of invention
confirms this concern, but also his work Fragment d 1Histoire
f u t u r e , whic h has been described as a fantasy, but which may
be considered as a kind of "projection." In the words of
H. G . Wells, who wrote the Preface for the English translation
of this book, Tarde "moves indicatively and lightly over the
... Bien que reste inacheve et interrompu par la

mort, ce dernier cours sera publie car il donne la forme
achevee et precise de sa sociologie." (Journal editorial
note.) Gabriel Tarde, " L 'I n t e r p s y c h o l o g i e , " Archives d 1
A nt hr opo log ie C ri mi n el le , ed. b y A. Lacassagne, XIX (1904),
537 .
2
" . . . Le monde de ce qui aurait pu exister ... le
monde de ce qui existe peut etre ... ces deux mondes vivent
dans I 1esprit de Tarde. " Bergson, _op, c i t . , p. 40.
3
" . . . Every invention that actually appears is one
pos sib il ity realized amid a thousand possibilities . . .
which the parent invention carried w ithin itself . . . ."
Gabriel Tarde, The Laws of I m i t a t i o n , t r a n s . by Elsie C.
Parsons (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1903), p. 40.
deeps of human possibility; . . „
If Tarde's presentations lack explicit organization
and if he was yery much "an armchair sociologist" he did
not view sociology as a speculative enterprise. Not only
did he express particular concern about applying experimen
tation and quantification to sociology, but he would also
stress the value of these procedures in exploring and gather-

2
ing data as well as in verifying them. He had even pointed
out to those who were doubting that measurement could be
applied to the study of the social phenomena with the same
effectiveness as in the physical phenomena, that in the
"exact" sciences, quantifica tio n is only telling part of
the st or y and that precision in these sciences is not nece s
sa ri ly absolute:
If necessary, I would dem on st ra te that there is no less

a qualitative element d i ss im ul at ed under the physical
qu antities measured by scientific procedures, analogous
in fact to and not less specious than statistics though
of a more solid appearance.
■'"Gabriel Tarde, The U n d e rg ro un d M a n , trans. from Fr a g

ment d 1histore future b y C l o u d e s l e y Breret on and a Preface
b y H. G. Wells (London.- Du ck w o r t h y & Co., 1905), p. 16.
“Tarde, L 'I n t e r - p s y c h o l o g i e ," Archives . .., p. 564.
3
"Si c'etait le lieu, je montrerais qu'il n 'ya pas
moins de qualitatif dissimule sous les qualites physiques
mesurees par des procedes s c i e n t i f i q u e s , analogues au fond
a la statistique non moins specieux qu'elle, quoique d'appar-
ence plus solide." Gabriel Tarde, L 'Opinion et la Foule
(Paris: F. Alcan, 1901),fn. 2, p. 152.
17 14
His plan for a sociology of conversation that he pro
posed in the Preface of L 'Opinion et la F o u l e .and on wh i c h
he elaborated in greater detail in the second essay of the
book, as well as his article "L 'Inter-psychologie" in whi ch
he drew a kind of blue-print for sociology, indicates his
interest in experimental research through a method w h i c h in
the natural sciences was known as the "natural his to ry
method" and wh i c h R.. E. Park would attempt to apply in soci
ology later on.^
Only, Tarde did not have the time to engage in empir
ical research, which in the case of sociology imvolved a
great deal of pionee ri ng work. So, "he developed, somewhat
provisionally, the theory of opinion and the p u b l i c ” with
the expectation that some young researcher woul d carry out
, 2
the task.
The Analys is
F ro m the foregoing discussion it becomes clear that
T a r d e 's L 'Opi ni on et la Foule is not a work of pu rely specu
lative sociology. Though his formulations are supported by
^Robert E. Park, "The Natural Hi st o r y of the Ne w s

paper," Ameri ca n Journal of S o c i o l o g y , X X I X (November, 1923) ,
273-89,
2
" ... il construit, en quelque sorte par provision,
la theorie de 1'opinion et du public ... ." Stoetzel,
Esquisse d 'une Theorie des o p i n i o n s , p. 12.
18 1-5
reference to historical rather than to what we now term
"empirical evidence," nowhere does he pretend that they
are final. Indeed he considers them rather as tentative
hypotheses„
In response to his wish that a young researcher
would undertake the task of carrying out empirical research
on the phenomena that he had dealt with in his work, we
might be predisposed to pick these hypotheses and design a
research project in order to test them. However, we must
realize that more than sixty-five years have passed since
the time when he expressed this wish, and that in this per
iod of time soci olo gy and public opinion research in particu
lar grew increasingly into an empirical science. Therefore,
we are bound to discover that some of T a r d e 1s genera li za
tions have already been tested either by design or by coin
cidence .
Thus, it seems more expedient to try to determine
first how much of this kind of work has bee n done. To this
effect we designed our study with this purpose in mind: To
bring Tarde's theory into focus by examining it from the per
spective of current developments.
To achieve this purpose we need to carry out parallel
operations, that is, the analysis of Tarde's theory and the
survey of the field of public opinion research.
16
Our task is first to consider both the theoretical
and the historical context of T a r d e ’s work.. Indeed, we must
take into account the fact that it constitutes both the
author's attempt to apply his broader theory to a certain
category of social phenomena and the particular ex pression
of sociological interests and concerns characteristic of
the period in which it was developed.
Then, through the lens provided by the findings of
empirical research in the field cf public opinion we will
look at the work i t s e l f . However, to make it observable we
will have to analyze and re-organize it so that its concepts
can be clarified and the ideas reformulated into p r o p o s i
tions stated in currently used terms and capable of being
empirically tested.
Given the character of Tarde's work, such a t r a n s f o r
ma tion involves the risk that interesting ideas and germinal
suggestions will be ov erlooked or omitted.. For this reason,
it has been thought ne cessary to present with this stud y a
full English translation of the original French t ext.

„ 2
Since no work of Tarde's has been translated after 191u,
V, E C. Hughes' observation, s u p r a , p. 3.
^Gabriel Tarde, Penal P h i l o s o p h y , translated b y

R. Howell from La Philosophie p e nale (1890) with an I n t r o
duction b y Robert H. Gault (Boston:1 Little Brown k Co.,
1912).
110 17
the present translation also constitutes an attempt to trans
pose his writings into the current sociological terminology.^
The Asses sme nt
The significance of T a r d e 's theory could be assessed
in several ways and with various criteria. However, what
ever the criteria used, Bergson's suggestion can always be
taken. In T a r d e 's writings , some of the ideas are
tossed out; admire them for their or ig inality and pass over
them. . . . Other ideas are well supported, substantial,

2
and profound; Only then discuss their truth or error ........"
What he actually proposed is a double checking; First to dis
tinguish the significant ideas from what may just be stylis
tic and literary fancy; then check the validity of the former.
Through this process we will be able to sort out the
propositions that constitute viable contribution to the field
of public opinion which, in the words of P. F. Lazarsfeld,
"is a field of research that has become an empirical social
3
s c i e n c e ."
"^Though the volume L 'Opi nion et la Foule consists of

three essays, we translated only the two, "Le Public et la
Foule" and "L'Opinion et la Conversation" in which the
author developed his theory of public opinion.
2 /
" ... Quelques unes de ses idees sont jetees; admirez
1' imprevu ... et passez, ... D ’autres idees sont a p p u y e e s ,
solides, et profondes-. la seulement discutez la verite ou
l'erreur. ... " Bergson, l o c . c i t .
3
Lazarsfeld, _ojo„ c i t . , p. 40.
Ill 18
In developing his theory of public opinion, Tarde
widen ed the area of his observations to touch on almost all
the ph en ome na of collective behavior. Both his conception
of socio log y and his style of thinking led him to do so.
Indeed, he viewed sociology as the study of social processes.
At times he con ceived these processes in terms of an analogy
with waves and undulations, radiating from stronger or weaker
centers. He liked to pursue them in their course, to study
their refractions and transformations. Several of his formu
lations that may appear as mere d i g r e s s i o n s , have actually
interesting implications not only for the field of collec
tive behavior, but also for that of social and cultural
change, and in general for social interaction theory, and
they should not be ignored altogether.
With this study we hope to demonstrate that Tarde's
work should take its rightful place in the sociological
tradition not just for its specific contributions to the dis
cipline but pr im ar il y because, due to the versatile and
dynamic character of T a r d e 1s thought, it can be a source of
inspiration and guidance to successive generations of young
researchers.
Ill
CHA PT ER III
GABRIEL T A R D E : THE "FORG OT TEN SOCIOLOGIST?"
In order to describe the historical and theoretical
context of Tarde's work, we begin with an attempt to see h im
through the eyes of his contemporaries. Thus, we will be
able to trace some of the influences he was subject to as
well as the impact he had on others. Instead of presenting
a conventional biography, we will try to view Tarde's w or k
and pers ona lit y in retrospect; in this way, we will relate
traits and trends, as they appeared in his mature years, to
factors and events in his background.
_G. Tarde Seen through the Eyes

of his Contemporaries
A survey of writings, articles, or books on Tarde pub
lished in France and abroad makes it clear that Tarde has
been claimed by a number of disciplines besides sociology,
and in particular by philosophy, psychology, economics,
political science, and criminology."*’ These are very
"*"L. Dauriac, "La Philosophie de G. Tarde," L'Annee

P h i l o s o p h i q u e , XVI (1906), 149-69; N. Vaschide, "La Psycho-
logie de M. Tarde," Archives d 'Ant hr opo log ie C r i m i n e l l e ,
X IX (1904), 661-74; E. Mahaim, "L'Economie politique de
legitimate claims since Tarde's work was indeed related in
varying degrees to each of these fields and made significant
contributions to them.
At the time L 'Opinion et la Foule was published, the
author's titles were Professor at the College de France and
member of L'Institut. Both titles had been only very recently
acquired, actually in the previous year, 1900. At the C o l
lege de France, the chair of modern philosophy became vacant
with the death of Professor Nourrisson in 1899. Theodule
Ribot and Louis Liard, both professors at the College, encour
aged Tarde to submit a request to the Fa c u l ty to change the
chair of modern philosophy into a chair of sociology. The
Facult y he sitated and finally refused the request. However,
they nominated Tarde for the chair in modern philosophy and
appointed h im to it in January, 1 9 0 0 In the same year,
the section of philosophy of the Acad em ie des Sciences
morales et politiques had to replace three of its members.
On Dec ember 15, the Academie elected Tarde "on the first
ballot," as he proudly wrote to his colleague and friend
M. Tarde," Revue d 'Economie P o l i t i q u e , XXVII (1903), 25-26;

G. Richard, "La Psychologie Economique de M. Tarde," Revue
P h i l o s o p h i q u e , LIII (1902), 640-48 ; H. E. Barnes, "The
Ph ilosophy of the State in the Writings of Gabriel T a r d e , "
Philosophical R e v i e w , XXVIII (1919), 248-79; Andre Geisert,
Tarde et la C r i m i n a i i t e, Paris, 1935. (A Thesis.)
■'‘Bergson, op., c i t . , p. 23.
Dr. Lacassagne. Thus, Tarde was reaching simultaneously
the very top of the hierarchy of scholars in France, Indeed,
the College de France, which was founded in 1530 to function
independently and outside the University, has been a center
of free and progressive scholarship and scientific research
and inquiry. Its courses are open a n d do not involve degree
requirements and examinations,. Relieved from all these
obligations, the faculty can devote themselves to research
and conduct their classes in the form of seminars. New
chairs'*are created and old ones are changed to'meet and
promote the advancement of science. This distinction between
the College and the Universities in France, wh ich are charged
with the obligation of transmitting and perpetuating the
achievements of civilization, means that the appointments
to the former imply the recognition of the scholar's ability
for original work, and carry, accordingly, more prestige.
So, despite the refusal of the Faculty to change the vacant
chair into a chair of sociology, thereby giving formal recog
nition to sociology, Tarde's appointment to it was made with
the understanding that the chair wo ul d serve for study and
research in the new field.
On the other hand, his election to m e mb er sh ip in
"'"A. Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde 1843-1904," Archives

d 'Anthro po lo gi e C r i m i n e l l e , XIX (1904), 524.
with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
L'Institut, a group name for the five A c a d e m i e s , among which
is the celebrated Academ ie Franâise, meant that he had
been invited to be come one of the "immortals."'*'
T a r d e ’s double triumph is all the more re markable for
he was indeed a "provincial" w h o had arrived in Paris just
six years before, and had not even come from the academic
circles in the provinces, but from a career as a magistrate.
What was it then that opened to him the academic bastions of
Paris? We can say that it was a combination of factors and
events that led to what appears to have been his spontaneous
acceptance.
Tarde arrived in Paris in 1894 to occupy the post of
Director of Criminal Statistics at the Minist ry of Justice.
He had been appointed to the post by the Minister, A nt on in
Dubost.. He had been brought to the attention of Dubost
through his writings and the esteem that many of the well
known legal theorists, in France and abroad, had for him..
In the field of law, Tarde had become well known through his
two major works, Jâ C riminalite Comparee (1886) and La
Philosophie penale (1890), Actually, both of these works
"''L’Institut is constituted by: Academie Francaise;

Academie des Inscriptions et B e l l e s - L e t t e r s ; A ca de mi e des
Beaux Arts; Academie des Sciences Politiques et Morales;
Academie des Sciences.
23
:i5
were collections of essays that had appeared in various
reviews and in particular in the Revue P h i l o s o p h iq ue , to
whi ch Tarde had started contributing articles in 1880,, and
in the Archives d 'An thropologie C r i m i n e l l e , de C r i m i n o l o g i e ,
et Psychologie Normalle et p a t h o l o g i q u e . The latter was
founded b y Dr. Lacassagne in 1886, and Tarde became its
co- editor in charge of the section of sociology in 1893,
Several of these articles were writt en in an effort
to debate the theoretical positions of what was known as
the Ita li an School of criminology, represented mainly by
Lombroso, Garofalo and Ferri. In his articles, Tarde
rejected their positions which stressed the vital and b i o
logical factors in crime and called attention to the social
causes. These publications brought h i m international atten
tion, since he was qu estioning the premises of a school of
thought that had had a very strong impact on the intellec
tual circles at that time., So, at the moment of arriving in
Paris Tarde was a "provincial" with an international reputa
tion. He was well know n not only in Ital y but also in
Russia, Poland, the S candinavian countries, where his writ-
2
ings had been reviewed and translated.
Â list of Tarde's contribution to this review is

included in the Index of the first sixteen volumes, 1886-
1901, Archives d 'Anth ropo lo gi e Criminelle . . ,, XVI (1901)688.
Daniel Essertier, Psychologie et Sociologie (Paris:

Alcan, 1927), p a s s i m .
24
116
Moreover, he had already pa rti cip ate d in the inter
nati onal congresses of Criminal A n t h r o p o l o g y and presented
reports w h i c h contributed to his international prominence.
In the Con gre ss held in Paris in 1889 he presented a report
on "Moral Responsibility" and in Brussels in 1892 he spoke
about "The Crimes of the Crowds."^ As the Director of
Cr iminal Statistics for the M i ni st ry of Justice, he edited
the annual reports on the state of cri mi nal it y in France
and w ro te the prefaces for twelve volumes of these reports,
2
which we re considered a sort of "moral account of France."
Also, as a representative of the Office of Statistics he
pa rt ic ip at ed in the Congresses of Statisticians that were
held in St, Petersburg and Copenhagen.
W h i l e his international fame as a theoretical crimin
ologist was becoming well establis hed at the time he moved
to Paris, some of his writings on questions of sociology
and ph ilo sop hy were also attracting the attention of the
circles of scholars in Paris. Indeed, if his articles that
appeared in the A r c h i v e s , es pec ial ly until 1893, were pri
m a ri ly dealing with criminology or social pathology, those
that wer e contributed to the Re vue P h i l o s o p h i q u e , the Revue
‘'"Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde: 1843-1904," p. 525.
2Ibid.
., p. 523.
2 5-
d 1Economie P o l i t i q u e , the Revue Politique et Litteraire
(Revue B l e u e ) , the Revue S c i e n t i fi qu e, the Revue des D eux
M o n d e s , the Revue Internationale de Sociologie were on s u b
jects related to the fields of sociology and philosophy.
Actually, he had begun writing on philosophical questions
quite early. It is rep orted by A. Espinas that as early
as .1875 he had sent the manuscript of a report, that he had
prepared for a congress of the Institut des Provinces under
the title "La repetition et 1'evolution des p h e n o m e n e s ,
essai critique et theorique," to a publisher in Paris. How
ever, a certain shyness and timidity to present himself as
a philosopher made him wit hd ra w the manuscript with the p r e
text that he could not accept the conditions of the publisher
His first article to appear in the Revue Phi lo so p h l q u e , "La
. . . , 2
croyance et le desir; possibilite de leur mesare," m 1880,
was moreover not criminological, though many of these that
followed were.
3
Les Lois de 1 1 i m i t a t i o n , published m i890, marks the
A. Espinas, "Notice sur la vie et les oeuvres de M

Gabriel de Tarde," Seances et Travaux de 1 1Ac ad e m i e des
S c iences morales et p o l i t i q u e s , LXXIII (1910), 3 2 2
2
Gabriel Tarde, "La croyance et le desir; possibilit e
de leur mesure," Revue P h i l o so ph iq ue , X (1880), 150-63,
264-70
3 '
Gabriel Tarde, Les Lois de 1 ' imitation, etude
sociologique (Paris; F. Alcan, 1890).
26
118
beginning of his more systematic sociological studies. This
was the work that for all time would associate Tarde's soci
ology w i t h the concept of imitation. Just as in criminology
where he had come out against the very fashionable theory
of ^he Italian school, this time he made Spencerian soc iology
his target at a moment "when the infatuation of sociologists
for the Spencerian conception . . , was at its height . . .
and the metaphor of the 'social organism' was the mot to of
the day."'*' Tarde's work was internationally acclaimed:

2
Wil l i a m James called it "a work of genius." The Laws of
Imitation established Tarde's position as a sociologist in
a definitive way. W h e n the International Institute of Soci
ology was founded in 1893, he was chosen to represent France
3 .
in the office of vice-president. He remained very active
in this organization and frequently assumed the direction of
debates and discussions at ma ny of the meetings and annual

;4
international congresses of sociology that were organized
by the Institute. His activity in international sociological
circles and the recognition he received internationally went
on increasing with each subsequent congress. "Gabriel Tarde,
. Tosti, l o c . ci t .
2
Quoted by G. Tosti, Ibid.
3
Bergson, _op. c i t . , p. 22.
the French sociologist, is rapidly gaining in popularity,
both in his country and abroad , „ . he is now regarded as
the most prominent leader of the French sociological school
. . . ^ wro te Tosti in 1897.
The proceedings of the Fifth Congress held at the
2
Sorbonne in Paris, in July, 1903, under the chairmanship of
Lester F. Ward, then the President of the Institute, give
ample evidence of the esteem in w h i c h Tarde was held by his
peers and his acceptance as a major figure in sociology.
It was also in 1903 that his Lois de 1'imitation was
published in the United States in an English translation by
Elsie C. Parsons and with an introduction b y F. H. Giddings.
The wide reception given his Lois de 1'imitation con
firmed so to speak the legitimacy of Tarde's sociological
pursuits, and from then on, we notice an acceleration in
his sociological publications. In the period between 1890
and 1894 and before he came to Paris, Tarde contributed an
increasing number of articles to the journals he was already
associated with, and regularly to the then newly founded
Revue Intern ati ona le de Sociologie (18 92) .. A look at their
titles shows that his interests centered on questions and
1 Tosti, loc. cit.
2
Re ne Worms (ed.) , Annales de _1'Ins titut Interna
tional de S o c i o l o g i e , Vol. X (1904) ,
28
E I1 0
phenomena that became the core of his theory of social logic.
After 1894, the pace of pu bl ic at io n quickened. In
just one year, we observe the pu b l i c a t i o n of three books:
Essais et Melanges soc io lo gi qu es , Les Transformations du
d r o i t , and La Logique s o c i a l e . Of these, the first was, as
the title indicates, a collection of articles and essays
most of w hi ch had appeared in the reviews me nt ion ed above.
Some of his other books were similarly collections of previ
ously published articles or material presented in his lec
tures, selected and arranged on the basis of a central socio
logical concern. These include Etudes de Psychologie sociale
(1898), L 'Opinio n et la Foule (1901), La Psychologie econom-
jque (1902) . In 1898, following the publicat ion of L 'Opposi
tion U n i v er sel le (1897), appeared the small volume Les Lois
s o c i a l e s , in wh ic h Tarde presented a synthesis of the dia
lectic "trilogy" of the theories of "imitation," of "social
logic," and of "opposition." This wo r k was almost immedi
ately translated and published in the Uni te d States as
Social Laws (1899), with a Preface by James M. Baldwin, in
wh ic h the author tried to present to the Am er ic an public the
essence of Tarde's theory.
Les Transformations du pouvoir published in 1899
together w i t h the Transformations du d r o i t , L 'Opinion et la
F o u l e , and La Psychologie economique are all instances of
29
Tarde's attempt to apply the principles of his general theory
to particular social phenomena, and by doing so to explore
and extend the frontiers of sociology. In this last respect,
however, it is in partic ul ar articles in reviews and journals,
wh i c h he did not have the time to collect into book form,
that we find many of his original ideas and findings,^
Tarde's death in 1904 terminated his brief sociological
career. M a n y of his writings remained dispersed in various

2
publications, others were incomplete, and much of his
thought is recorded in notes, "boxes full of notes, filed
under various headings, 'small sheets of paper tied with
3
pieces of string' . . . ."
Tarde's meteoric appearance in sociology was the o u t
come of a long preparation. He himself refers to it in
these words r,
, , . Actually, my principal ideas were formed long

before their publication. One of my old colleagues at
Ruffec remembers well that I had expounded to him
Ê.g., G. Tarde, "L 'Inter-psychologie infantile,"

A rchives d 'An th rop olo gi e C r i m i n e l l e , X X I V (1909), 161-72
2
Gabriel Tarde, " L 1accident et le rationnel dans
l'histoire d'apres Cournot," Revue de Metap hy si qu e et de
M o r a l e , XII (1905), 319-47.
3
" ... il laisse des caisses entieres de notes,
classees sous des rubriques 'petites feuilles volantes
empaquetees avec ficelles! ... " This was reported b y
Tarde's son Alfred to Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde: 1843-
1904," p. 522.
30
112
around 1874 or 187 5, what he has since read in a more

developed form in my works . . . . Between the ages of
twenty-five and thirty my whole sy stem of ideas took
shape . , „ 1
Because of these circumstances, but also because of
Tarde's own intellectual outlook, his works appear "sketchy"'
and elusive to efforts to characterize and classify the
ideas pr esented in them, though these ideas are recognized
as germinal and suggestive, Bergson, the philosopher of
"creative evolution" was delighted with Tarde's style which
he described as "living fantasy" reflecting Tarde's notion
that,
. . . all the harmonies in the world exist only for the

sudden blossoming of unique, accidental, or fleeting
individualities: Similarly, all the harmony of his work
is only . , . for the blossoming of his luminous ideas
that sudden ly emerge in the field of his thinking, shine
and then flee . ^
" . „ . De fait, mes idees principales se sont formees

bien longtemps avant leur publication. Un de mes anciens
collegues, de Ruffec, se souvient tres bien que je lui ai
souvent expose des 1874 ou 1875 ce qu'il a lu depuis plus
develope dans mes outrages. ... Entre mes vingt-cinq ans
et trente ans, m o n systeme d 'idees a pris corps. ... "
G. Tarde, "Lettre a M. Duprat" quoted b y Lacassagne,
"Gabriel Tarde: 1843-1904," p. 676; and in Georges Moreau,
"Necrologie de Gabriel Tarde," Revue Un i v e r s e l l e , No., 112
(June 15, 1904), 333.
2
Dauriac, _op. ci t . , p. 168.
. .. toutes les harmonies du monde n'existent que

pour 1 'eclos ion soudaine d 'individualities uniques, acciden-
telles, ou fugitives: de meme, toute l'harmonie de son
oeuvre n'ost elie pas faite pour l'eclosion de ces idees
dans le champ de sa pensee, qui brille nt et s'enfuient?"
Bergson, _op, c i t . , p. 35.
31
Alexis Bertrand observed that it is perhaps from
their delightful originality that Tarde's works, so d i f f e r
ent and so numerous, derive their unity."*"
It is this independence which characterizes Tarde's
sociology, and as a result of w hi ch he was able to develop
his ideas freely, precisely because at that time he had no
ties to "institutionalized" sociolpgy. He was thus free to
explore, to extend, to digress, even to trespass in other
domains, wh ich m ay he l p to explain w h y his work has not
always been fully understood.
From the time that Tarde came to Paris to serve at
the Mi nis try of Justice, he also became involved and very
active in several associations. W e have already mentioned
his connection wi th the Institut International de Sociologie.
We should add here that he was unanimously elected the first
president of the Societe Sociologique de Paris when it was
founded in 1895, and that he continued holding the office
for the next three years, until 1898. He was similarly
active in the Societe de Philosophie. Moreover, he had been
requested at this time to give courses and to lecture in the
newly founded schools that provided university courses open
"*"Alexis Bertrand, "Un essai de cosmologie sociale:

Les theses mon adologiques de Gabriel Tarde," Archives d ’
Anthropologie C r i m i n e l l e , X I X (1904), 624.
3.2
[114
to the public. He thus started teaching at the Ecole des
Sciences politiques, at the College libre des sciences
sociales, founded in 1894, at the Ecole des hautes etudes
sociales, at the Ecole Russe des hautes etudes sociales,
founded in 1901 by well- kn own Russian sociologists and
scholars living in Paris. He continued giving courses
there even after his appointment at the College de France.
It is also reported that a short time before he died he
had accepted an invitation to lecture at the Univer sit y of
Brussels, whic h had just opened,^
He was delighted with teaching and w it h the experi
ence of his impact on a public of students. There is gen
eral agreement in reporting that he was an interesting and
charming lecturer and teacher; . his students were
truly charmed, so much so that it was entirely unnecessary

2
for him to exercise any authority . . . ,
At the Ecole des Sciences politiques, where he was
requested to give a course of his own choice every other
year, he lectured on "politics from the sociological point
of view," "criminality," and "economic psychology." At the
\ e n e Worms, "La philosophie sociale de G. T a r d e , ”

Revue P h i l o s o ph i q ue , LX (1905), 125.
2
Bergson, _op, c i t , , p. 26,
College de France, he gave the courses: "Intermental p s ych ol
ogy"; "Transformations of morality"; "Economic psychology";
"The p h i l o s o ph y of Cournot"; "Interpsychology." The course
he was planning to give in 1904-1905 was on "Conversation."
He had planne d to present, in a more developed and expanded
form, what he had already discussed in the volume L 'Opinion
et JLa F o u l e „ But death surprised h i m before he was able to
fulfill the task. In preparing for it he had been gathering
data from historical and bio gr ap hi ca l "Souvenirs" and
Memoires" on the ritual, manners, and standards of mundane
and "society" life in the past cultures.^
Tarde's teaching and lecturing appear to represent
an intermediate stage in the develop me nt of his work. In
preparing his lectures he used and organized a large part
of ideas and material that he had thought out and gathered
on his own while he was a ma gis tra te in the provinces., In
turn, he would transform the lecture notes into articles or
books, for example, "intermental Psychology" and Economic

2
Psychology. In a similar way, he was going to write a book
on the theories of A. A.. Cournot, but he had only time to
^"Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde: 1843-1904," p. 525; see

also, Bergson, _op. c i t . , p. 27.
2
Gabriel Tarde, "La Psychologie int ermentale," Revue
Inte rna tio nal e de S o c i o l o g i e , IX (1901) , 1-13; Gabriel
Tarde, La Psychologie economigue (Paris: F. Alcan, 1902).
34.
I n 16
write an a r t i c l e d which was pub li sh ed posthumously, in an
issue of the Revue de Met aphysique et de Morale that was
ded ica te d to the memory of Cournot.
In retrospect, T a r d e ’s writings seem in a sense to
be the distilled product of his thought and experience, as
he we nt through the successive phases or "transformations"
in his life, always observing, thinking, and recording. His
son, Alfred, said, indeed, ". , , as he wrote everything

2
that he thought, he has written a great deal . . , As
Tarde evolved from provincial m a gi st ra te to internationally
known criminologist and social theorist, to Parisian bu r e a u
crat, to professor and highly esteemed lecturer and "society"
figure, he woul d study the phenomena that interested him,
from each of the newly developed perspectives, testing and
refining his insights all the time. The outcome of this
elaborate process, his written or oral presentations, was
marked both by spontaneity and great depth. Thus, if one
is not discouraged by the lack of visible organization or
di sa ppointed by the fact that Tarde's generalizations are
Tarde, "L'accident et le rationel dans l'histoire

d'apres Cournot," l o c . c i t .
2
" ... comme il a ecrit tout ce q u 1il a pense, il a
beauco up ecrit. ... " Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde: 1843-
1904," p. 522.
35
1117
not clearly supported b y empirical evidence, he is bound to
experience in reading Tarde's works the excitement that the
discovery and recognition of original and relevant ideas
usually cause.
However, Tarde's time in the limelight was very brief.
In the tributes paid to him at his death, we observe the
sharing of the feeling that the work he left was not the
full measure of what he might have achieved.,
They vague iy felt that despite the wide scope of his

work, Tarde died without giving his full measure, and
with his premature death, he left us, taking away with
him immense unrevealed intellectual treasures „
The ten years that the "provincial magistrate" spent
in Paris w e r e active years: lecturing and then teaching;
participating in the meetings, debates and symposia, and
congresses of various societies; preparing reports and
papers for pres ent ati on at international congresses; writing,
editing, reviewing, etc. He was active in the way that was
typical of scholars at that time, but also very much in the
way typical of at least some top-rank sociologists and
scientists today, especially with regard to travelling and
attending international meetings.
" . Ils sentaient confusement q u 'en depit de

l'ampleur et de la richesse de son oeuvre, Tarde est mort
sans donner toute la mesure, et a emporte, par sa fin
prematuree, d'immenses tresors intellectuels caches. .... '
Bertrand, l o c . c i t .
36
I I 18
In Paris, Tarde became active in one more way, not
very typical of contemporary scholars. He gladly accepted
social invitations, and he received invitations from every
where. He enjoyed social life immensely and he was renowned
for his charm and popul ar it y in the salons of the capital.
His was a kind of instant success among the highest placed
circles, intellectual and scientific, social and political--
which of course greatly overlapped one another--in the Paris
of the turn of the century, a center of activity not only of
France but in many ways of the entire world.
. . . Tarde leaped so to speak to the very top. He did

not have to pass through the regulatory stages. The
capital did not hesitate and quic kly acknowledged the
great talent of the man that it hastened to consecrate
as an outstanding scholar . . „ .^
The fact is that Tarde had been able to achieve an
international reputation even— 'though he was just a "provin
cial magistrate."
The "Provincial Mag is tr at e"
What exactly was the background of this "provincial
magistrate" who, though he moved with the greatest ease
among the elite circles of the capital, remained by choice
... Tarde a pour ainsi dire bondi a la plus haute

situation. II n'a pas fait '1‘etape.' La capitale n'a pas
hesite et a vite reconnu le grand talent de 1 'homme qu'elle
s'est vite empressee de consacrer savant illustre."
Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde: 1843-1904," p. 524.
37
119
a "provincial" and "rooted" in the native land? The answer,
in Tarde's own words, is to be found in a letter that he
wrote to G. L. Duprat on Januar y 29, 1904, and that was pub
lished in the Revue Univer se ll e :
. . . My life can be rapidly told: bo r n at Sarlat, in

1843 . . . . . I served as assistant state prosecutor at
Ruffec, from 1873 to 1875, then as judge of the criminal
court at Sarlat, until the moment w h e n Mr. Antonin
Dubost, then Minister of Justice, w h o m I did not know,
but w h o had heard about me, sp ont an eo us ly offered to
appoint me chief of the Bureau of Criminal Statistics
at his Ministry, this was in January, 1894. I
acc epted and 1 did well to accept. Six years later,
in 1900, I was appointed professor at the College de
France, and in December of the same year I entered the
Institut. . . . You m a y be wo n d e r i n g about my p r o l o n g e d
im mo bi li ty in the judicial career, it is that I entered
it w i th ou t any real inclination for it, almost b y force.
. . „ Besides, I was retained at Sarlat (until the death
of m y mother, in 1891) by family reasons, but also bya
strong attachment to the native land . . . . There is
close to Sarlat a shack in a rock facing a delightful
view, w h e r e I have tasted the purest delight of troglo-
dytic life. My best ideas were born there. I owe much
to m y mot he r who, w i dow ed at the age of twenty-eight,
devot ed h e rs el f to me, her only son, and I did not like
to ever be separated from her. , . . From the age of
sixteen I had resolved to attempt other roads, to do
the tour of sciences. , , „ However, after I graduated
from the Jesuit college at S a r l a t — I was already very
mu c h of a free-thinker— I was interrupted in the execu
t i o n of this great project b y an eye disease that has
had the most profound--fatal? b e n e f i c i a l ? — influence on
my intellectual development.. Fr o m the age of nineteen
to twenty-five I read very little and thought _a l o t .
My sight just allowed me to pursue m y studies in law.
De s p i t e this serious obstacle, w hi ch made my youth
rath er sad, and almost dispirited, I picked up as well
as I could the execution of m y plan of adolescence.
In fact, m y principal ideas we r e formed a long time
b e f o r e their publication. . . . I t was between the ages
of twenty-five and thirty that my system of ideas took
shape. . . . In 1882, I came in contact with the Italian
Reproduced with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission
38
:i2 0
criminalists. What else will I tell you? You know the

list of my works. I have on purpo se omitted from this
list the publication of my Contes et Poemes (Calmann-
Levy, 1879) because wh e n this co lle cti on of some of the
poems w r i t t e n in my youth was published, I did not like
the selection that I had made. . . . I had when I was
young very high poetical aspirations., I believe that
this aptitude was not just an illusion
" ... Ma vie est vite racontee: ne a Sarlat, en

1843 ... . J'ai ete substitut de procu reu r de la Republique
de Ruffec, de 1873 a 1875, puis juge d 'instruction a Sarlat,
ma ville natale, d 'ou je n'ai jamais demande a sortir,
jusqu'au mome nt ou M. Antonin Dubost, alors ministre de la
justice, que je ne connaissait pas, mais qui avait entendu
parler de moi, m'offrit spontanement de me nommer chef de
bureau de la statistique judiciaire ^ son ministere. Cela
se passait en janvier 1894. J'accep tai et je fis bien. Six
ans a p r e s , en 1900, j'etais nomine professeur de philosophie
moderne au C ol le ge de France, et en decembre de la meme annee
j'entrais a 1 1 11 n s t i t u t ... Vous vous etonnerez peut etre
de mon immobilite prolongee dans la carriere judiciaire:
e'est que j'y etais entre sans gout, presgue par force. ...
J'etais d'ailleurs retenu a Sarlat (jusqu'a la mort de ma
mere, en 1891) pour des raisons de famille et aussi par un
fort attachement au sol natal ... , Il ya pres de Sarlat une
masure dans un rocher, en face d 1une vue delicieuse, ou
j'ai goute les plus pures joies de la vie t r o g l o d y t i q u e .
Mesmeilleures idees sont nees la. Je dois bea ucoup a ma
mere qui, devenu e veuve a vingt-huit ans, s'est devouee a
moi, son fils unique, et je n'ai jamais voulu me sepaier
d'elle, m'&me en me mariant, Des 1 1age de seize ans j'avais
resolu de tenter d'autres voies, de faire le periple des
sciences. ... Mais sorti a six-sept ans du college des
Jesuites de Sarlat, tres libre-perseur deja, j'ai ete vite
interrompu dans 1 'execut ion de ce grand pro jet par une maladie
d'yeux qui a exerce la plus pro fonde influence— fatale?
b ie nf ai san te? -~s ur mon developpement i n t e l l e c t u e l . De dix-
neuf a vi ngt -ci nq ans, j'ai du tres peu lire, beaucoup
r e f l e c h i r . Mes forces visuelles me suffisaient tout juste
a faire m on droit. Malgre ce grave d’cueil de ma jeunesse,
qui en a ete tres attristee et presqu e decouragee, j'ai
repris ensuite comme j'ai pu 1 'execution de mon plan d'adol
escent. De fait, mes idees principalles se sont formees
bien long temps avant leur publication. .., Entre mes
39
The highlights and the turning points in Tarde's
b ack gro und are all here: The family attachments, the crises
of adolescence, sparked by the experience wi th Jesuit in str uc
tion, the dreams that had to be tempered with wise and p r a g
matic decisions, the compensations, the poetic ventures.
Wh at Tarde omitted, by simple modesty, was to refer
to the high esteem that he was held both in his community
at Sarlat and b y his professional colleagues and those in
the adm inistrative circles that kn e w h i m as the magistrate.
Though, as he said in the letter, he had not entered his
career b y inclination and had never developed very high
aspirations about it, he carried out his duties meticulously,
so that wi t h a clear conscience he could devote his leisure
time to his studies and the pursuit of his intellectual inter
ests. As he advanced in his career, however, the gap that he
had de li ber ate ly created between his professional duties and
vingt-cinq ans et trente ans mon systeme d'idees a pris

corps. ... En 1882, je suis entre en contact avec les crim-
inalistes italiens. Que vous dirai-je encore? La liste de
mes ouvrages vous la connaissez. J'ai volontairement omis
de joindre a cette liste la publicat ion de mes Contes et
Poemes (Calmann-Levy, 1879), parce que, une fois paru ce
recueil de quelques unes de poesies de ma jeunesse, j'ai
ete mecon ten t du choix que j 'avais fait. ... J'avais eu
tres jeune de tres hautes ambitions poetiques ... . Je
crois que cette aptitude n'etait pas illusoire. ... "
Quote d b y Georges Moreau, "Necrologie de Gabriel Tarde,"
Revue U n i v e r s e l l e , No. 112 (June 15, 1904), 333.
40
his intellectual endeavors was bridged b y the fact that the
former served as a field of observation for the latter.
T a r d e 's Intellectual F o r m a t i o n : "The

Tour of the S c i e n c e s " ; The Disciple
of C o u r n o t , His Own Master
In T a r d e ’s intellectual formation, the central element
was his independent tem pe ra me nt . 1 He disliked instantly the
conditions of life under which instruction was given at the
Jesuit college. He would later describe the school as "a
prison for the innocent, in which in the name of education
2
all the vices are cultivated." He was, nevertheless, a good
student wi th a high academic record, and Espinas attributed
to Tarde's Jesuit secondary education both his broad intel
lectual ba ckground and a certain degree of "scholastic"
inclination::
He accepts the intellectualism of the 'scholastic,'

that is the exclusion, from the theory of thought, of
all that is not the Intellect . . . the denial of any
role in the higher social relationship of instinct and
feeling . . . .
Ît is reflected in his poetry and in his diary;

Lacassagne reported about Tarde's son A l f r e d finding "in a
closet a dozen of boun d note-books that form his diary kept
between the ages of fifteen and eighteen whil e he was at
the College . . Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde: 1843-1904,"
p. 522.
2
Tarde, Etudes penales et s o c i a l e s , quoted in Bergson,
o p . c i t ,, p . 11.
accepte ... 1 'intellectualisme des sc ho l a s t i q u e s ,

^"11
c'est a dire 1 'exclusion hors de la theorie de la pensee, de
Biographical accounts also report Tarde's intention
to enter the Ecole Polytechnique, and his plan to add to his
Baccalaureat in the Humanities the one in the Sciences,
This woul d have been the way to set out on what he called
his "tour of the sciences," An eye trouble he suffered when
he was nineteen interrupted the formal execution of such
projects, but his interest in mathematics and the sciences
remained alive and was further reinforced when he discovered
the ideas of A. A. Cournot, whom he wou ld always refer to as
"my master C o u r n o t " 1' and considered as his intellectual
father.
Tarde's preoccupation with science led him to k ee p
informed about the latest developments in its various fields,
developments that were rapidly accumulating at his time. He
made constant references to concepts and theories of physics,
e.g., wave-theory, radiation, conservation, and transforma
tion of energy, to illustrate his points and to indicate
analogies, and he derived support from the progress of phys
ical sciences in his claim for measurement and quantification
tout ce qui n 1est pas l'Intellect . , la negation du role de

1 'instinct et du sentiment dans les rapports sociaux super-
leurs. ... ," Espinas, ."Notice sur la vie „ . . ," p. 315.
^Tarde used the expression "mon maitre Cournot" at

several instances, e.g., in "La richesse et ]e pouvoir"
(Notes et Discussions, Societe de Sociologie de Paris),
Revue Internationale de S o c 1 0 I o g i e , IX (1901), 664.
42.
in the study of social phenomena.
Thus, Tarde grew into a kind of self-made scholar,
free from the restraints and the constraints that his
involvement with the institutional framework of a university
as well as the intellectual currents fashionable at any one
moment wo uld have subjected him to:
. . . Tarde was in the pure sense of the term a 1 self-

taught' scholar; he was sensitive on l y to very distant
influences, Montaigne, Fenelon, 1 1 I m i t a t i o n , that are
never as strong as rhose coming from one's co n t e m p o ra r
ies; of these, I do not think that a single one had a
decisive effect on his mind; he did not like Co mte very
much, he criticized Darwin, and he di str ust ed Herbert
Spencer; he did not follow Renan at all and remained
insensitive to Taine. About the latter he explained at
some length that "Taine has taught me, he has taught
me a great deal, but he has not gui de d me; however I
read his work avidly, and it is a passa ge of his
Philosophes Franpais that introduced me to the thinker
who has really formed me. . . . Cournot, whose heavy
phrasing, like long and hard bones rich in marrow, is
full of profound and subtle insights" . .. . .^
" .... Tarde fut dans la force du terme un autodidacte;

il n'a guere ete sensible q u 'a de tres lointaines influences,
Montaigne, Fenelon, 1'I m i t a t i o n , lesquelles ne sont jamais
aussi imperieuses que celles des contemporains; de ceux-ci
;je ne crois pas q u 'un seul eur sur son esprit une action
decisive; il aimait peu Comte, critiquait Darwin, se defiait
d'Herbert Spencer, ne suivait guere Renan, et restait insen
sible a Taine; sur ce dernier, il s'est un peu longuement,
explique ... 'Taine m'a instruit, be au c o up instruit, mais
non dirige; je l'ai lu avec avidite, cependant, et je lui
dois de m'avo ir en un passage des Philosophes Franâis sig-
nale le penseur qui m'a forme vraiment ... Cournot ... ou
dans les os longs et durs de ses lourdes phrases j'ai trouve
tant de moelle. tant de meditations intenses et subtiles!'
. ," Henri Mazel, "A Propos de M. Gabriel Tarde," Mercure
de F r a n c e , LI (1904) , 100; 1 ' Imitation is the Imitation of
The case of Taine illustrates very much the w a y in
w h i c h Tarde became acquainted with the movements of ideas,
not only in Europe but also in the United States and in the
world, that is with an independent and critical spirit.
Indeed, he chose himse lf his intellectual leaders and his
opponents. He opened his own pa t h between the direc ti on s
that they f o l l o w e d . 1 Tarde remained his own master through
out his life, always feeling free to be original or to take
stands against the most dominant intellectual currents.
The "Individualist S o c i o l o g i s t ,"

an International Figure
In 1897, Tosti was writing that b y the originality
of his views, Tarde "was going to strike the fancy of soci-

2
ological dilettante . . . ." Tarde's impact, however, was
felt far beyond the circle of the "dilettante." Celestin
Bougie reported the very significant fact that Germany
Christ (Imitat io C h r i s t i ) , a Christian devotional book w r i t

ten between 1390 and 1440. Its authorship is a matter of
controversy; the book has been ascribed to the monk Thomas
a Kempis and others. Encyclopaedia Britannic a , 1967 edition,
s.v. "Imitation"; Les Philosophes fran c a is du X I X e s i e c l e ,
by Hippolyte A. Taine (Paris, 1857).
ln ... Il avait du en effet choisir ses chefs de file

et ses adversaires: . . II commencait a s'ouvrir un chemin
entre les directions suivies par les uns et par les autres.
... ," Espinas, _op. c i t ., p. 3 21.
2 .
Tosti, loc. cit.
herself, that usually ignored as long as she could French
scientific "novelties," hed paid attention to T a r d e 's ideas.
When, ten years before, Bo ugie was there he had seen Les
Lois de 1 :1mi tat ion in the hands of both professors and
students of the universities on the other side of the Rhine,,
. 2
D „ Gusti, the founder of sociology m Rumania, was
3
writing about T a r d e 's sociology. H. G „ Wells in England
wrote the Preface for the English translation of Tarde's
Fragment _d' Histoire fut u re , published posthumously, and in
it he commented on the ori ginality of the views of the

4
author.
In the United States, Tarde's sociology was received
with the greatest interest. What L. F. Ward wrote in his
"Letter of Condolence" to the Societe Sociologique de Paris
on T a r d e 1s death was quite true: "... none others' work
" ... L'Allemagne a prete attention aux idees de

Tarde; il y a dix ans deja, dans les universites d ’outre-
Phin, nous avons vu aux mains des professeurs et des etudi-
ants Les Lois de 1 1I m i t a t i o n . . , , ," Bougie, "Un Sociologue
Individualiste: Gabriel Tarde," p. 294.
2
Jiri Kolaja, "Sociology m Romania," The Americ an
S o c i o l o g i s t , III, No. 3 (August, 1968), 241.
^Demetrius Gusti, "Gabriel Tarde: eine Skizze zur

Wi ede rke hr seines Todestages," Jahrbuch fur G e s e t z g e b u n s .
V e r w a l t u n q , XX X (1906), 973-88,
4
Tarde, The Und erground M a n .
45
was better known among us. His own genius seemed in harmony
with American thought on all the great subjects that he had
1
so admirably discussed . . . In retrospect it m a y be
seen that more Americans than French sociologists linked
their wor k wit h Tarde's. Most typically, E. A. Ross wrote
in the Preface of his Social Psychology::
At the moment of launching this work, I pause to pay

heartfelt homage to the genius of Gabriel Tarde. So l i
citous as I have been to give hi m due credit in the
text, no we alth of excerpt and citation can reveal the
full measure of my indebtedness to that profound and
original thinker . . . .
Robert E. Park, who wou ld become an important figure in
A mer ic an sociology, shared T a r d e 1s interest in collective
behavior. He wrote his doctoral thesis on Mass e und Publikum

3
(The Crowd and the Public) and in it made frequent refer
ences to T a r d e 's ideas. Furthermore, in the book Introduc-
tJ--on 5-2 the Science of Soc iology that he prepared with
Ernest W. Burgess, Tarde is among the most frequently men-
4
tioned sociologists. Other America n sociologists to
^Lester F. Ward, "Letter of Condolence," R evue Inter

nation a l e de S o c i o l o q i e , XII (1904), 6 54.
2
E. A. Ross, Social Psychology (New York:: Macmillan,
1908), p. v i i i .
3
Robert E. Park, Masse und Publikum (Bern:: Buchdruck-
erei Lack and Grunau, 1904) .
4
Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess, Introduction
46
:ii2 8
recognize their theoretical kinship with Tarde were James M,
Baldwin and Charles H. Cooley, The first did so in his own
book. Social and Ethi cal In t e r p r eta t i o n s in M e n tal D e v e lopment,,
and in the Preface that he wrote for the volume of Social L a w s .
The observation has even been made that there is a fundamental

2
agreement betwe en Baldwin and ‘
Tarde,, C o o l e y referred to
Tarde's theories to stress views that he developed in his
Social O r g a n i z a t i o n ,^ Similarly, F, H. biddings wrote the
Int roduction for the L a w s of Imi tat io n , and in his book,
4
Pr inci pies of Sociology, he dealt ex te nsively with T a r d e !s
theories„
T a r d e ’s works were also reg ularly reviewed b y Amer ican,
to the Science o_f Sociology (Chicago U ni ver si ty of Chicago

Press, 1921); this observation, was made by Everett C. Hughes,
o p , c.i t ,, p . 5 54 ,
flames M. Baldwin, Social and Et h i c a l I n te rpretations

in M e n t a .1 D e v e l o pment . A Sjrudy jl_p- Social Psychology (New
York.: M ac mil la n Co,. 1897): "Preface" b y .lames Mark Baldwin
in Gabriel Tarde, So c i al Laws; An Offline of S o c i o logy, trans,
by Howard C. W arr en (New York; Ma cmillan Co., 1899) .
^Maurice R o c h e - A g u s s o l , Tarde e_t .1 !economie psycholo-

qi q u e (Paris; M„ Riviere, 1926), p. 21,
^Charles H. Cooley, Social O r q a n i z a t ion (New York-

Scribner's Sons, 1909).
4
Franklin H. G i d d m g s , "Introduction" of Tarde 's
Laws of I m i t a t i on, pp. ii.i-vii; also Frankli n H. Giddings,
Princ i ple s of Sociology (New York.- Ma cmillan Co... 1913) .
47.
sociologists in the various journals; e.g., the Social Laws
was reviewed first b y A l b i o n W. 'Small in the Ame ri ca n Journal
1 . 2
°f. Sociology and then b y Lester F. Ward m Science.
In 1906, M. M. Davis, Jr. wrote his doctoral d i s s e r
tation at Co lu m b i a Un iv e r s i t y wi t h the title Gabriel T a r d e ;
An Essay _in So ci ological T h e o r y , and three years later he
w o u l d incorporate most of the work in another volume,

3
Psychological Interpretations of S o c i e t y .
Thus, Tarde was acknowledged as a central figure in
sociology. His w o r k and his views served as a starting point,
as a guide, or even as a challenge for further clarification.
''While my system has swung wide of his, I am not sure I
should ever have w ro ug h t out a social ps yc h o l o g y but for the
initial stimulus . . . yielded b y his incomparable Lois d'

A
Imitation . . . ." said E. A. Ross.
Âlbion W. Small, "Review of G. Tarde's Social Laws,"

American Journal of S o c i o l o g y . IV (1898-99), 395-400.
9
Lester F. Ward, "Review of Social L a w s , " S c i e n c e ,
XT (1900), 260-63.
^Michael M. Davis, Jr., Gabriel Tarde;- A n E ssay in

Sociological T h e o r y, A Ph.D. dissertation (New York; C o l u m
bia University, 1906); Michael M. Davis, Jr., Psychological
Interpretations of Socie ty (New York; Longmans, Green, & Co.,
1909).
A
Ross, loc. cit.
Though strongly questioning and opposing some of
T a r d e 1s fundamental assumptions, Dur kh ei m recognized, in
an article that he wrote in 1915, that Tarde has an i m p o r
tant place in sociology; that if he fought Comtean sociology,
he nevertheless meant to do, and did indeed carry out a
sociologist's w o r k ,^
G a b r iel T a r d e - "A So cio l o g ist

A h e a d _of _hi_s Time
In tracing T a r d e 1s impact on sociology we find that
it cont inu ed to be a rather strong one until about 1930.
Then, Tarde gradually became "stereotyped as one who reduces

3
all to imitation" and as such, along wi t h other early
sociologists, he was thought to be only of historical
interest.
It has been repeatedly recognized that* Tarde was
ahead of his time. As early as 1917, John Dewey was observ
ing that the most fruitful of T a r d e ’s psychological
" , si Tarde combattit la sociologie comtiste,

il entendait cependant faire, et il fit, en effet, oeuvre
de sociologue, ," Emile Durkheim, "La So ci o l o g i e , ”
La S c i e n c e Frangaise (Vol. I: P a n s - M m i s t e r e de 1 ’lnstruc-
tion pub lique et des Beaux-Arts, 1915), p. 46,
2 s
The book of Charles Blondel, I nt rcduc t ion _a _la
psychologie c o ll ec tive (Paris'. A, Collin, 1928), appears to
be among the last to discuss T a r d e 1s theories,
^Hughes, _op, c .it . , p. 558.
49.
131
conceptions was ahead of his time and went almost, unnoted.^
Everett C„ Hughes also said that although "Tarde was ahead
of his time in defining the problems of industrial work and
fatigue, he was even more so on those latest concerns of
2
sociologists, consumption and the use of leisure . . , "
The latest statement in this respect was made by Terry N.
Clark who wrote that "Tarde's reputation suffered because
his work was out of harmony with the dominant intellectual
t emper of the time _ „ 0
The fact is that in the period between the two World
Wars, so c i o l o g y went through the dual phase of its conso li
dation into a scientific discipline, and "in stitutionaliza
tion," as more and more of the scholars who identified
themselves as sociologists engaged in empirical studies and
taught courses of sociology at the leading universities,
It also lost the international ch aracter it had in its
earlier stages, as a result of both "institutionalization"
and the new orientation towards empirical studies, Sociolo
gists doing research at their' universities were more
^"Dewey, "The Need for Social Psychology," p„ 267,
2
Hughes, _op . ci t , , p. 5 53,
3
Te r r y N, Clark, "Gabriel Tarde," I n t ernational
E n cy cl op ed ia of the S o c i a l Scien ces (New York: Macmillan
Free Press, 1963),XV( p. 509,
concerned to communicate with their colleagues m the other
schools of the country than with those overseas. Though
"nationalization" marks more strongly Am eri can sociology,
it was observable in Europe also, wher e the extensive pre-
World War I international activity ceased almost completely.
Thus, in retrospect, sociology appears to support
the arguments that Durkheim has developed in opposing Tarde's
conceptions, and in par ticular' his claim that sociology
could survive only if it became specialized and broken down
into different s c i e n c e s /
At the Conference organized b y the Societe de S o c i o l o
gie de Paris at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes soc.iales de
Paris, in December, 1903, Tarde took the position that the
pr eli minary work of specialization in the study of social
phenomena had already been largely achieved by the various
social sciences or disciplines. The task of sociology was
not speci al iz at ion but the organization and systematization
of the findings of these disciplines, so that general princi
pies might be drawn out which would lead the way toward
further and productive specialization- these are his words*.
Emile Durkheim, "La Sociologie et les Sciences

sociales" (Sociology and the Social S c i e n c e s ) , a series of
reports and discussions at the C on fer en ce of the Societe de
Sociologie de Paris, in December, 1903, Revue I nt er na t ionale
de S o c i o l o g i e , XII (1904), p, 83,
51
133
„ „ „ Mr. Durkhe im believes that scientific progress

requires the increasing division of social labor and
that the social sciences must be divided. But, there
are two sorts of division of labor; one precedes unifi
cation, the other follows convergence. In the case of
the former, scientific progress consists in tending
towards unification; and in that of the latter, progress
consists in an increasing differentiation ,
Wh at Tarde seems to stress in this statement is that
sociology, like every other science, should concern itself
alternatively with what we call today "macro-laws" and "micro
laws," He actual ly used the term "microscopie sociale" to
describe his conception of "intermental psychology," and had
added that it "must be to the social sciences what the study

2
of the cell is to the biological sciences,"
Tarde did indeed believe that sociology would be able
to discover its own "ultimate phenomenon," its own "law of
gravity." He thought that he had found it in imitation,
which was to the social phenomena what "undulation" is to
the physical, and "generation and reproduction" is to the
1,1 „ , „ M. Durkheim croit que le pi ogres scientifique

exige la division croissante du travail social et. que les
sciences sociales doivent se diviser, Mais il y a deux
sortes de division de travail.- 1 'une anterieure a 1 ' unifi
cation, 1 1autre posterieure a la c o n v e r g e n c e , Pour la p r e
miere, le progres consiste a tendre vers 1 :u n i f i c a t i o n ; et
pour la seconde le progres consiste dans une di ff e r e n t i a
tion toujours croissante. ," Gabriel Tarde, "La s o c i o l o
gie et les sciences sociales," R e vue Internationale de
S o c i o l o g i e , XII (1904) , 85.
2Ibid,
52
:i34
life phenomena.'*'
. „ . It is to this relatio n that sociology must attach

itself in the same way as astr ono my attaches itself to
the relatio n of two attracting and attracted masses; in
it we must find the h e y to the social mystery, the for
mu la for a few simple laws, universally, which can be
disenta ngl ed in the midst of the apparent chaos of huma n
life and history . , , „^
On the other hand, by applying the general theory to
the study of particular phenomena, for example, of political
authority, or economic exchange, or public opinion, not only
the theory itself would be tested but more laws would be
discovered.
Though the proceedings of the conferences indicate
that in the debate between Tarde and Durkhei m those who
sided w i t h Tarde were not always the minority, the fact
remains that, in time, the course sociology has taken is
more along Durkheim's line, Indeed, starting everything
from the beginning, sociologists “ fragmented" social reality
into tiny plots, and working sy ste mat ica lly .in each one of
them, they set out to collect data, apart from any t h e o r e t
ical considerations, save the assumptions implicit in the
Dur k h e i m i a n definition of social reality.
^Tarde, The Laws of I m i tation, Chapter 1, pass 1m „

2
Tarde, Soci al L aw s , p. 39,
53
II3 5
Should we consider this develop me nt of sociology as
the evidence that Tarde's conception of sociology was non-
scientific? As it has been pointed out at times, Durkhe im
and Tarde were not really so far apart in their views,'*' even
though their debates made them appear to the eyes of their
contemporaries like the "two pet antagonists in the sociolog-
2
ical arena," Indeed, as a hist or ia n wrote then, they both
"seek and find some original fact or facts which may be termed
the ultimate social ph e n o m en on ." ^ However, Durkheim stayed
longer on the stage, and as a Professor at the Sorbonne, he
exercised greater influence on colleagues and students, who
4
eventu al ly formed the "Durkheim School" m sociology. For
the same reason, he was able not only to argue about his
conception of sociology and its methods but also to produce
work that constitutes pioneer empirical investigations.
Today, long after the T a r d e- Du rk hei m debate took
place, we are still arguing the issues, Despite the obvious
1
xBlondel, _op, cit ., p. 182.
2
Michael M Davis, Jr , Psycholog ical Interpretations
of Soc ie ty (New York: Columbia Un iv e r s i t y Press, 1909) ,
p. 13 3,
3
J . T . M e r z , A His to ry of European Thought in the
Ni ne t e en th C e n t u r y , Vol. IV (4 v o l s ; New York: W. Blackwood
& Sons, 1904-12), p. 567.
4
Paul Fauconnet, "The Du rk he im School in France,"
So ci ological R e v i e w , XIX (1927) , 15-20.
progress that sociology has achieved, there are those who
point to the "enormous waste" that a k in d of obsession with
the accumulating of facts has produced, or to the "t riv ial
ity" of the findings."*" There is, however, a difference.
The argument today is that the accumulation of empirical
findings is necessary but not sufficient for scientific
progress. Thus, Tarde's insistence on the need for an

2
" idee directrice" (guiding idea) in research seems to be
even more applicable to the present stage of sociology than
co that of his own time.
It is guiding ideas of this kind that we would like
to bring out in Tarde's L 'Opinion et la F o u l e Although
they were presented in a sense prematurely, they have not
lost, we believe, all their value for research, and they
should not be allowed to lie bu ried and forgotten. The
baiden of demonstrating their contemporary relevance rests
upon our analysis of his work.
"*"E g., Allan Mazur, "The Littlest Science," The A m e r

ican S o c i o l o g i s t , III, No. 3 (August, 1968), 195.
2 *
" ... pour formuler des lois il n'est pas necessaire
que les sciences soient definitivement f o r m e e s . ... Il doit
y avoir une idee directrice en recherche. ... ," Tarde,
"La Sociologie et les Sciences sociales," p. 86.
CHAPTER IV
THE FIELD OF PUBLIC O P I N I O N : A MULTI
DISC I PLINARY PERSPECTIVE
'Vox Populi m a y be Vox D e i , but very little

attention shows that there has never b e e n agreement
as to what Vox means or as to what Populus m e a n s , 1
Co ined ma n y years ago by Henri Maine (as quoted by
A.. Laurence Lowell) that epigram w i t t i l y suggests
the confusion still beclouding the concept of p u b
lic opinion . . . . The claim that public opinion
supports one side has considerable potency, and the
questio n of 'who' constitutes the public represents,
therefore, more than a scholastic exercise in co n
cept clarification. Not surprisingly, political
theorists, statesmen, and assorted pundits have d i s
played marked ingenuity in answering it according to
different predispositions and interests. . . .
Lee Benson's statement above, asserting that even at
this time confusion is beclouding the concept of public
opinion, implies that, despite all the work that has been
done, there is still a definite need for conceptual clarifi
cation, Since the object of our study is to demonstrate that
Tarde s work is a sociological contribution to this goal, we
will first attempt to survey some of the most ch ar act eri s
tic phases in the development of the concept of public
opinion. Beginning wi t h an overview of the field of
^Lee Benson, "An Approach to the Scientific Study of

Past Public Opinion," Public Opinion Q u a r t e r l y , XXX (1967),
522.
public opinion study from a multi-disciplinary perspective,
we gradually narrow our observations to concentrate on the
sociological approach.
The Pre -histo ry of the

Public Opinion Concept
In tracing the course of public opinion c o nc ep tua liz a
tion, we could go as far back as to Plato and Aristotle, cr
even Hesiod, as the earliest articulate political theorists.
Paul A. Palmer was observing a few years ago that historians
of political theory have, for the most part, ignored the c o n
cept of public opinion and that Am er ic an scholars, with but
few exceptions, appear to believe that the treatises of
Lowell and of Lippmann are at once the first and the last
word on the subject.^ The absence of a history of public
opinion which combines descriptive detail with analytical
clarity has also been deplored more recently by Hans Speier,^
Indeed, despite the accelerated effort in research and m
theory in the field of public opinion, in our times, we have
no evidence of a systematic attempt to trace the histor y of
1 _________________
^Paul A, Palmer, "The Concept of Public Opinion in

Political T h e o r y , " in Essays in H i sto ry and Political Theory
in Honor of Charles Howard Mcl lwa in (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1936), p, 230.
2
Hans Speier, "Historical Development of Public
O p i n i o n , " American Journal of S o c i o l o g y , LV (1950), 3^7.
57
the concept except for the rather limited references that
are made in the articles contributed to Encyclopedias, and
1
m some surveys.
The fact is that the formulation of the concept into
a clearly identifiable term is a rather recent enterprise.
Even now, the concept is characterized by a great deal of
ambiguity, and there is little agreement among political
scientists, sociologists, and social psychologists on the

2
exact meaning of the term.
Alt hough the term public opinion was not used in
antiquity, reference was made to the judgment of the m a j o r
ity, of the m a n y ("hoi p o l l o i " ). Lee Benson even claims
that the three main dimensions of the concept of public
opinion, that is its distribution, its formation, and its
impact upon govern me nt decisions, were clearly identified
by the Greek h i s to ri an Thucydides in his classic H i s t o r y of
Ê .g , Clyde L. King, "Public Opinion as Vie we d b y

Eminent Political Theorists," in Univ er si ty of P ennsylvania
Fb®? Public Lectures (Philadelphia, 1916).
^W illiam Albig, Modern Public Opinion (New York::

McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1957), p. 3; Harwood Childs also notes
that the literature of the field is strewn wi t h zealous
attempts to find a me aningful and acceptable definition, and
illustrates his point b y presenting ten different d e f i n i
tions: P ublic O p i n i o n : N a t u r e , F o r m a t i o n , and Role (Prince
ton. New Jersey; D. Va n Nostrand Co., 1965), pp. 14-15.
58
IV-4
the Peloponnesian W a r . that he wrote ahout the end of the
fifth century B.C.
Plato, however, did not consider the judgment of the
many as more reliable because it is collective. The many
can be as easily deceived, if not more, as the single indi-

2
vidual, as the famous simile of the cave, in the R e p u b l i c ,
implies: Indeed, Plato thought of the common man as sitting
in his cave, with his b a c k to the light, unable to acquire
true knowledge of reality. Those who see the absolute and
eternal and inimitable may be said to know, and not to have
i 3
opinion only.
\ f
N\.
According to Aristotle, however, the many are better
judges of things, for among them they can understand the

4
whole more fully than even the single expert. They are
even more incorruptible than the few. The individual is
liable to be overcome by anger, or by some other passion,
and then his judgment is necessarily perverted; but it is
Benson, op. pit., p. 532.

2
Plato, The R e p u b l i c , trans. by F. M. Cornford (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1954), Book VII.
^Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy

(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945), pp. 120-21,
4
Aristotle, P o l i t i c s , 2 vols. trans. into English with
an introduction and analyses b y B. Jowett (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1885), Book III, Chapter 11.
IV-5 59
ha rdly to be supposed that a great number of persons would
all get into a passion and go wrong at the same moment.^
Because of this capacity of collective judgment, there is a

)
right inherent in the people to elect their rulers and to
call t hem to account.
The juristic conceptions of the Romans recognized at
least certain aspects of public opinion, but much of the
evidence indicates that the Roman theorists did not have
much esteem for the masses. The prevailing vi ew seemed to
be that a public in projecting its opinion is acting, and
must act, under the law. In other words, legitimate public
opinion operates under an exterior standard, which is the
2
law or jus in the sense of a legal system.
The proverb "Vox populi vox D e i " considered to be of
medieval origin, was first formally used in the letters of
I b i d ., Book III, Chap. 15; m citing this statement

of Aristotle, Will Durant makes, in a footnote, a remark of
interest to us since it is referring to Tarde and Le Bon:
"Tarde, Le Bon, and other social psychologists assert p r e
cisely the contrary; and though they exaggerate the vices of
the crowd, they might find better support than Aristotle in
the behavi or of the Athenian Assembly 430-330 B.C.," The
Story of Philosophy (New York: The Pocket Library, 1954),
n 91, p . 88.
2
Francis G. Wilson, A Theory of Public Opinion
(Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1962), p. 24.
60
V-6
the monk and teacher Alcuin to Charlemagne.'*' It was ther e
after attributed to various theorists, such as Machiavelli,
and, since the latter part of the eighteenth century, "it
has been quoted, approvingly or otherwise, in almost every
discussion of the source and competence of public opin-
2
ion. ..."
Shakespeare in his plays often referred to opinion
and even called it the "mistress of success";^ but it is
another phrase that has been given a great deal of atten
tion: "Opinion queen of the world" of Blaise Pascal
(1623-62), the French mathematician and philosopher. He
had written:
The rule based on opinion and imagination p r e

vails for some time, and this rule is gentle and
voluntary: that base d on force prevails forever.,
Thus, opinion is like the gueen of the world while
force is its tyrant. . , .
~*~I b i d . , "Concepts of Public Opinion,” American Politi

cal Science R e v i e w , XXVII (1933), p. 380.
2
Palmer, op, c i t . , p. 231
3
Cited b y Speier, op. pit., p. 377.
4
" L 1empire fonde sur 1'opinion et 1 !imagination regne
quelque temps, et cet empire est doux et volontaire; celui
de la force regne toujours. A m s i 1 ’opinion est comme la
reine du mode, mais la force en est le t y r a n , " Blaise Pascal,
Pensees de P a s c a l . Notes de Charles Louanier (Paris:
Bibliotheque Charpentier, 1854), p. 174.
Pascal's concern with public opinion was in connection w i t h
his broader pr eoccupat ion with the art of persuasion,,'*’
Emergence of the Public

O p i n ion Concept
The term "public opinion" is, as a rule, traced to
Rousseau (1712-78) and Necker (1732-1804). R o u s s e a u ’s is
perhaps the earliest extensive treatment of the concept of
public opinion. In his Social Contract he says that public
opinion is "a power unknown to political thinkers, on which

2
none the less success m everything else depends . . .
Speier credits Rousseau for putting public opinion in its
modern political place b y claiming that law should spring
from the general will, which he conceived as a kind of myst
cai entity, a kind of plebiscite stemming out from natural
3
forces, and thereby good m itself.
Necker, on the other hand, who according to the
historian Sculavie was the first to adopt the term in the
practical as well as in the theoretical tasks of the
■*For a discussion of P a s c a l ’s theory of persuasion

see P. Topiiss, "Pascal's The or y of Pe rsuasion and Ancient
Rhetoric," L ’Esprit C r e a t e u r , II (1962), 79-83.
2
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Le Co ntr at Social (Paris:
Librairie de la Bibliotheque Nationale, 1878), Book II,
Chap. 22..
^Speier, op. c i t ., p. 378.
administration, meant b y public opinion the opinion of the
bourgeoisie, that is of the dissatisfied, the systematic
thinkers, and the innovators, of those w ho can affect the
stab ili ty and the integrity of the government.^
Meanwhile, however, John Locke (1632-1704) had
advanced the view that men use the law of opinion or repu
tation, along with the divine and civil laws in judging

2
their actions. Though he attributed a great deal of power
to it, he consi der ed it in connection wit h the private, not
the public or government, sphere. The law of opinion is the
"consent of private men who have not a u t ho ri ty enough to
3
make a l a w . "
in Sir W i l l i a m Temple's Essay Upon the Original and
4
Nature of Government (1672), also considered one of the
early discussi ons of public opinion, it is political a u t h o r
ity that is traced to the prevailing opinion as to the wisdom,
1Jean-Lo uis Soulavie, M emoires historiques et

politiques du regne de Louis X V I , Vol. IV (6 v o l s „, Paris,
1801), cited by Palmer, "The Concept of Public Opinion in
Political Theory," p, 237,
2
Jo h n Locke, An Essay Concerni ng Human Understanding
(1690), ed, b y A. C. Fraser (Oxford, 1894).
3
I b i d ., Book II, Chap. xxviii, sec, 12, cited by
Speier, loc . c i t „
4
W i l l i a m Temple. The Works of Slr Wi l l i a m T e m p l e , A
New E di ti on (London, 1814)„
63
:v -9
goodness, and valor inhering in the rulers.'*' Opinion, in
this case, is viewed as the true basis of government*
The developm ent of an increasingly articulated concept
of public opinion seems to have occurred pri marily in French
thinking, and in the period between Pascal and the French
Revolution. Some of the historical social developments that
to a certain degree account for this concern with public
opinion were the emergence of the bourgeoi sie together with
an increased secularization of life. Thus, there was gr a d u
ally made a clearer distinction and formulation of the public
sphere.
Whereas the Greeks clearly distinguished b e t we en the
public and the private domains, in terms of social structure
and norms of behavior, the Romans emphasized legalistic
distinctions. In the Middle Ages there was no structural
basis for such a distinction. The feudal social order did
not provide for the status of citizen who participates in
the public domain. There existed specialized public domains
such as the Church and the C o u r t .^ It is only as this order
"'’W il he lm Bauer, "Public Opinion," En cyc lop edi a of the

Social S c i e n c e s , 1934, XII, 669.
2 ••
Jurgen Habermas, Strukturwandel der Offentli ch ke i t :
Untersuchungen zu einer K a t e f o n e der bu er ger lic hen
Ge sellschaft (Berlin: Luchterhand, 1962); Synoptic trans
lation b y Gi ll ian Lindt Gollin (mimeographed, Washington, D.C.,
1968). The first chapter of this work traces the history of
the concept of public in Antiquity and the Middle Ages..
evolved into other forms that participation in the public
domain extended, a fact that is well reflected in Necker's
preoccupation with public opinion. As F. G. Wilson points
out, along with these developments conception of public law
began to emerge from the private law of the medieval period
and representative institutions were extended. ■*-
The event of the French Revolution seems to have
brought into focus the issue of public opinion, in its most
crucial aspects, such as the par ticipation of people and
power and the nature of public opinion. From then on public
opinion studies and theories revolved around questions such
as who constitute the public; to what extent they p a r t i c i
pate in the government and how; what are the social p r e
requisites for the emergence of a public; over what areas
of social life is public opinion expressed; is public opinion
a rational judgment, an action of criticism and evaluation,
an instrument of action and control, an irrational force
.?
Early Theories of Pub lie O p i n i on

in the Context of Theories of
the State
As a result of his association with James Mill, Jeremy
Bentham's theory of public opinion was developed as an
"'"Wilson, A Theory of Public O p in i o n , p, 50,
integral part of his democratic theory of the s t a t e d One
of the earliest theorists to deal systematically with public
opinion, Bentham viewed it as an instrument of social cri ti
cism and control, a sanction, and thus as an element very
2
closely related to the legislative process. His writings
also show that he was familiar with the French views and
especially with the ideas of Rousseau.,^
The German Friedrich Ancillon, m a work published

4
in 1828, formulated a dual conception of public opinion.
In his view it is both a vital and central power in the p o l i t
ical world to be heeded by governments and a misleading
illusion to be considered with great caution.. According to
Palmer, Ancillon's conception reflects the contrasting views
of public opinion held respectively by the liberal and c o n
servative doctrines.^
^Palmer, pp. cit ., p. 245.

2
Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of
Morals and L e g i s l a t i o n , in The Works of Jeremy B e n t h a m ,
Vol. I, ed. b y John Browning (Edinburgh, 1838-43).
3
" . . . Ben th am referred in the 1823 edition of the
Principles of Morals and Legislation to both the wide use
and the French origin of the term 'public o p i n i o n , ' though
he preferred to use ’popular sanction' Wilson, A
Theory of Public O p i n i o n , p. 248.
4
Friedrich Ancillon, Vermittlung der Extreme in den
Meinungen (Berlin, 1828).
^Palmer, op. c i t ., p. 248.
\7— 12 66
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-59) attempted what we
might describe today* as a field study of public opinion,, He
wanted to study the impact of ma jo rit y rule upon the s tr uc
ture and the dynamics of America n society. His observations,
made with an eye on the socio-cultural dimensions, have not
yet be e n fully explored. He is known, of course, for having
pointe d out the "tyranny of the majority"; describing the
processes through which this result occurs, he singles out
the levelling that democratic equality causes: As the c i t i
zens beco me more equal and more alike, they are less inclined
to be guided by and to follow bl in d l y a certain leader or a
certain class and tend instead to fellow the "mass," and
„ . . it is more and more public opinion that governs

the people . . . . ; [this is so because] feeling to
be alike men lose faith m one another; but because
of this very similarity they have an unlimited c o n
fidence in the judgment of the public.. Since all
have similar intellectual enlightenment, they feel
that truth must be on the side of the majority.
[He thus predicted that] faith in public opinion
will become a kind of religion of which the majority
will be the prophet. .. .
It was, however, James Bryce (1838-1922), a British
statesman and scholar and ambassador to the United States
who, in a more exhaustive fashion, described the operation
and peculiar characteristics of public opinion in a
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (first

published as Democratie en A m e r i q u e , Paris, 1835. Ne w York:
New Ame rican Library, 1956), pp. 112 f f .
67
V-13
democratic state. His work, The American Commonwealth (1888),
represents an attempt to analyze govern men t by public opinion.
Unlike de Tocqueville, he did not distrust the sovereignty of
public opinion. Yet, he discerneid and pointed out some of
the di ffe rences marking majorities:
. . . the longer public opinion has ruled, the more

absolute is the authority of the majority likely to
become, the less likely are energetic majorities to
arise, the more politicians are likely to occupy
themselves not in forming opinion, but in di sco ver
ing and hast eni ng to obey it. . „ .
In the same vein, he made a di st inction bet we en opinion and
"real" opinion, and between opinion that is mere sentiment

2
and opinion that is thought.
Ge rma n thought on public opinion from the outset
refused to identify the sovereignty of the people with the
government, and regarded public opinion as being outside the
government.
Moreover, the idea of public opinion in Germany seems
to have received the influence of some of H e g e l ’s generaliza-
1 3,0 n s .3
''‘James Bryce, The American Co mm onw ea 1t h , 18 99, 2 vols.

(New York: Ma cm ill an Co., 1899), II, 254.
2
Wilson, A Theory of Public O p i n i o n , p. 212,
^ I b i d ., p . I l l .
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission
IV-14 68
Hegel 's The Philosophy of Right contains the construct
of a social and political order which satisfies the claims
both of the universal law and of the individual conscience.
With regard to opinion, Hegel stressed its contradictory
character:
In public opinion truth and falsehood exist

together. It is the task of the great man to find
the truth in it. For he is indeed the great man
who tells his age what it wishes and means and
carries it out. He realizes the inwardness and
essential nature of his time; and he who does not
k n o w ho w to despise public opinion in some of its
ma nifestations will never bring anything great
into b e i n g .^
In general, German theories o± public opinion tended
to emphasize the conditions, social and cultural, under
which opinion is shaped, and the means by which it can be
expressed. Though the theories of Marx stress the social
conditions, and in particular the economic relations, as the
factors affecting ideas and institutions, laws and politics,
he was most particularly concerned with conditions in France.

2
In his work. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis B o n a p a r t e , he
^ G . W. F. Hegel, G r u n d l i m e n der Philosophie des

R e c h t s , Vol. Ill of Werke (Berlin, 1833), sec. 318,
2
This work was publ is hed first in 1852 in the first
number of Die R ev ol u t i o n , a month ly published in New York by
Joseph Wedemeyer; Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of
Louis B o n a p a r t e , trans, by Daniel De Leon (New York: Inter
national Publishing Co., 1898).
expressed the vie w that under Louis Bonaparte in the 1850's
it was completely impossible for any general opinion to exist
in France, His enthusiasm for the Commune in 1871, expressed
in his book, The Civil War In France (1871), indicates his
belief that mass experience can generate true ideas,^
Systematic discussion of public opinion came from
2
J. K. Bluntschli, according to whom public opinion is p r e
dominantly the opinion of the large middle class, an ex pres
sion of the Zeitg e is t .and it cannot exist without the free
development of the power of thought and judgment, something
that can only occur in the secular sphere. Bluntschli
stressed the fact that religion is in conflict with the
development of genuine public opinion.

3
F. G. Wilson traces to Franz von Holtzendorff the
attempt to link the organization and effectiveness of p u b
lic opinion with the development of finance and credit in
the modern world concomitant with the rise of the middle
, 4
class„
^Wilson, A Theory of Public Op i n i o n , p. 229.

2
J. K. Bluntschli, in his article on public opinion
in his Staatsworterbuch (1862), VII, cited b y Speier, o p .
c i t ., p , 386.
3
Franz von Holtzendorff, Wesen und Wert der
Offentlichen Meinung (Jena, 1846).
4
Wilson, A Theory of Public O p i n i o n , p. 77.
Moreover, Holtzendorff distinguished public opinion
from the opinion of government organs, for in a free state,
expert opinion must often stand against popular opinion. In
general, he claimed that public opinion must be distinguished
from expert or specialized opinion of particular social
c l a s s e s ,^
Thus, it is political theorists of the nineteenth and
early twentieth century that beg an to give the concept its

2
modern formulation. They were concerned primarily with the
relationship of public opinion to the procedures of d e m o
cratic government or the role of opinion in theories of
political power. Among them, important contributions were
made by theorists such as A. V. Dicey and A. Laurence Lowell.
Dicey's The Relations Between Law and Public Opinion

3
in England During the Nineteenth Century placed the d i s
cussion of the public opinion ph enomena in the framework of
the political life in England. Though the British C o n s t i t u
tional theory and practice accounts for much of the modern
^Holtzendorff, op. c i t ., pp. 58 ff.

2
Bernard Berelson and Morris Janowitz (eds.), "Theory
of Public O p i n i o n , " Reader in Public Opinion and C o m m u n i c a
tion (New York: The Free Press, 1966), p. 6 .
Â. V. Dicey, The Relations Between Law and Public

Opinion in England During the Nineteenth Century (London:
Macm il la n Co., 1914).
surge toward a theory of public opinion, concern with public
opinion in England was expressed, before Dicey's work, in
Edmund Burke's statements in the 1770's (speeches and letters
in which he clarified the right of the common man to say "no"
to the gover nm en t and the government to say "no" to the c o m
mon judgment of the citizens.^
Dicey was concerned with tracing the effect of d o m i
nant trends of opinion on legislation and with determining
some of the factors involved m changes of opinion.^
A. Laurence Lcwell, the president of Harvard U n i v e r
sity, wrot e what is considered the "first major American
book" on the topic of public opinion,^ Public Opinion and

4
Popular G o v e r n m e n t , In it he tried to clarify the question
of what "true" opinion is, and what accounts for the d i s
tinctions b e t wee n private issues and public issues under
various circumstances.
^Wilson, A Theory of Publie O p i n i o n , p p , 60-61.

2
Paul F. Lazarsfeld, "Public Opinion and the C l a s s i
cal T r a d i t i o n , " P ublic O pi ni on Quarte rl y , XXI (1 9 t /), 46-47.
^ I b i d ., pp, 49-50.
4
‘A. Laurence Lowell, Public Opinion and Popular Covern
ment (New York: Longmans, Green and Co,, 1913).
with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission
72
7-18
George C. Thompson's work, Public Opinion and Lord
Bearonsfield 187 5- 1 8 8 0 ,^ can also be considered an intere st
ing contribution, on account of both the purpose and the
approach of the study. Through the detailed study of p a r
ticular events, e.g., the rumors of atrocities in the
Turkish War, h e tried to analyze the relationship of opinion
to government po licy and to trace changes of public opinion.
Wilhe lm Bauer, in surveying the development of the
study of public opinion and the attempts to clarify the
field, makes this interesting observation:
Repeated usage, during the century and a hal f of

democratic consolidation, has robbed the term of
much of its initial incisiveness. Invoked with
little di sc ri mination by the astute politi ci an and
by the special pleader in all lines of public and
semi-public enterprise, it has lost not a little
of its richness of overtone. Suspected by the
systematic historian, who seeks a less exploited
substitute in such partial equivalents as "popular
sovereignty," "conventions," "mores," "climate of
opinion, " idees d i r e c t r i c e s , Zeitgeist:, it has been
taken over as a rule by the journalist and social
psychologist and in the process frequently stripped
of many of its historical associations.
Before we deal with the social psychologists, the
class of students of public opinion we are more directly
concerned with, we must refer to some of the more
‘''George C. Thompson, Public Opinion and Lord feacons-

field 1875- 1880 (London: Macmillan Co., 1886).
2
Bauer, "Public Opinion," p. 669.
V - 19 /J
self-contained theories de veloped in other disciplines and
pri mar ily to the work of the pr ominent journalist and writer
with whose name the term pu blic opinion is very closely
linked in modern times. Walter L i p p m a n n 's work. Public
O p i n i o n , 1 which was published in 1922 had such an impact
that the term public opinion will often evoke his name, and,
in a kind of extension, the study of public opinion is
attributed to the field of journalism- The attention that
this work received seems to have b ee n at the expense of a n
other comprehensive and thorough treatise on public opinion
by the Ge rman sociologist, Ferdinand Tonnies,^ which was
pu blished in the same year as Lippmann's work, but has not been
tr anslated in English,
Moreover, the works of Lippmann, and W, Bauer,^ il l u s
trate the trend towards skepticism as to the competence of
public opinion, a trend that developed as a result of the
experience of the first World War. A similar skepticism
ch aracterized H. D, L a s s w e l l s Propaganda Technique in the
WorId War (1927) and A. Laurence Lowell's Pub lie O p i n ion m
Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New York: Macmillan

Co., 1922).
2
Ferdinand Tonnies, Kritik der Offentlichen Meinung
(Berlin: J. Springer, 1922),
3
W i l hel m Bauer, Die o f fentliche Meinung und lhre
geschich tl ic he n Grundlagen (Tubingen, 1914); Die o f fentliche
Meinung in der Weltgeschichte (Potsdam: Athenaion, 1930)
V-20
74 .
War and Peace (1923). Lippmann's work, however, aimed more
directly and more strongly at the traditional theory of
democracy and at its postulate of the "omnicompetent c i t i
zen.. 1,1 More recently, the view was expressed that what
Lippmann did was „ . to bril liantly dissect the t h e o r e t i
cal premises underlying the role of the press in the public
2
life of the American democracy. 11 Lippmann and Tonnies 1
works provide some insights into the directions that the
study of public opinion was going to take in the twenties
without, however, clearly anticipating the methodological
and empirical breakthroughs of the thirties and forties.
One of the major theoretical problems m this field
has b ee n to determine both the origin and the direction of
public opinion: i.e., whose opinion is public opinion and
by whom is it heeded?
John D e w e y •s work, The Public and its Problems (1927),
is one instance of the effort to clarify this problem-
Pointing to the conditions of modern life, and in particular
to mobility, he observes that it is characterized by a m o v e
ment away from the principle of territorial organization
Palmer, op, c i t . , p., 25 2,
^Bernard C. Cohen, “The Press, the Public, and Foreign

Po l i c y , " Reader in Public Opinion and Com mu ni ca ti on , e d . by
Bernard Berelson and Morris Janowitz (second edition; New
York: The Free Press, 1966), p, 134.
toward that of "functional," that is to say, occupational
organization„ Under such conditions, the "public" is faced
with its most urgent problem: to find and identify itself ^
Thus, in his view, education together with economic org aniza
tion control opinion,.
Technological, economic, social, and political de v el op
ments made public opinion meaningful and relevant in a
variety of ways, though it remained always elusive. The
challenge it posed was met by people affiliated with various
disciplines. Trying to grasp its implications, and to fol
low its ramifications, each from the perspective of his
particular discipline, they opened up and stretched out the
field of the study of public opinion.. This was not achieved
without some degree of confusion and loss of focus, One c o n
cern seemed, however, to be shared m common by most of
these students of public opinion: to determine, by adapting
old ones and by creating new ones, adequate methods for this
study, methods that would provide for measurement and q u a n t i
fication ,
Toward a Science of Public Opinion
In 1937 the Public Opinion Quarterly was founded to
serve public opinion research. In 1947 it bedam e the organ
"'"John Dewey, The Public and its Problems (New York:

H. Holt & Co,, 1927), p p t 215-16,
of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, an
organization that includes among its members persons from
commercial, journalistic, governmental, and academic circles.,
A look at its issues over the thirty years of its
existence gives the impression that the field of public
opinion is very much like a "c ol lag e," something that can
be anything to anyone. Trying to identify the field, twenty
years after the founding of the Quarterly , Harry Alpert
said:
Public opinion research is many things to many

people . . „ : a business, a political device, an
instrument of propaganda, an art , ..... Each f u n c
tion or use of public opinion research , , . leaves
its mark on the nature of the discipline .......
Just one year earlier. Bernard Berelson was making the
following statement:
. „ The field has be c o m e technical and qu ant i

tative, ath eoretical, s e g m e n ta li ze d, and p a r t i c u
larized, specialized and institutionalized.
1m o d e r n i z e d : and group-ized --in short, as a
characteristic behavioral science, Americanized
Twenty-five years ago and earlier, prominent
writers, as part of their general concern with
the nature and functioning of society, learnedly
studied public opinion not for :itself' but in
broad historical, theoretical, and philosophical
terms, and wrote treatises. Today, teams of
technicians do research projects on specific
‘'"Harry Alpert, "Public Opinion Research as Science,"

Public Opinion Quar ter ly, XX (1956), 493-94.
77
J^23
subjects and report findings. Tw enty years ago

the study of public opinion was part of scholar
ship; today it is part of science , . .
Berelson's statement reflects in some way both the
uneasiness that has been felt by some with what they consider
the lack of identity of the field, and the confidence of
those who belie ve that not only is it a significant area of
scientific research, but also that the groping characteristic
of its initial phases will eventually contribute to the
clarification of its pursuits, as well as cf its assumptions.
concepts, methods, and tools Indeed, in looking closer and
more carefully at the issues of the Q u a r t e r l y , one discerns
a constant concern with soul-searching, with assessing and

2
reassessing the field..
At the outset, in the very first pages of the Q u a r -
t e r l y . Floyd Allport, after having surveyed what he called
"futile c h a r a c t e r 1 zations cf public opinion," listed a
series of points constituting "common agreements and some
proposed distinctions" which would serve as the criteria for
^Bernard Berelson, "The Study of Public Op i n i o n , " The

State of the Social Sc i e n c e s , ed . by Leonard D. White
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1955), p 304.
2
Harwood Childs, in trying to discover trends m p u b
lic opinion study and research did a content classification
of studies from the Pub lie Opinion Q u a r t e r l y . from its incep
tion in 1937 to 1965, op., pit.... Chap,, III, "Public Opinion
Study and Research," pp. 49-50.
:v-24 78
determining the p he nom ena to be studied under the term public
1
opinion,
It is significant that thirty years later, in an issue
of the Public Opinion Quarterly devoted to the study of h i s
torical public opinion, Lee Benson attempted to specify,
for the purpose of this kind of study, the main dimensions
and subcategcries of the concept of public opinion, as well
as to devise a classification scheme of opinion indicators,
a kind of explicit statement of the logical considerations
dictating the choice of sources or justifying the inferences
drawn from the factual data. In his view, such a scheme can
make up for the narrowness of the approach of some modern
researchers who believ e the personal interviews are the only
means by which reliable and valid information can be secured
about public opinion, and for the casualness and reticence
2
historians show concerning their procedures.
At the peak of its expansion, the field of public
opinion research was also marked with narrowness, or what

3
Herbert Blumer decried as "narrow o p e r a t i o n a l i s m ." The
^Floyd Allport, "Towards A Science of Public Opinion,"

Public Opinion Q u a r t e r l y , I (1937), 13
^Benson, pp. c 1 1 , p . 558.
"^Herbert Blumer, "Public Opinion and Public Opinion

Polling," Public Opinion and P r o p a g a n d a , ed. by Daniel Katz
et a l , (New York: Dryden Press, 1954), p. 595.
successful application of the method of sample survey and its
respective techniques of interviewing, questionnaire c o n
struction, scaling, and survey analysis, accounts for the
priority that was give n to the concern with the quantitative
measurement of opinion distribution, which gave the field
"the characteristic flavor" it now has. ^ Polling became the
typical preoccup at io n of public opinion research. What
varied was the type of population that is polled and the
issue over which an opinion is expressed.. "To a sizable--and
to some, a f r i g h t en in g- -ex te nt, the substance has often been

2
defined by the technique." At the 1947 meetings of the
American Sociological Association, in a debate on the nature
of public opinion, Herbert Blumer formulated a criticism of
polling as representative of public opinion research; he
meant to invite attention to the question whether public
opi nion polling actually deals with public o p i n i o n . He
aimed pri ma ri ly at the tendency in polling to regard the
findings resulting from an operation, or use of an ins tru
ment, as constituting the object of study instead of being
some contributory addition to knowledge of the object of
s t u d y .^
^Berelson, "The Study of Public Opinion," p. 309
2 Ibid,
3
Blumer, "Public Opinion and Public Opinion Polling,"
p. 595,
:V - 2 6 80
Polling, however, is here to stay, despite B l u m e r :s
"jeremiads."^ Moreover, as Lee Benson pointed out: "Poll
sters have beco me so ubiquitous, ma n- on-the-street interviews
so common place that the concept of 'public opinion' has lost
■ • „2
its original meaning. , . "
Still, all hope is not lost. Berelson sees m criti
cism the sign of growth Moreover, every science goes
through successive phases; he disting uis hes seven--they are:
(1 ) the identifying of problems. (2 ) the development cf
b roa d theoretical speculations, (3) the intensified col le c
tion of empirical data, (4) the de ve lopment of adequate
methods and techniques for measurement and quantification.
(5) the institutional recognition of the field, (6 ) the c o m
munic ati on and relations with "intellectual neighbors." and
(7) the construction of a body of interrelated prepositions
that are empirically verified.^ In accordance to his
"''The term "jeremiads" is used by Harry Alpert m an

allusion to Blumer's criticism cf polling. He himself, h o w
ever, made the following remark in the direction of the
pollsters: "I do not know whether our membership Committee
[of the Ame ric an Association of Public Opinion Research] has
accepted the application of the wag among us who is fend cf
repeating the old saw: 'Any fool can design a questionnaire
and most of them do,' Even if we bar h i m from our As so ci a
tion, few of us will deny that there is something to what he
says." Op., c i t . , p, 497,
2
Benson, op. c i t p.- 523,
3
Berelson, "The Study of Public Opinion," pp 305-15
assessment of the field of public opinion, it has marked
more or less progress with respect to six of them. It is
with respect to the seventh phase that it shows some d e f i
ciency, "in spite, or may be because of the great amount of
data assembled m public opinion studies in the last two
decades, there is not much theory to show, But there is
the raw mater ial for it . ,
Can we say today, thirteen years after Berelson s
evaluation, that the field of public opinion has entered
the seventh phase, or, has the time come to admit that this
prospect is doomed, and that the field has perhaps lost the
capacity for insightful generalizations?
This danger was signalled pa rti cul arl y m the first
number cf the twenty-first volume (195 7) of the P u b 1 1 c
Opinion Q u a r t e r l y , and many of the articles m it reflect
the deep concern with finding ways to direct the field so
that it may achieve a fuller scientific status through a
more effective conceptualization and theoretical systemati
zation ,
Indeed, W i l li am Albig, m his article "Two Decades cf
Opinion Study: 1936-1956" observed that "the capacity for
insightful ge ner alization has atrophied,” that there are
Î b i d ,, p . 315.
82
V-28
"enormous amounts of information available," that "theory
has been outstripped by description," and that "interest in
manipulation seems to have crowded out attention to the
values fundamental to our de mo c r a c y . "^
Herbert Hyman, on the other hand, while recognizing
the difficulties inherent in the task of consolidating into
a theoretical synthesis the mass of findings accumulated by
research, thought that theoretical work should not be d i s
couraged b y them:
Instead of being irritated by the p r o bl em of

fitting everything into a m a s t e r - s c h e m e , we need.
for the moment, only to fit the new ideas into seme
smaller structure of theory . „ , the model for
which is in Merton' s conception of 'theories cf the
2
middle r a n g e 1 .. .
Accordingly, he indicated the areas such as structural,
group membership, and reference group determinants of
opinion, in which the empirically collected data lent t h e m
selves readily to theoretical treatment, and these such as
index co ns truction "in which more empirical study and
methodology are called for m the interests of better and
more comprehensive theory
^William Albig, "Two Decades of Opinion Study:

1936-1956," Public Opinion Q u a r t e r l y , XXI (1957), 14-15
^Herbert Hyman, "Toward a Theory cf Public Opinion,"

Public Opinion Q u a r t e r l y , XXI (1957), 55.
^ Ibid ,, p 5 9.
Paul F.. Lazarsfeld's article is an even more concrete
prop os it ion on h o w public opinion research could achieve its
"seventh phase," that is, through a direct confrontation
with the classics The clash b et we en modern empiricists and
spokesmen for the classics recurs in many other fields and
is almost always productive. If public opinion research, as
an aspiring young science, felt the need to cut off all
bonds with the older disciplines it emerged from, that is,
history, political theory, and social theory, now that it
has advanced, it has no reason to wish to maintain its d i s
tance from them. On the contrary, it is through bridging
this gap that further progress can be achieved. Thus, the
conceptual task may be achieved b y bending Berelson s phases
"into a loop to see ho w they mesh with the later ones "
A modern work on public opinion that shows concern
with conceptualization is Jurgen Habermas book,
2
Strukturwandel der Offe ntlichkeit (1962)
He sees the solution of the pr ob lem of conceptual
ambiguity in defining and delineating the respective concepts
Lazarsfeld, "Public Opinion and the Classical T r a d i

tion ," pp , 40-41,
2
A synoptic translation of this book prepared by
Dr. Gillian Lindt Gollin made it possible for this author to
have direct access to the t e x t ,
84
as they apply to a particular historical context, whose
social structure determines the content of the concepts. As
structural changes occur, the ideas and institutions related
to public opinion undergo changes too. The d if fic ul ty with
concepts is the fact that as such they are "ahistorical" and
one is in danger of either falsifying reality in order to
subordinate it to the rational requirements of the concepts
or degrading the concepts by making them relative, notes
Julier. Freund in an article which is in part a critique of
H a b e r m a s ’ w o r k .^ Freund finds that the merit of this work
is in H a b e r m a s ’ attempt to establish a kind of range for the
versions that the content of a concept, such as the public,
can present in terms of both the historical and the cross-
cultural dimensions. Indeed, Habermas presents the range of
transformations of the notion of public in various countries,
m particular England, France, and Germany, as well as its
relations w i t h particular social structures such as the
family, clubs, business, and the conceptions philosophers
. . puisqu'il faut des concepts qui, comme tels,

sont a n h i s t o r i q u e s , on risque ou bien de falsifier la real-
ite en la depouillant de ses caracteres de contingence et
de singularite pour la subordonner a la rationalite du
concept . .. ou b ie n de degrader les concepts en les
relativisant a leur tour. ... ," Julien Freund, "Le Concept
de Public et 1'Opinion," Archives Europeennes de S o c i o l o g i e ,
V (1964), 271.
:v-3l 85
or historians, such as Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Tocque-
ville, and Stuart Mill have developed.**-
Habermas's work illustrates the way in which the two
very significant trends in public opinion research can be
made to converge and to combine. These trends are toward a
more deliberate recourse to the inter-disciplinary approach
and a greater concern with the historical dimension, Review
ing the book, Reinhard Bendix points cut that it is cutting
across several disciplines, sociology, political science,
social history, and the history of ideas Sociological in
its insistence on conceptualization and its concern with
structural changes,, it is also historical not only m the
materials analyzed but also m its contention that the c a t e
gories appropriate for its analysis have a historically
limited applicability ^
Lee Benson s views stated in his article. "An Approach
to the Scientific Study of Past Public Opinion," could be
■*■" . , L auteur ncus montre tantot les t r a n s f o r m a

tions de la notion du public dans differents pays, eri
particulier 1'A n g l e t e r r e , la France, et 1 Allemagne. tantot
ses rapports avec les structures sociales particulieres ccmme
la famille, les clubs, les e n t r e p n s e s , tantot les variations
de conceptions chez les philosphes our histcrier.s, Rousseau,
Kant, Hegel, Marx, Tocqueville, Stuart Mill, etc . ,"
Freund, opy cit ., p. 256.
^Reinhard Bendix, "Review of St ru kt ur wa nd e1 der

O e f f e n t l i c h k e i t ." American Sociological R e v i e w , XXIX (1963).
128 .
seen as an interesting response to such trends. Indeed, he
has tried to stress the importance that historical study can
have m the field of public opinion research. Referring to
the observation of some prominent sociologists concerned
with the field of public opinion--Lazarsfeld, Hyman, Berelson
Janowitz--he points out that they seem to agree on the idea
that it is the lack of long-term trend data that seriously
retards theoretical progress. His main argument is as fol
lows: "if we need many long-term bo di e s of data to develop
a powerful general theory of public opinion, heavy, although
certainly not exclusive, reliance will have to be placed
upon hi st o r i c a l studies , . .
Toward an Inter-disciplinary
Approach
The difficulties encountered m trying to survey the
field cf pub li c opinion study arise from the fact that it is
a field that can be either very narrowly or very broadly and
vaguely defined, but net well defined In one sense, public
opinion is very much the professional field of polling with
its own methods, and techniques, its code, and its litera
ture, but it is also the concern of a wide range of s c i e n
tific di sc iplines which have contributed a great deal to Cur
^Benson, op, c i t ,, p. 5J2
:V-33 0/
kno wledge about it. In this latter sense, it is a m u l t i
discip lin ar y field of study. As such, it has not taken full
advantage of the progress that each particular discipline
has made in its research on public opinion. This is a p r o s
pect that can be achieved wh e n the scientific study of
public opini on is transformed from a multi-disciplinary to
an i n t e r - d i s c i p l m a r y field to which sociology would provide
broad theoretical orientations and conceptual frameworks
CHAPTER V
SOCIOLOGY AN D THE STUDY OF PUBLIC OPINION
As Bernard Berelson noted there has b e e n a definite
shift in public opinion interest from political science to
sociology since the nineteen thirties.'*' On the other hand,
we should not ignore the fact that few studies in any of
the disciplines that have dealt with public opinion match
in scope ox depth those of the early sociologists, G. Tarde,
F. Tonnies, and R. E. Park. But these works, written in
F re nc h and German, have never been translated into English,
and they did not start any strong trend in sociology even
in their own countries. Thus, it is not possible to clearly
identify today a sociology of public opinion.
.1 t is our intention to trace in this chapter the
course of the sociological concern wi th public opinion and
to try to distinguish the factors that have prevented the
respective studies from consolidating into a more definite
sub-field of sociology,
"^Berelson, "The Study of Public Opinion," P. 313..
88
From "Crowd Psych olo gy " to
"Collective B e h a v i o r "
"I cannot , grant to a vigorous writer. Dr. Le Bon.
that our time is the era of the c r o w d s . ' It is the era of
the public or of the publics, something that is quite d i f f e r
ent" wrote Tarde m the very first pages of his book, L 1O p i n
ion et la Foule (1901),^ after having explained in the
Preface that the way in which collective or socia 1 psychology
was often conceived was wrong or rather "unreal" for it
implied a collective m i n d , a social c o n s c i o u s n e s s . a we
existing outside and above the individual minds. Social
psychology, he pointed out, should be the study of the r e l a
tionships of minds, of the unilateral and the reciprocal
influence of one mind on another ^ T a r d e 's targets were
Gustave Le Bon and Emile Durkheim, and, m a more direct
way, Hippolyte T a m e the historian. Le Bon was then the
very popular spokesman of the school of "crowd psychologists."
Durkheim was gaining importance as the exponent of the theory
of "collective consciousness" and "collective representations
^"Je ne puis . . accorder a un vigoureux e c n v a i n , Le

Dr. Le Bon, que notre age soit, -1 ere des foules.' II est
h e r e du public ou des publics, ce qui est bien d i f f e r
ent ... , " Tarde, L Opinion et _la Foule (P a n s : F . Alcan,
1901), p, 11.
2
Tarde, "Avant Propos," L 'Opinion et la F o u l e ,
p p , v-vi.
Viewed in retrospect, they both had an enduring effect on
the development of s o c i o l o g y ,
T a r d e 1s retort to Le Bon did not reflect the socio log i
cal thinking of the time, in which there was no great concern
with the distinction b e tw ee n the public and the crowd. Actu
ally, Tarde's bo ok was reviewed together with other "crowd
and sect psychology" books of Le Bon, Sighele, and Rossi
Ever since, it has almost always been catalogued and c l a s s i
fied within this category. That Tarde himself had not
altogether escaped the influence of the vogue of "crowd
psychology" is be tra yed by the choice of the title that he
made, that is. Opinion and the C r o w d . Later, becoming aware
of the misleading character of this title, he remarked, as

2
was. mentioned before, that the title should have been
The Pub l ie and Pub lie O p i n i o n .
Some of the explanation for this concern with crowd
behavior is found in Tarde's own opening remarks of his
essay, "The Public and the C r o w d " :
E.g., m L 'Annee So ci o l o g i g u e . e d , b y Emile Durkheim

and Paul Fauconnet, reviewed Tarde s book m an essay which
under the title, "The Mentality of Groups," includes alsc
the review of La_ Foule Cr iminel le (second French edition
1901) by Scipio Sighele, and of Collettlva M o rb os a (1901) by
P. Rossi, L 1Annee S o c i o l o g i g u e , XI (1901), pp 160-61
2
C f , supra , p • 14•
91
Not only is the crowd attractive and fascinating
to the observer, but its very name exerts an e x t r a o r
dinary effect on the modern reader, and so many
authors are much too inclined to designate by this
ambiguous term all kinds of hu man groupings.
Indeed, the crowd, or rather some kinds of crowds, have a
dramatic aspect on account of their turbulent activity and
their often irregular or even pa th ological effects; because
of it, they have continually attracted the attention of the
students of social phen om ena away from groupings and aggre
gates such as the public, and have instead constituted the
focal point of the field of "collective behavior" the heir
of "crowd psychology."
However, there are other factors also involved in the
development of "crowd psychology." As Professor Bramscn
remarks:
This literature on crowds is extremely

instructive., A flurry of studies make their ap p e a r
ance in the last decade of the 19th century They
are concerned with the behavior of crowds, and are
written by men who consider themselves social scien
tists . . . they are usually inspired by anti
democratic sentiments Curiously, the intel
lectual inspiration for these studies among the
French seems in many instances to ha v e come from
Tame. . ,
^Tarde, Li Opinion et la F o u l e , p , 1
^Leon Bramson, The Political Context of Sociology

(New Jersey; Princeton University Press, 1961). p 513
-5 92
On the other hand, G ra ham Wallas had long ago observed
that both
Tarde and Le Bon were Frenchmen brought up on

vivid descriptions of the Revolution and themselves
apprehensive of the spread of Socialism. Political
movements which were m fact carried out, m large
part, by men conscious and thoughtful though n e c e s
sarily ill-informed, seemed therefore to them, as
they watched them from outside, to be due to the
blind and unconscious impulses of masses incapable
bo th of reflection and reasoning , . . ^
We would net readily lump Tarde together with those
who were guided by Taine's deterministic conception of
history.. Though Tarde borrow ed extensively from Taine's
writings on the events of the French Revolution in illustrat
ing his analysis of crowd behavior, he always tried to make
it clear that he was the disciple not of T a m e but of Cournot
He admitted that he had learned much from him, that he had
read him avidly, but, he stressed, he had not be en guided by
,
him.
2
Among the contemporaries who reviewed or discussed
T a r d e 's work, the views were divided, While Espinas for
example stressed the conservative outlook of Tarde, Mazel

3
insisted on making a distinction between Tarde and T a m e .
^Graham Wallas, The Great Society (New York: Macmillan

Co., 1914), p. 137,
2
C f , s u p r a , p . 42,
Êspinas, "Notice sur la vie . . . " pp. 309-422,

p a s s i m ; Mazel, "A Propos de M. Gabriel Tarde," pp. 89-102,
p a s s i m ..
-6 93
As has been recognized recently,
Tarde resisted the late nineteenth century trend

to debase communicated thought and collective
action to the level of the mob, as social p s y c h o l o
gists such as Le Bon attempted, Tarde reserved
for the public a higher place in the temple of
rationality than was reserved for the c r o w d ,
Clearly, Tarde did not wish to follow the fashion that had
produced
, , the scores of books and more fugitive

pieces put into print by psychologists, sociolo
gists, social philosophers, political journalists,
and unhappy creative novelists that centered on
these unlovely irrational and selfish, impulsive,
capricious and violent aspects of man and his
behavior . , ,^
At the same time, by making public opinion the object
of sociological study he intended to resist an increasingly
fashionable trend in sociology that was fostering "collective
consciousness." His study would demonstrate that public
opinio n is a typical instance of the products of intermental
processes, of the influence that one mind exercises on
another, not part of an existing collective mind
Public opinion, however, has not become a central c o n
cern m sociology, and the merit of Tarde s work is to have
‘'’Wilson, A Theory cf Public O p i n i o n , p 131

2
Robert K. Merton, "Introduction" to the Compass
Edition of The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon (New York: Viking
Press, 1960), p, xvi,
r- 7 94
been "prophetic" rather than "pioneering"v
It is easy to recognize in Tarde the prophet of

the pr es ent-day study of public opinion; for in
social study today, as in T a r d e 's own work, the
emphasis falls on examination of the phenomena of
mass communication and the publics it generates
1
However-, if we searched for the sociological category
in which the phenomena of the public and public opinion are
included today, ir_ most cases we find that it is under- the
rubric "Collective Behavior" that they are classified but
not analyzed,
The nature of collective behavior is suggested

b y the consideration of such topics as crowds,
mobs, panics, manias, dancing crazes, stampedes,
mass behavior', public opinion, propaganda, fashion,
fads, social movements, revolutions, and reforms
, „ , „ The sociologist has always been interested
in such topics, but it is only in recent years that
efforts have been made to group them in a single
division of sociological concern and to regard them
as different expressions of the same generic fac
tors, The term collect ive b e h a v ior is used to label
this area of social interest , „ , .^
In both the Encycl op ed ia o_f _the Social Sciences (19 34;
and the I n t e r national Ency c l o p e d ia of _the Social .Sciences
(1968) collective behavior and public opinion are treated ir.
sepa ra te articles; but, while the articles on "Collective
"'"Wilson, A T heory of Public O p i n i o n , p 131,

2
Herbert Blamer, "The Field of Collective Behavior."
in Pr inciples of S o c i o l o g y , e d , b y A, M, Lee (second edition,
revised; N e w York; Barnes and Noble, Inc,, 1962), p, 16 7,
95
Behavior" were wr i t te n in both instances by sociologists, by
R. E. Park and Kurt Lang and Gladys Lang respectively, those
on "Public Opinion" were authored in the earlier wo r k by
historian W i l h e l m Bauer and in the recent publication b y
Phillips Davison, a professor of journalism.'''
Twentieth century sociology's concern with crowd
phenomena has remained strong. One factor accounting for
this continuing interest might be the diffusion that the

2
ideas of "European irrationalists" had in American so c i
ology, a diffusion that was co ns iderably facilitated b y
the institutionalization of sociology in the United States,
and by the fact that among the academic teachers of s o c i
ology there were American sociologists who had been to

3
Europe "to sit at the feet of the great men in their field."
The work on crowd be havior b y the French and Italian
social psychologists had received the attention of, and, to
a certain extent, had served as a model for a generation of
"'■Robert E. Park, "Collective Behavior," E nc yc 1 o pa a d 1 a

of the See i ad Sc i e n c e s , 1930, III, 631-33 ; Kurt Lang and
Gladys Engel Lang, "Collective Behavior," International Enc y-
ci_opedia of the Social S c i e n c e s , 1968, II, 556-65;- W. Bauer,
"Public Opinion." Encyclopaedia of the Social S cie nc es , 1934,
XII. 669-74; Phillips Davison, "Public Opinion," International
Bn cy clo ped i a of the Social S c i e n c e s , 1968, XIII, 188-203.
^Bxamson, op., c i t .. p. 8 6 .
^ Ibp d . , p , 5 7.
Am erican sociologists who were concerned with making soci
ology more scientific and less speculative, The study of
the crowd, moreover, suited this early phase of American
sociology, that Louis Wirth has termed "a science of left
overs," This was the phase in which sociologists under
pre ssu re to legitimize their discipline in academic circles
defined its subject matter in terms of the trivial and
ne glected aspects of the social world which were regarded
as too insignificant to merit the attention of political
scientists and economists,, ^ They had, therefore, to turn
to those ph en o me na that did not fit readily into the frames
of ref erence of the state or the market.
Moreover, as Chicago sociologists in particular set
out to study the problems of urban existence, they were more
likely to deal with the more problematic and pathological
instances of "collective behavior."
Under these ci r c u m s t a n c e s , sociologists tended to

2
be co me the "rational students of non-rational behavior."
and out of this enterprise, the field of collective behavior
took shape. However, "conceptions of normal behavior have
‘'"Louis Wirth, "American Sociology, 1915-1947," Am e r i -

can Journal of S o c i o l o g y , Index to volumes I-LII (1895-1947),
276-77 „
2
Bramson, op_„ c i t , , p. 90.,
-10 97
undergone steady change as the understanding of normal social
pr ocesses has progressed, and each such change has required
a re-assessment of the boundaries of collective b eh av ior,"^
Thus, as sociological research increasingly confirmed
the complexity of normal social structures and social
processes, there was less inclination to distinguish the
p h e n om en a of collective behavior on the basis of their spon
taneity and of their discontinuity from conventional social
phenomena. It was recognized that it is not so much the
deg ree of group control over the individual consciousness
that characterizes collective behavior as the manner in
which the control or impact operates.
Through the circumstances of his studies and his p r o
fessional experiences, Robert E. Park (1864-1944) played an
important part in the formation and the orientation of the
sociological study of the phenomena of the crowd and public
opinion.. After h avi ng studied as an undergraduate student
at the University of Michigan under John Dewey, and as a
graduate student of psychology at Harvard University under
Josiah Royce and Wi ll iam James, he went to Berlin in 1899,.
"'‘Ralph H. Turner, "Collective Behavior," in Handbook

of Mo dern S o c i o l o g y , ed. by Robert E. L. Faris (Chicago:
Rand McN al ly Co., 1964), p. 382,
'-11 98
There he listened to the lectures of the German sociologist,
Georg Simmel. In 1900 he went to the University of
Strasbourg and "heard" Wilhelm Windelband, When Windelband
went to Heidelberg in 1903, Park followed h i m there, and m
the next year he presented his doctoral dissertation, Masse
und Publiku m ("The Crowd and the Public").
It was reviewed in the same year in L 1Annee S o c i -
ologigue by R. Hourticq who describes it as a work conceived
on the basis of a historical and dialectical method.^ In it,
Park reviewed most of the theories on the crowd and the p u b
lic. The works of Scipio Sighele, J. Mark Baldwin, and

2
G. Le Bon are among the most frequently cited. Park d i s
cussed in particular what distinguishes the public from the
crowd, in some respects agreeing w it h Tarde, in others
extending his observations beyond Tarde's. For example, he
considered the public as a more advanced form of social
aggregate than the crowd. The public develops only in
societies which have division of labor. It is critical
while the crowd is moved by a kind of collective impulse,
very much like an instinct, Moreover, he accepted that
"'"R. Hourticq, "Compte-rendu" of Masse und Publikum

by R. E. Park, L 1Annee Socioloqique (1904-1905), IX, 158-59.
2
Everett C. Hughes, "Tarde's Psychologie E c o n o m i q u e ,"
American Journal of Sociology (1961), L X V I , 553,
99
7-12
individual opinions are distinct even w h e n they fuse to give
rise to public opinion. Finally, he indicated that in the
public, a practi cal norm emerges which appears to every indi
vidual as an ideal outside of him.
Park retained a particular interest in the press and
its impact on publi c opinion, an area to which he could con
tribute a rather long experience as a newspaper reporter and
editor. As it is reported by Helen Ma cGi ll Hughes,"- in his
young years, Park had planned with Fra nklin Ford to found a
new kind of newspaper, The Thought News, which would register
movements of public opinion in some exact manner. The
project was not carried out as the techniques of polling
and survey analysis were too rudimentary then; it shows,
however, that Park always viewed public opinion as a mea su r
able phenomenon.
In 1921, in the Introduction to the Science of Soc i
ology that he pre par ed with E. W. Burgess, he attempted the
first defin it io n of "collective behavior," as the behavior
of individuals under the influence of an impulse that is
common and collective, an impulse, in other words, that is

2
the result of social interaction. A few years later, he
"''Helen MacGi ll Hughes, "Robert E. Park, " International

Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (1968), XI, 417.
2
Park and Burgess, op. pit., p. 865.
contributed the article "Collective Behavior" to the E n c y
clopedia of the Social Sciences (1930).
A long time h ad elapsed b e twe en the writing of the
doctoral di ss ertation under the direct influence of European
sociology and that of the article in the E n cy c l o p e d i a , when
Park was already a major figure at the Department of S o c i
ology of the University of Chicago, then the center of
sociological activity in the United States. Though Masse
und Publikum did not bec o m e widely known, Park's interest in
the crowd ph e n om e na and those of social contagion had not
become displaced b y his other interests. We could say that
his action to institute the field of collective behavior had
a double significance. On one hand, because of his position,
Park contributed to the di ffusion of the concept in the
training of sociologi sts who were his colleagues and st u
dents at the Univers ity of Chicago. On the other, he inte
grated, and to some extent consolidated into a field of
study, concerns and conceptions about these ph enomena that
until then had b e e n incorporated into the theoretical sys
tems of the American social psychologists. In the process
of doing so, he modified the perspective in the study of the
phenomena of social contagion, shifting it away from the
pathological co nception to one that viewed these pheno men a
as having a con struct ive potential for social change, and
collective behavior came to be viewed as the seedbed, the
bree di n g- gr o un d of new institutions.^"
Thus, Park's work in this respect may be seen as
hav ing contributed the most to the transplanting of the
earlier "crowd psychology" from the old world and to the
creatio n of a field with a broa de r scope and a closer
2
affiliation with sociology.
The direction that Park gave to the study of c o l
lective behavio r reflects to some extent Tarde's claim not
only that the crowd is not in all cases a morbid form of
collective behavior, but also that social life moves toward
the phas e marked by the p r o l i f e r a t io n of the publics, a more
intellectualized type of grouping. In his article, "Collec
tive Behavior," however, Park p o i nt ed out the difficulties
in the study of this kind of grouping; he said,
. . . most amorphous is that form of collective

beh av io r which manifests itself through the ex pr es
sions of 'public o p i n i o n . ' ihe public is an entity
wh ic h has never be en clear ly defined . . . .
Bramson, pp. c i t ., p. 62.

2
This affiliation is no w clearly accepted: "Co ll ec
tive behavior, although strictly sociological in its approach,
supplies a link to the interests of political scientists and
h is to ri an s who have long b e e n concerned with revolutions and
mass mo vements . . . ," M. Janowitz, "Introduction to C o l l e c
tive Behavior and Conflict: Con ve rg in g Theoretical P e r s p e c
tives," a Symposium, The So ci ological Q u a r t e r l y , V (1964),
114.
3
Park, "Collective Behavior," p. 632.
102
'-15
As sociology moved to ward empirical research and
increasing specialization and differentiation, its scope
contracted since not all the social p h e no me na could be sub
jected to the research and ve rif ica tio n methods and te c h
niques initially developed. Park's impetus to the study of
collective behavio r phenomena was gra du all y exhausted as
his "natural history" approach to the study of social
p ro cesses came to be considered insufficient, and as the
empiric al ly more adequate structural analysis approaches
gained ground."*"
Indeed, as sociologists engaged in research they
b eca me increasingly aware of the diffic ult y inherent in
"observing and recording complex aspects of social reality,
whic h envelop the observer and resist simplified coding and

2
da t a- red uct ion techniques. ..." So, the field of c o l l e c
tive be hav ior lost some of its earlier dynamism. As Herbert
Blumer said, although much has b ee n added to our knowledge
of separate topics within the last two decades, no signifi
cant con tribution has b ee n made to the analysis of collective
"In recent decades sociologists have become less

interested in social processes themselves and more inter
ested in intensive analysis of be hav ior in specific in st i
tutional and cultural settings . . . ," P. H. Horton and
C. L. Hunt, Sociology (New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1968),
p. 298.
2
Janowitz, "Introduction to Collective Behavior and
Conflict," p. 113.
7-16 103
behavior. But M. Janowitz is even more specific:
The theoretical relevance of the collective

beh avi or framework has been pr ob le ma ti c until
recently, and open to extensive debate. In fact,
there was a period of time after the initial con
tributions of Robert E. Park, in which the th e o
retical disputations about the nature of collective
be hav io r appeared to divert creative energies. As
a specialized orientation, collective behavior
beca me encapsuled and immune to the theoretical
developments in other aspects of sociological
thinking . . „ .^
In the course of this development it was not made
very clear whether the public and public opinion were c o l
lective beh avi or phenomena or not. Apparently, the settling
of such a question depended on thlT cri teria that were
selected to serve as the basis on which collective behavior
could be distinguished from non-collective behavior. It is
only recently that an effort was made at establishing such
criteria and at solving the vexing "boundary p r o b l e m , " that
is the pr ob le m of deciding whether the events subsumed under
collective beh avior constitute a generica lly different type
of social behavior, and of determining what is the opposite

3
or the absence of collective behavior. The sociologists,
Herber t Blumer, "Collective B e h a v i o r , " in Review of

S o c i o l o g y , ed. b y J. P. Gittler (New York: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., 1957), p. 127.
2
Janowitz, "Introduction to Collective Behavior and
Conflict," p. 113.
^ I b i d . , pp. 115-16., ^
_17 104
H. Blumer, Neil Smelser, and Ralph H. Turner, addressed t h e m
selves to this problem.'*' However, the question of whether,
in accordance with their criteria, the public and public
opinion constitute instances of collective behavior has not
been settled in any definite way.
Sociological Theorists
of Public Opinion
It is difficult to find a systematic account of the
sociological study of public opinion. Among various ob se rva
tions we distinguish one made recently b y Harwood Childs:
In fact, since the latter part of the nineteenth

century the study of public opinion has b e e n greatly
influenced and enriched by the contributions of
sociologists and social psychologists, the former
much interested in it as a means of social control,
the latter seeking to throw light in its formation
through studies of individual group behavior . . . .
Explicit views on public opinion on the part of early
sociologists are found in the writings of Auguste Comte as
well as in those of Lester F. Ward.
It is in his Systeme de politique positive .. . -
(1851-54) that Comte developed what he called his "positive
Blumer, "The Field of Collective Behavior"; Neil

Smelser, "Theoretical Issues of Scope and Problems"; Ralph
H. Turner, "New Theoretical Frameworks," "Collective
Behavior and Conflict"; a Symposium, Sociological Q u a r t e r l y ,
V (1964), pp. 117-132.
2
Childs, ojo. c i t . , p. 31.
105
r-18
theory of pu blic opinion." He envisioned the rule of public
opinion as the principal trait of the ultimate condition of
mankind, the positive stage. With the irrevocable passing
of the theological illusions, the rule of pu blic opinion will
become indispensable and it will compensate for the d e f i c i e n
cies in most men of natural morality. Public opinion, in the
positive stage will emerge from the alliance of spiritual
leaders and masses, for everyone will then be forced to live
increasingly in the public light. With its double function,
moral and political, public opinion is bound to be the all-
important regulator of modern life."*-
Ward's concern with public opinion is also in c on ne c
tio n with h is "teleological" conception of social order and
social action. The great social aim is correctness of
opinion. This is something that can be achieved only if
thi nking is freed from superstition and convention as well
as from subjective influence. Opinions base d on desires are
as likely to be false as true, and the universality of
2
belief is no evidence of the truth.
Auguste Comte, Systeme de politique p o s i t i v e , ou

traite de Sociologie instituant la religion de 1 1humanite
(4 volumes, fourth edition; Paris: 19 12 ) , ' I, 139-150.
2
Lester F. Ward, Dynamic Sociology (2 volumes, second
edition, 1897; New York: D. Appleton, 1883), V o l , II,
Chap. XII,
It is, however, in the writings of the sociologists
wh o co nst ituted the broad international circle that we find
a more systematic treatment of public opinion phenomena.
In an article with the title, "Public Opinion,"
(1909)"*" J . Shepard reviewed both Le Bon and T a r d e :s work,
and at the same time discussed E. A. Ross- conception of
public opinion as "public sentiment" and a means of social
control. Public opinion is "the pr i m i ti ve nucleus out of
which the various agencies of social control ha ve developed."
This is so be c a us e "common o p i n i o n - - c l a s s , group, or public
o p i n i on — is usual ly the resultant of many individual con tr i
butions, the residue left after the offerings of each have

3
been wi nno we d in the minds of the rest."
The c on ce pt ion of public opinion as an agency of
social control h a s induced sociologists to search for its
implications and eventually to study the ph e n o me na of
propaganda.
In the same year that Shepard was discussing R o s s ;
views on public opinion, R. Maunier was reviewing, in the
1Walter J. Shepard, "Public Opinion," American Journal

of S o c i o l o g y , XV (1909), 32-60.
2
E. A. Ross, Principles of Soci olo gy (New York: The
Century Co., 1920), p. 429.,
^ I b i d ., p . 283.
\j-2Q 107
Revue Internationale de S o c i o l o g i e .C . H. C o o l e y 's Social
Organization (1909), and was giving special emphasis on the
author's conception of public opinion,"'' According to Cooley,
public opinion is a ma nifestation of collective c o n s c i o u s
ness that emerges out of the converging action of the ex t e r
nal means of mental communication. Com pl ex and concrete, it
is not just the sum of individual judgments.. Indeed, Cooley
gave public opinion a social dimension:
„ . . We may vi ew social consciousness either in

a particular mind or as a cooperative activity of
many minds. The social ideas that I have are
closely connected with those that other people have,
and act and react upon them to form a whole. This
gives us pu blic consciousness, or to use a more
familiar term, public opinion, in the b r o a d sense
of a group state of mind which is more or less d i s
tinctly aware of itself . . „ The more intimate the
communic ati on of a group the more complete, the
more thoroughly knit together intoâ living whole
is its pu blic consciousness, , - .
The grou p may be the family, a local group, or a
class. Actually, institutions are simply a m o r e 'established
phase of the process of public opinion,,
Cooley's b r oa d conception of public opinion is very
much in the same line with that of Ross and opposed tc that
"'"R. Maunier, Review of Social O r g a n i z a t i o n , Revue

Internationale de S o c i o l o g i e , XVI (1909), 544-46,
2
Charles H. Cooley, Social Org anization (New York:
Schocken Books, 1962; first published b y Scribner's Sons in
1909), p. 10,
'-2 1
108
of Tarde, in that it emphasizes the group rather than the
public as the locus of public opinion reflecting thus a
trend that marks many of the studies using the psychologic al
approach„
Ferdinand Tonnies, the well-k no wn German sociologist,
was very much part of the international circle of s o c i o l o
gists who, coming from many countries in Europe and from the
United States, gathered at the annual congresses of the
Institut International de S o c i o l o g i e „^ At the first congr ess
of the Institut, in 1894 in Paris, Tonnies presented a paper,
"Considerations sur l'histoire moderne," in which he was
dealing with public opinion., He said then that there are
three social forces in modern times, society, the state, and
science:
Science is the republic of scientists insomuch

as it is independent and separate from the society
and from the state, even though it is so only to a
limited extent., But, so long as it exists, it tends
to shape the opinions, public opinion. The latter
is expressed, though imperfectly, in the current
press . . . which is par tl y the instrument of the
society and partly the instrument of the s t a t e , A
press governed by a bod y of scientists, as
The proceedings of these annual congresses were p u b

lished by the Institut and constitu ted the volumes of the
Annales edited by Rene Worms; the Revue Internationale de
Sociologie was the journal of the Institut.
independent as a supreme court: This would be the
scientific press, of which we have only a very few
signs , , .. .^
It was in 1887, however, that he had first dealt with
public opinion giving it an important place in his work

?
Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (1887),
It was much later, m 1922, that F. Tonnies published
his treatise on public opinion, the Kritlk der Offentlichen

3
Meinung one of the most comprehensive, yet largely ignored,
treatments of public opinion. Of particular interest to our

t/
study is Tonnies' intention in writing this book, As he
said in the Introduction, in 1907 the publisher 0. Haering
called his attention to Gabriel Tarde's L :Opinion et la
Foule and invited h i m to write a German book on public
"La science c'est la Republique des savants en tant

q u ’elle est m d e p e n d a n t e et separee de la societe et de
l'Etat, ce qui peut etre ne se realise que dans une mesure
tres limitee, Mais en tant qu'elle existe, elle tend a
former les opinions, l ’opinion publique., Celle-ci s-exprime
sous u n e •forme tres imparfaite dans la presse actuelle ,. ,
Elle est en partie instrument de la societe, en partie
instrument de l'Etat., Une presse dirigee par un corps de
savants, aussi m d e p e n d a n t e qu'une cour supreme— voila la
presse scientifique dont ll n :y a que peu de prodromes
encore , .. ," Ferdinand Tonnies. "Considerations sur
l'histoire m o d e r n e , " Annales de 1' Institut International de
S o c i o l o g i e , I (1895), p, 253.
2
Ferdinand Tonnies, Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft
(Leipzig: Fues's Verlad, 1887), trans. by Charles P Loomis
as Community and Society (East Lansing: The Michigan State
University Press, 1957), pp. 218-22.
3 •*
Tonnies, Kr it lk der Of fent lichen Meinung , p a s s i m ,.
-2 3 110
opinion that would constitute a counterpart to the prominent
French and Italian works of the time. Tonnies accepted the
invitation at once, but he did not b e g i n work on the book
until 1915, and could not complete it until 1921,"'’
His analysis is based upon an interpretation of the
political experience of several nations and upon a full c o n
sideration of the historical background. Concerning public
opinion itself, Tonnies stressed the need tc distinguish
between public opinion and The Public Opinion:
Above all it seemed essential to distinguish

public opinion as a conglomeration of diverse and
contradictory desires and intentions, from The
Public Opinion as a unitary force and expression
of the common will . - ,
He also distinguished states of aggregation of various
types of public opinion, namely, the three states, solid,
liquid, or gaseous, that in the natural sciences characterize
"I have for many years valued highly the writings of

Tarde, but I also k n e w that our scientific assumptions, p a r
ticularly the sociological ones, are rather different: Herr
Haering himse lf expressed the view that a German bock on
pu blic opinion would have to be structured differently."
i b i d ., p. v (passage translated by Dr, Gillian L. G o l l i n ) ;
also cited by Paul A. Palmer m "Ferdinand Tonnies Theory
of Public Opinion," P u b 1 1 c Opinion Q u a r t e r l y . II (1938),
p. 584,
2 •.
Tonnies, Kritik der Offentlichen M e i n u n q , p 6 ,
quoted by Gi ll ian L. G o l l m and Albert E, G o l l m , "Tonnies
on Public O p i n i o n , " draft chapter for a forthcoming bo ok on
Tonnies in The Heritage of Sociology Series, edited by Werner
N. Cahnmann, p. 17; also cited by Jean Stoetzel, Esquisse
d ;une Theorie des Opinions (Paris: Presses Universitaires
de France, 1947), p. 147.
matter. Thus, public opinion may be solid, fluid, or eph em
eral, depending on the degree of its u n a n i m i t y . 1
Another member of the same international circle of
sociologists, Georg Simmel, did express cogent and original
observations on public opinion which have not yet been fully
examined and discussed. The student of public opinion would
find among them many valuable theoretical pr op ositions to
test in empirical r e s e a rc h, 1 To understand Simmel's views
on public opinion one must take into account his differentia
tion betw ee n forms of the intrinsic and extrinsic relations
of the individual to hi s social group. It is in terms of
custom, law, and morality that these relations are regulated
A group secures the suitable behavior of its members through
custom, when legal coercion is not permissible and individua
morality net reliable. Cu stom operates as a supplement cf
these other two orders, and public opinion is its only execu
3
tive organ. Thus, public opinion is viewed as the co nt rol
ling mec hanism that a particular group applies; it is then
1Tonnies, Kritik der Offentlichen M e i n u n g , pp 13 7,

246-49, 258-63, cited by Go llin and G o l l m , p p , c i t ,,
pp. 19-21.
2
Albert J, Reiss, Jr.., "Review of The Sociology of
Georg Simmel (translated and edited by Kurt H- Wolff),"
Public Opinion Q u a r t e r l y , XI V (1950-51), 789,
3
The Sociology of Georg S i m m e l , trans, and e d , by
Kurt H. Wolff (Glencoe: Free Press, 1950), p. 101
more typical of small groups rather than of larger co l l e c
tivities ,
The Emergence of _a Methodological

Orientation
The next generation of sociologists to deal with p u b
lic opinion were affected by developments that had marked
both their discipline and the field of public opinion
For one thing, a certain degree of par ochialism had
settled m sociology during the interval between the two
world wars. Increasing institutionalization fostered spe
cialization which is reflected by both the content of soc io
logical journals and the subjects treated at the sessions of
the annual meetings of the sociological a s s o c i a t i o n s . With
this trend toward specialization, the sociologists' quest
changed from an attempt to discover "natural laws" to some
thing more like attempts to invent concepts and formulas that
would serve as ad hoc descriptions of more or less recurrent
aspects of interhuman behavior. There continued to be
efforts to show that sociological generalizations could net
be derived from (or reduced to) generalizations of ether d i s
ciplines like psychology or economics, and the antireduc
tionist premise came to be gen erally taken for granted.'*' The
^Catton, J r ,, "The Development of Sociological

Thought," p, 922,
trend developed in American sociology for fact gathering and
the intensive, but more or less aimless, study of small and
often disconnected "problems" and the immersion into the
development of super refined techniques for ordering and s u m
marizing the crude data thus gathered,^
This fragmentation of sociological study, with its
concomitant antireductionism, was not conducive to the sti mu
lation of significant research m the area of public opinion ,
The ground in this area seemed too cluttered with material
that was not acceptable: either it was developed by other
disciplines; or, if sociological, it was too "theoretical,"
consisting of untested generalizations. Sociologists engaged
in research at this time did not have either the patience or
the means to utilize this material as a source of hunches
and hypotheses, perspectives, and insights. They would
rather start with entirely new definitions of problems of
research. It is much later that recognition and appreciation
were expressed for the work that had b ee n achieved by the
various disciplines in the field of public opinion:
. , . On its way towards achieving a full scien

tific status, the field of public opinion has had
the support of several disciplines or "intellectual
godparents" , , . Psychologists have contributed
their experience with attitude and intelligence
tests and measurements as well as substantive
^Wirth, op., cit ., p, 274
114
-27
concepts and propositions. Sociologists have p r o

vided experience with field and community studies
and ideas about social structure and the place of
opinion within it. Market research has developed
new techniques and furnished a variety of p r a c t i
cal problems on which to try them. The statis
ticians have worked on such problems as sampling
and scaling . . . for a good many years the
political scientists have b e e n discussing the
nature of public opinion and the role it plays
in the political process . . . .^
And it is rather recently that the claim has been
formulated that our conceptual schemes should not be o r g a
nized narrowly within a separate distinctive field of public
opinion research, but should be b ro ad ly conceived as part of
the wider conceptual frameworks of the life, psychological,
and social sciences.^
Indicative of the low degree of interest in public
opinion on the part of sociological research, in this period,
is B. Berelson's comparative survey of the bibliographies on
the field in 1930 and in 1955. There are more sociologists
among the titles in the 1955 bibli og rap hy than in the 1930
3
one.
Bernard Berelson, "Democratic Theory and Public

Opinion," in Reader in Public Opinion and C o m m u n i c a ti on , e d .
by Berelson and Janowitz (New York: The Free Press, 1966),
p. 489.
2
Harry Alpert, "Public Opinion Research as S c ie nc e, ”
Public Opinion Q u a r t e r l y , XX (1956), 498.
3
Berelson, "The Study of Public Opinion," p. 303.
Herbert B l u m e r 1s quest for the functional analysis of
public opinion was a quest for the sociological study of p u b
lic opinion, the absence of which he very strongly deplored:
Admittedly, we do not k no w a great deal about

pu blic opinion . . . the feature that I wish to
note about public opinion and its setting are so
obvious and commonplace that I almost blush to
call them to the attention of this audience. I
would not do so were it not pa infully clear that
the students of current public opinion polling
ignore them, either wit ti ngl y or unwittingly, in
their whole research pr ocedure . . . .
It is true that "polling" dominated the field, and
that psychologists, semanticists, statisticians, journalists,
and account executives dominated the polling organizations,
illustrated by the American Institute of Public Opinion
(George Gallup), the Fortune poll (Elmo Roper), the National
Opinion Research Center (University of De n v e r ) , the Office
of Public Opinion Research (Hadley Cantril, Princeton Uni-

2
versity) , and others in this country and abroad. However,
this phas e of sociology was not as entirely marked by i n di f
ference to public opinion research or as sterile in real
achievements as it may appear to be. Besides the collection
of empirical data, even though on a haphazard, fortuitous,
^Blumer, "Public Opinion and Public Opinion Polling,"

p. 596.
2
Alfred McClung Lee, "Sociological Theory in Public
Opinion and Attitude Studies," American Sociological R e v i e w ,
XII (1947), 314.
and ephemeral basis, there were some positive contributions,
more particularly in the de ve lo pm en t of what is called the
2
"attitude and opinion studies."
This direction in the study of public opinion had
been indicated by Floyd H. Allport in his article "Toward
a Science of Public Opinion." He stressed that in order to
get out of the blind alleys and upon the proper road in the
study of public opinion, it is necessary to consider the
ph e n o m e n a under this term as instances of behaviors of human
i n d i v i d u a l s .^
The social psy cho log ic al approach to the study of
pu bl ic opinion in this per io d followed two main directions
Depending on whether public opinion was primarily seen as
social control or as a m a ni fe st at io n of attitudes, the study
cente red on the theme of p r o p a g a n d a or social change
The consideration of attitudes as an important v a r i
able in the formation of public opinion is traced to Gordon

4
W. Allport's study, "Attitudes" (1935). As he explained
"''Berelson, "The Study of Public Opinion," p. 307 ,

2
Alfred McClung Lee, op_. c i t . , p. 312.
3
Floyd H. Allport, "Toward a Science of Public O p in io n
p . 12 .
^Gordon W. Allport, " A t t i t u d e s , " Handbook of Social

P s y c h o l o g y , e d . by C. M. M u r c h i s o n (Worcester, Massachusetts:
Clark University Press, 1935), pp. 798-844.
hi ms el f later, the concept of attitude became the most d i s
tinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary American
social psychology; psychologists and sociologists could find
in it a me eti ng- po int for di scussion and research,'*'
Daniel Katz supported the point of view that the raw
material out of which public opinion develops is to be found
in the attitudes of individuals. The nature of the o r g a n i
zation of attitudes within the personality and the processes
which account for attitude change are thus critical areas
for the understanding of the collective product known as
public opinion.^
The political and technological developments, in the
period under consideration, that led to a more manifest
m a ni pu lat io n of public opinion, account for an increased
sociological interest in propaganda. In the pr opaganda
studies one can detect the lingering of the earlier c o n c e p
tions of public opinion as a phase of social control. The
^Gordon W. Allport, "The Historical Background of

Modern Social P s y c h o l o g y, " Handbook of Social P s y c h o l o g y .
ed. by G. Lindzey (2 volumes; Reading, Massachusetts:
Addison-W esl ey Publishing Co., Inc., 1954), I, 43.
2
Daniel Katz, "The Functional Approach to the Study
of Attitudes," Reader in Public O p i n i o n , ed by Bernard
Berelson and Morris Janowitz (New York: The Free Press,
1966), p. 51.
theme of pr opaganda is observed in many of the writings of
this period, a number of which bear the mark of the influence
of Freudian analysis.^
Convergence of Theoretical and

Me thodological Concerns
What is also true of this period is that the concern
with quantification promoted the refinement of methods and
techniques. Despite a "narrow o p e r a t io na li sm ,"^ better
methods made sociologists ga in confidence, and they became
more and more inclined to examine various phases of the
p henomenon public opinion, and to explore its implications
in the direction of elites, mobility, status, groups of many
kinds, "hidden persuaders," the organization man, personality
traits, motivations, character, decision-making, etc-^
With this expansion of the sociological interest in
the public opinion phenomena, researchers were better able
to select, to formulate, and to explore significant problems
However, it is still not clear what exactly are the
study areas relevant to publ ic opinion. The editors of the
■*"It is mainly Harold D. Lasswell's work that reflects

the concern with propaganda, and especially his book.
Democracy Through Public Opinion (Menasha, Wisconsin:
George Banta Publishing Co., 1941),
2
Blumer, "Public Opinion and Public Opinion Polling,"
p. 5 95.
"^Childs, ojg. c i t . , p. 38.
119
R eader in Public Opinion and Communication admit, in p r e s e n t
ing the 1966 edition, that they are not much w i s e r in this
respect than they were in 1950, when the p r e sented the first
edition. So, they tried to represent the major streams of
interests and modes of thought now active in the field.^
Phillips Davison's survey of the field of public o pi n
ion, which is the latest to appear, distinguished four p a r
tially overlapping categories in the study of public opinion
phenomena. They are the quantitative study of opin io n d i s
tribution; the formation of public opinion; the political
role of public opinion; the communication media and their
2
us es
It is to the fourth category that most of the recent
sociological studies of public opinion would belong. They
received an impetus from the tendency that developed among
some sociologists toward the conception of mo d e r n society

3
as a mass society and the interest and development of
research in the area of "small group" study. The idea of
the mass society co nsisting of individuals from different
^Berelson and Janowitz, "Introduction," Reader in

_ P O p inion and C o m m u n i c a t i o n , p. 3.
2
Davison, "Public Opinion," pp. 188-90.
3E.g„, H. Blumer, "The Mass, the Public, and Public

Opinion," in Reader in Public Opinion and C o m m u n i c a t i o n ,
pp.. 43-50; L, Wirth, "Consensus and Mass Communication,"
Ameri c a n Sociological R e v i e w , XIII (1948), 1~14.
120
backgrounds, uprooted, isolated, anonymous, and detached over
whom the mass media are al l- powerful was subjected to c r i t i
cism b y researchers and theorists beginning around 1 9 4 0 . ^

2
The P e o p l e 1s Choice (1948) represents an effort to qu es t i o n
some of the conceptions in the theories of mass society. The
empirical findings of the s t u d y indicated that the small
gro up intervenes between the mass m e d i a and the individual
modifying the effects of the former. American sociologists
became thereafter more sensitive to the social context of
communications behavior.
Gradually, the need for the development and the c l a r i
fication of concepts was felt wi t h increasing urgency.
Biamer's appeal for an effort to isolate public opini on as
a generic, object of study or concept was given greater a t t e n
tion with the passing of time.
Part of the sociological literature on public opinion
in. recent times reflects c l e a r l y this preoccupation with
concept bu il di ng The alrea dy men ti on ed articles by Blumer,
Hyman. Beielson, and La zarsfeld are the more forceful e x p r e s
sions of this preoccupation. Meanwhile, the work that is
Bramson, pp.. c i t . , p. 100.
^Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel

Gaudet, The P e o p l e 's C h o i c e : H o w the Voter Makes up His
Mi n d in a Presidential C a m p a i g n (second edition; N e w York;
Co lu mb ia Un iversity Press, 1948).
done b y sociologists in this area, though not yet very
impressive in volume, appears nonetheless to be on the right
track and to contribute, slowly but certainly, to the phase
of concept clarific at io n and building. An earlxer attempt
at conc ep tu al iz ati on is to be found m the work of the
French sociologist, Jean Stoetzel, Esquisse d ■une theorle
des opinions (1947).
Many of the definitions are still operational. Pro
fessional pollsters, receiving most of the publicity, still
dominate the field detracting attention away from c o n c e p
tualization and toward the refinement of techniques. The
main work remains to be done. Paul Lazarsfeld has indicated
in his article, "Public Opinion and the Classical Tradition."
h o w old theories that may have been dismissed as either
incorrect or obsolete could become useful as heur ist ic tools,
suggesting persp ec ti ve s and hypotheses, providing a basis
for compar is on and the clarification of concepts, indicating
areas of ob se rvation and empirical research.
It is in this spirit that we attempt the pr es entation
and analysis of Gabrie l Tarde '

•s views on public opinion.
CHAPTER VI
G. TA RDE ON PUBLIC OPINION
Published at a time marked b y intensive preoccupation
with the phenomena of the crowd and sect and by the vogue
of the respective works of Le Bon and Sighele,'*' Tarde's

2
L 'Opinion et la Foule seemed to meet the need for the study
of an intermediate collectivity, the public, which is both

3
more definable than the crowd and less rigid than the sect.
It has also bee n observed that L 'Opinion is among
Tarde's works one that was more directly inspired b y his
experience of life in Paris;
. . . the intensive life of the capital gave h i m

the idea of applying his system to the phenomenon of
public opinion, to the study of the publics and of
the social influences of conversation and the press
4
Gustave Le Bon, La Psychologie des Foules (Paris;

F. Alcan, 1895); Sc. Sighele, Psychologie des Sectes (Paris:
V. Giard et E. Briere, 1898).
2
G. Tarde, L 'Opinion et la Foule (Paris: F. Alcan,
1901). (Hereafter referred to as L 1O p i n i o n .)
^Rene Worms, "Revue, L 'Opinion et la F o u l e ," Revue

Internationale de S o c i o l o q i e , IX (1901), 857.
4
" ... la vie intensive de la capitale lui inspira
1 •application de son systeme au phenomene de 1 'opinion, h
1'etude des publics et des Foules, a 1 ‘influence sociale de
122
123
in other words, to the study of typically modern urban p h e
nomena .
Most reviewers^ agree that L 1Opinion is not only the
most delightful of Tarde's books, but also a significant
sociological study. M. M.Davis, Jr. said that "There is
perhaps no stu dy of Social Psych ol ogy more interesting and
more pregnant with significance for contemporary life than

2
the delightful book fL 'O p i ni on ] of Tarde's . . . ."
T a r d e 's Broader Theoretical

Fr amework
It is essential that we un derstand the basic a s su mp
tions underlying Tarde's sociology before w e discuss his
la co nv ersation et de la Presse, ... ," Amedee Matagrin,

"La Psychologie sociale de G. Tarde," Revue Politique et
L i tteraire, Revue B l e u e , XVI (1909), 498.
■'"Among the reviews of L 'Opinion close to the time of

its publication, we note in particular those by Paul
Fauconnet in L 'Anne e S o c i o l o g i q u e , V (1900-01), 160-66;
Henri Mazel in Mercure de F r a n c e , XLI (1902), 196-98;
Francois Paulhan in Revue P h i l o s o p h i q u e , LIII (1903),
201-07; and Rene Worms in Revue Internationale de S o c i o l o g i e ,
IX (1901), 856-57.
2
M. M. Davis, Jr., Gabriel T a r d e , p. 85.
theory of public opinion, In the early critiques of Tarde's
work, the expression "social cosmology" was sometimes applied
to them. A. Ma tag rin considered the principles of variation,
imitation, opposition, and adaptation as the springs moving
Tarde's social cosmology, whose basic units are the indi
viduals, communicative, capable of reciprocal influences,
and sociable. He also explained that the achievements of
modern science in the study of the atom or the cell and the
virus had convinced Tarde that only by studying the infi
nitely small unit can we hope to discover the principle that
explains variations.^
Such a conception implied indeed the rejection of
previous sociological doctrines. It could admit neither the
theory of unilinear evolution from homogeneity to a coo rdi
nated heter oge nei ty nor the organicist thesis. For Tarde
the individual was the factor not the function of the co l
lectivity .
Essentially, Tarde rejected the idea of a unified
substance that beco me s increasingly differentiated, for he
could not find the principle of differentiation. He insisted
that it is empirically observable in the social world that it
is diversity that evolves toward unity rather than the
^Matagrin, loc. cit„
reverse. He objected very forcefully to the conception of
society as an organism and he opposed to these views the
idea that "since the development of cellular theory, it is
the organisms that have become societies of a special kind
. . . „ " ■*" He illustrated his point by referring to the
physiologist, Edmond Perrier, who, reversing Spencer's
organic comparison, said that an animal or a plant can be
compared to a city.^ Science, Tarde pointed out, has b ee n
increasingly comparing organisms to mechanisms, thus
de mol ishing the barriers separating the living from the
non-living world. We might then fo llow Cournot who thought
that in bec om in g civilized, hu m a n societies gradually pass
from a b a r b a r i a n and, m a sense, organic phase, in which
the general aspects of their life very curiously remind of
the traits and ways of life, to the mechanical phase. The
latter is an administrative, industrial, scientific, rational
phase, in which the large numbers, which the statistician can
classify into equal mounds, cause the emergence of economic
laws or pseudo-laws so similar, in many respects, to the laws
of phys i c s and mechanics,^
depuis la theorie cellulaire, les organismes

sont devenus au contraire, des societes d 'une nature a part
. , . . , ” G. Tarde, "Monadologie et S o c i o l o g i e , " in Essais
et Me la nge s Sociologiques (Lyon: A. Storck, 1895), p. 338.
Î b i d . , p. 339, ^ I b i d , p. 340,
In ob jecting to Spencer's conception of evolution,
Tarde invites us to see the diver sit y which characterizes
provincial customs, clothes, accents, and physical ap p e a r
ance, and w h i c h is gradually replaced b y modern leveling,
b y a growing u ni fo rm ity in weights and measures, in language,
and even in the topics of conversation.'1'
W e find an echo of Tarde's argument against the organ-
ismic concept ion of society and of its evolution in some
recent writing, although there is no awareness on the part
of the authors of Tarde's position. For example, Jean
Stoetzel poi nt ed out how a double misconception exists in
the w a y in w h i c h the opposition bet we en T o n n i e s '
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft is used. Contrary to what
this typology implies, rural societies are neither simple
nor homogeneous; similarly, industrial societies do not
preclude pr i m a r y relations.^
I b i d ., p. 3 54; Tarde's conception was further e l a b

orated b y his son, Guillaume de Tarde, who at the meeting
of the Soc i e t e de Sociologie de Paris in March, 1911, read
a paper whi c h w as published w i t h the title "L'evolution
sociale d'apres G. Tarde," Revue Internationale de S o c i o l o g i e ,
X I X (1911), 253-81.
2
" ... 1'utilisation qu'on fait de 1'opposition entre
Gemeinschaft et Gesellschaft ... recele une double meprise:
les societes rurales ne sont ni si simples ni si homogenes,
les societes industrielles n'excluent pas les relations
primaires ... ," Jean Stoetzel, La Psychologie Sociale
(Paris; E.. Flammarion, 1963), p. 265.
127
Percy S.. Cohen, most recently, in referring to co n
temporary theories in sociology, observed that one of the
most influential ideas in contemporary sociology, which has
survived from the nineteenth century, is that human society
has developed from simple to complex forms, and that the
assumptions with which this view was closely linked in the
past have been revived in one form or another by a number of
writers,^" Referring more specifically to Durkheirrr s theory
of division of labor, P. S. Cohen deplores in a way, Durk-
heim s "unfortunate tendency to treat societies as organic
e n t i t i e s, " a tendency that made h i m overlook essential facts,
such as the complexity of practices and beliefs m primitive

2
societies, in his explanations of social cohesiveness,
Public O p i n i o n , a Central Concern

of T a r d e :s So c i o lo gy
In the article. "L :Int er- psy cho log ie," that first
appeared in 1903 m the Bul le t in of the Institut General de
Psychologie. and was then published posthumously in the

3
Archives d 'Anthropologie C n m i n e l l e , we have the evidence
that Tarde considered the questions that he discussed in
''"Percy S. Cohen, Modern Social Theory (New York:

Basic Books, 1968), p p , 21-22,
2 I b i d ., p.. 229,
3
G. Tarde, "L Inter-psy ch ol og ie ," Archives d !Anthr o-
pologie C n m i n e l l e , XIX (1904), 537-64,
-7 128
L 'Opinion as crucial questions in Sociology. Actually,
"Inter-psychology" was the subject of his first course of
sociology that he taught at the College de France, in 1901,
and in the article he intended to summarize the plan accord
ing to which he conceived the discipline he called so.'*’
Explaining his choice of the term "inter-psychology," he
said that he found the conception of social or collective
psychology ambiguous, vague, and confusing, for it implied

2
the existence of a social milieu.. He felt that to it should
be substituted
. . . a science that is both more general and

mere precise, which we could call inter-mental or
inter-cerebral psychology, but which I would rather
call by a shorter term--despite the fact that I
abhor hybrid t e r m s — i n t e r- ps yc ho lo gy • . . .^
Such a science would have to deal with five categories
of phenomena: (1 ) the action of an individual on an indi
vidual; (2 ) that of an individual on a crowd or on any g a t h e r
ing of people; (3) that of a gathering on an .individual;
(4 ) that of an individual on a public, a scattered crowd;
1 I b i d ., p. 547.
2 Ibid,
., p. 5 38.
... il faut substituer ... 1 'etude d 'une science a

la fois plus generale et plus precise que 1 'on peut appeler
la psychologie in te r m e n t a l e , inter-c er ebr al e, et que
j 'appellerais volontiers plus brievement--malgre mon horreur
des mots h y b r i d e s - - ! 1 m t e r - p s y c h o l o g i e ... ," i b i d ., p. 539,
8 129
(5) that of a public on an individual.
These questions would constitute the object of as
many distinct studies. The first study would deal with c o n
versation, an infinite small but a continually and universally
effective cause of all social formations and transformations.^
Though the crowd, the object of the second bran ch had
been studied, Tarde felt that there were important enough
gaps that needed to be filled, especially with respect to
the variations that the crowd presents by nationa li ty or h i s
torical period., He be li ev ed that a joint h is to ri ca l and c o m
parative study of the crowd would disclose uniformities in
2
their evolution and transformations. The study dealing with
the action of the crowd on the individual could examine the
phenomena of intimidation. The fourth and fifth studies
At this point Tarde refers to the fact that in

L 'Op inion he tried to sketch the h is to ry of conversation,
to determine its causes, its variations, and its effects,
i b i d ., p. 558.
2
An interesting observation that Tarde made about the
study of the crowds is that "the social relationship causes
the level of intelligence and morality of each of the parties
to rise, although collectively, the social group may often
rank lower in intelligence if not in morali ty than the aver
age of its elements. And it can be demonstrated that the two
propositions are not inconsistent" (“ ... le rapport social a
pour effet d'elever chacun de ses termes, quoique le groupe
social soit souvent collectivement plus bas comme intelli
gence sinon comme moralite, que la moyenne de ses e l e m e n t s -
Et il y aurait a montrer que les deux propositions n'ont rien
d 'incontestable ... “ ), i b i d ., p. 559-
-9 130
deserve a great deal of attention on account of the in cr e a s
ing importance that publics assume as a result of the
development of the me di a of co mm uni ca ti on and especially of
the p r e s s .^
This is the range of the questions that "Inter
psychology, " which implies an inter-disciplinary approach,
must deal with. Actually, it is the study of the c o m m u n i c a
tion of emotions, desires, or minds, that can be understood
when the factors and conditions, bo th internal and external,
2
affecting it are examined.
Of particular interest is the note with which Tarde
closed his article:
If I had the time, I should before closing say

something about the instruments of measurement and
pre cision that inter-psychology, . . . must use . .
. . First, it can bo r r o w from the latter [intra
psychology] some of its own . . . . But also, inter
ps ychology has its own instrument, very delicate it
is true: statistics, a kind of social ps y c h o -
p h y s i c s . I can only indicate its place here. . . „
^ I b i d ., p . 560.
2
I b i d ., p . 564.
^"Si le temps ne me faisait defaut, je devrais, avant

de finie, dire quelques mots des instruments de mesure et de
pre cis io n dont 1'inter-psychologie doit s'aider ... D'abord,
elle peut emprunter a celle-ci [1 'inter-psychologie]
quelques-unes des siens ... Mais, en outre, 1 1interpsychologie
a un instrument propre, tres delicat a manier, il est vrai:
la statistique, sorte de p s y c h o -physique s o c i a l e . Je ne puis
qu'indiquer sa place ici ... ,"l o c . c i t .
It is pertinent to mention here that Emile Du rk h e im
reacted strongly to Tarde's conception of Interpsychology
in a review of the article in the An n ee s o c i o l o g i q u e , that
appeared after Tarde's death. He treated it of arbitrary
and confused implying an unacceptable red uctionism since it
fuses under the same rubric facts be longing to two clearly
distinct orders. He also qu estioned Tarde's view that
simple inter-individual actions can explain the genesis and
me n t a l i t y of the crowd.'*’
Gabriel T a r d e 1s L 1Opinion
et la Foule
It is an almost impossible task to try to give a p r e
cise idea of Tarde's work. Because of Tarde's approach and
style, one runs the risk of failing to do justice to it or,
even worse, of modifying its exact meaning.
Thus, in our presentation, we will not follow exactly
his plan whic h is due to the fact that in the book he put
together, without any alteration, the articles that were
pr ev i o u s l y published in the Revue de P a r i s . In this plan
the public and the crowd are discussed first, then public
opinion and conversation. Instead, we w il l discuss Tarde's
conception of public opinion be fore we deal w i t h the public
and conversation.
Êmile Durkheim, "Compte-rendu, 'L' Inter-psychologie, '"

An n e e S o c i o l o g i q u e , IX (1905-1906), 132-35.
11 132
Public opinion is in Tarde's view the most typical
social process because it involves the action— unilateral
or re ci pr o ca l— of an individual on another, of an individual
on a collectivity, or of the collectivity on an individual.
Within this all-encompassing generalization are considered,
analyzed, and clarified ma ny social phenomena that may not
seem to be closely related.
Public O p i n i o n : Factor of
Either Social Control or
Social Change
Tarde defined public opinion as"a momentary, and a
more or less logical group of judgments, which, since they
provide answers to problems of the day, are reproduced over
and over again in persons of the same country, of the same
period and of the same society."'*'
He carefully distinguished it from general will which

2
is a group of desires. He further differentiated it from
two other elements of the social mind, tradition and reason.
Tradition is "a condensed and accumulated extract of
the opinion of the dead, a heritage of necessary and useful
prejudices."^ It corresponds, therefore, to the norms and
^Tarde, L 'O p i n i o n , p. 68 .
2
I b i d ., p . 64.
Îbid.
-12 133
values that internalized through socialization are agents
of hu ma n behavior. Tarde's conception of tradition appear
to agree to some extent with D u r k h e i m 1s notion of "collective
r e p r e s e nt at i on s ."
Public opinion may ally itself with either tradition
or reason. In siding with the former, it contributes to the
inhibition of innovation and to the rule of custom against
that of fashion. This alliance leads to a kind of "consensus"
over the evalu at io n of an event or issue in terms of the
existing norms, or over the interpretation of the norms, and
in this way cu s t o m is confirmed and strengthened.
Reason, on the other hand, consists of independent,
relatively rational judgments, although they may be irra-
tional, of a think ing elite, that, keeping apart from the
popular current, seeks to channel it and direct it.'*" These
independent judgments are developed through observation,
experimentation, and research, as well as through speculation
and logical de duction from sacred texts and doctrines.
When pu blic opinion sides with reason it favors the
diffusion of innovation, the rule of fashion over that of
custom, and m a y lead to the destruction of institutions.
By ma king these distinctions, Tarde reconciled the
dual conception of public opinion as either social control
'*'Ibid.
13 134
or social change. In itself, public opinion is neither one.
Social control is exercised through the fact that public
opinion expresses, and b y doing so re-affirms and re-validates
existing social norms and values. It does not initiate social
change, b ut it supports or inhibits innovations that originate
from various sources.
Moreover, Tarde's conception seems to take care,
although not directly, of the question, so central in c u r
rent public opinion research, of what constitutes an issue
over which public opinion is expressed. Indeed, we come to
see that public opinion is aroused when, under certain c i r
cumstances, either tradition or reason are at stake.
Public opinion can thus b e summoned to support both
reason and tradition, and it seems to be equally sensitive
to both. Tarde's conception of public opinion makes us
aware of the fact that appeals to public opinion are made
on the part not only of innovators but also of the c o n
servative, in the name of the status q u o .
The De ve lopment of Public Opinion
"Throughout history, and in even the most barbaric
times, there existed a public opinion, but it differed p ro
foundly from the one we know."'*' After this introduction,
1 T b i d ,, p . 69.
135
-14
Tarde proceeded, wit h the characteristic "natural history"
method, to trace the stages of development of public opinion,
as they reflect the various forms of human society.
In the societies, small enough so that all social
relations and contacts are of the person-to-person form, any
idea which, through either the platform or private c o n v e r s a
tions, was spread and e stablished as a common idea, was
still linked to its originator, who being k n o w n b y the rest
of the com m u n i t y had no chance to abuse anyone. If such a
society was organized into a state, public opinion pl a y e d
an important role in government. Like the chorus in the
Greek drama it w e i g h e d s t r ongly "against tradition itself
at times, but c h i e f l y against individual r e a s o n . " 1
I n t e r e s t i n g l y enough, the modern media of c o m m u n i c a
tion and e s p e c i a l l y the press favor a similarly important
role on the part of public opinion in modern times.
In the intervening times, however, m a r k e d b y fragmen
tation c h a racteristic of feudalism, local public opinion had
no chance to be diffused into national public opinion. In
the feudal states, in e v e r y city and in every market town,
"... the currents of ideas, or rather the w h i r l w i n d s of
ideas that turned r ound and round, were as different from
1I b i d ., p . 70.
-15 136
pl a ce to place, as they were alien and indifferent to one
another . . . ." ^
It is the printed wo rd that provided the link, first
the bo ok and then the press. The latter, in particular,
co nt ri bu te d to making the number of voices rather than the
force or weight of voices count with public opinion: "The
Press has worked to create the power of the numbers, and to

2
decrease that of quali ty if not of intelligence." It also
cont rib ute d to suppress the conditions of fragmentation and
se par at io n that justified the existence of the absolute
ruler, who, in the absence of the press, constituted a ki nd
of locus wh e r e all the partic ula r concerns were reflected
and wh e r e what was common and general among them w o u l d in
some w a y come up. Indeed, "only in his person did they
3
in te rp en et ra te ."
Other developments have contributed to the emergence
of a public spirit, but it was "the task of the press, once
it has developed into the stage of the newspaper, to give
national, European, or wo rl d - w i d e scope to whatever is local,
which . . . would formerly have remained unknown bey ond a
4
ce rt ain limited radius."
-*-Ibid.
^ I b i d ., P- 71.
3 Ibid., P- 72.
4 Ibid., p. 73.
However, it is in conjunction w i t h the elementary
form of interaction, conversation, that the press has pro
duced this effect on public spirit. In a two-way process,
the press w h i c h bega n b y giving ex pression to localized,
even private opinions ended by fashioning opinion as it
imposed on pri va te conversations their dai ly topics. "The
newspaper has indeed transformed, enriched, and levelled,
unified in space and diversified in time private conversa
tions. . . . One pen is enough to put into motion thousands
of t o n g u e s ."^
The interplay between the press and private conversa
tion creates a certain degree of levelling, that is an essen
tial condition to universal suffrage and parliame nta ry
majority and makes the emergence of the large modern democ
racy possible. This levelling occurs through the formation
of a public that exists above the distinctions created b y
either physical or social factors. Such a unified national
public is the creation of the press, for the circulation of
the book, until Tarde's time at least, produced separate
independent publics of thinking elites, concerned with a
certain k in d of general ideas. Such was the group of the
Encyclopedists of the Enlightenment whos e deified conceptio n
^ I b i d ., p . 76.
of humaneness dominated thinking circles all over Europe.
The Crowd and the Pu b l i c : The Two

Poles of Social Evolution
Tarde's study of the public is pr im ar il y the construc
tion and clarific ati on of the concept of the public. Co ns id
ering it bo th as a counterpart and an extention of the crowd,
his study consists of an analysis and compa ri so n of both
these social aggregates.
Tarde's effort to distinguish the public from the
crowd was given a great deal of recognition often at the
expense of his other fruitful ideas.
Tarde was moved to make this dist inc tio n b y his wish
to correct a double misconception, namely the consideration
of all kind s of human groupings as crowds, and of describing
modern times as "the era of the crowds." Indeed, it is not
at gatherings of men in the streets or public squares that
in our times are bo rn and develop the currents of opinion,
the great social movements, but rather in collectivities of
p hy si c a ll y separated individuals who se cohesion is purely
1 1_bid. , p . 82 .
2
" . . . the crowd and the public these two extremes
of social evolution. . . ." (In a footnote Tarde further
explained that "the family and the horde are the starting
point of this evolution. But the horde, the rough and
plundering band, is nothing else but the crow d in motion.")
I b i d ., p. 28.
139
-18
mental, that is, in the publics. Their bond develops out
of their being simul ta ne ou sl y possessed by a certain convic
tion or passion, and out of their awareness of sharing at
the same time an idea or a wis h wi t h a large number of other
men} The public is according to Tarde "a scattered crowd,
in wh i c h one mind acts upon another at a distance, an ever-

2
increasing distance." it is therefore capable of extend
ing itself almost infinitely. It is not a pri ma ry group
but one that forms on a level above concrete social group
ings such as institutions, sects, and parties. It does not,
as a result, supplant them but rather becomes superimposed
on them. Actual ly publics are generated b y these concrete
groupings, to whi ch they become a kind of surrounding atmos
phere, something that m a y be clearly observed w h e n one of
these groupings decides to publish its own journal or other
3
publication.
It presupposes, however, a certain degree of mental
and social development, but also the technical means that
make the transmission of thought possible. Then, the public
could not come into existence before the invention of
1 I b i d ., p . 3.
^ I b i d ., p. vi.
3 I b i d ., p. 22 .
printing. But, Tarde believed, once it has appeared, it
becomes a social form toward w h i c h all the groups in society,
w hat eve r their nature, tend, transforming themselves into
diverse publics first, and ultima tel y into the public, an
all-psychological group, consisting of mental states in
per petual mutation.'*'
The public is thus in Tarde's view an all-important
type of social phenome non to study. To do so means to inves
tigate questions such as its origin and genesis; its var ie
ties; its relationships with its leaders, with the crowd,
w it h social organizations, wit h the state; its manner of

2
expression, and its abil ity for good or evil.
The Emergence and Development

of the Public
Tarde considered Protesta nti sm as one of the earlier
ma nifestations of the public, relating it with the wid e cir
culati on of the Bible that the invention of printing made

3
possible. However, in France it is on ly in the time of
~*~Ibid., p . 28.
2
Tarde visualized this ultimate phase of human soci
ety in his work Fragment d 'Histoire future (Paris: v. Giard
et E. Briere, 1896) a utopia w hi c h he called "a sociological
f a n t a s y , " and in which he pr esented man, relieved of mat er
ial insecurities, engaging in pure and spontaneous social
relationships.
3 .
L O p i n i o n , p. 7.
Louis X I V that a genui ne public appeared, a small localized
elite of culture d people living in Paris who read their
mont hly gazette and especially a small number of book s, ^
In the eighte ent h century, fragmented, specialized p h i l o
sophical, literary, scientific publics appeared first, then
a pol itical public emerged wh i c h in its growth absorbed
these earlier publics. Until the French Revolution, this
public had little intensity of its own, deriving its force
„ 2
from the crowd.
In a long but interesting digression, Tarde discusses
the crowds of the Revolution, wh i ch had inspired so m a n y
studies at his time, trying to dem onstrate that these crowds
present no particular significance since they were in no
w a y any different from those of previous civil wars:
There is nothing more monotonous than these age old

ma nif estations of their activity. But, what ch arac
terized 1789 and what the past had never seen, is the
p ro li fe ra ti on of newspapers that were so avidly read
Still, the publics remained largely localized until
the com bination of the railroad and the telegraph w it h
Îbid., p . 8 .
2 Ibid.
3
I b i d ., p. 9.
142
21
printing gave rise to modern press, whi ch in turn helped the
public to extend itself.^
Types of Crowds and Publics
Therefore, the real public dates from the development
of the press, and this is the public that should be care
fully studied. In an inginuous way, Tarde pr oceeded to dis
tinguish the variations of the public in a simultaneous com
parison w i t h those of the crowd. Considered w i t h respect to
sex, age, physical conditions, social origin, the crowds
show consi ste nt ly greater variability than do the publics.
Discussing the similarities and differences betw een crowds
and publics, Tarde makes a host of more or less pertinent,
but almost-always original, observations, e.g., that female
crowds can be more ferocious than male ones, and uses ma t e r
ial from historical accounts, in this case from historian
Taine, to illustrate them. In the same vein, he points out
that it is the public of old age people, the "senile" pub
lics, that conduct the business world in which "senile

\
r*
2
crowds" have no part at all.
"'■"The public is infinitely extensible. The more it

extends, the more intensive its particular life becomes,
and the more it seems to be the social group of the future
. . . ." I b i d ., p. 11.
2
I b i d ., p. 30.
22 143
Consistent with his theory that desires and beliefs
are the motives of human action, Tarde thought that he could
identify two major categories in the case of both the crowd
and the public. These are the bel ie vi ng crowds and publics,
convinced and fanatic, and the desiring crowds and publics
passionate and despotic.^- If the publics show less inten
sity in both their faith and their passion, they are neve r
theless more tenacious and lasting in this respect.
Religious crowds and esthetic crowds are those that
are moved b y faith. Political, economic, rural and urban
crowds are desiring crowds. All crowds resemble one another
by their intolerance, arrogance, touchiness, illusion of
omnipotence, and lack of the sense of measure. Publics can
also be intolerant, conceited and p r e s u m p t i o u s . They differ
from the crowds in that the pr op o r t i o n of the publics of faith
and ideas is greater than that of the publics of passion,

2
while theopposite is true of the crowds.
Considered from the point of view of their activity
both crowds and publics present a variation that ranges from
ex pec tan cy to action. Tarde act ua ll y identified four types
in this range applying to both crowds and publics: the
^ I b i d ., p . 33.
2
I b i d ., p. 37.
expectant, the attentive, the manifesting or expressive,
and the acting.'*’
Again, T a r d e 's treatment of the acting crowds, which
he distinguishes into crowds of love and crowds of hate, is
full of interesting observations many of which were intended
to question the "crowd psychologists'" assertions that were
so popular then. He said for instance,
. . . crowds, gatherings, tournaments, mutual involve

ments among men promote rather than hurt the develop
ment of sociability. Yet, in this, as in everything,
wh at can be seen prevents us from thinking about what
cannot be s e e n . This is probably the re ason for the
strict attitude that sociologists u s u a l l y take with
regard to crowds.^
Tarde wondere d h o w justified one is to speak of act
ing or active publics. Debating the point, however, he
observed that the journalists feel the effect of publics,
or what may be called the "power of public opinion," and
that in general there are many cases in which one may speak
of the actions of publics, actions which, as in the case of
crowds, may be inspired by either love or hate. Publics are
not onl y the victims but also very often the agents of
3
abuse. And, because in their case action is more
1I b i d ., p . 38.
2I b i d ., p. 47.
3I b i d ., p. 49.
145
[-24
delib er ate and calculated, the abuses or eve n crimes they
commit, although not as visible as those com mi tt ed b y the
crowds, m a y be very serious with profound and long-lasting
effects. Publics are active in exercising pr es s u r e over
governments and leading them to take decisions w h i c h are
ob v i o u s l y unreasonable and unwise or to pass laws whic h are
prej ud ic ia l to a certain category of citizens. It is not
rare to see criminal publics generate criminal crowds.
The action of publics is according to Tarde a two-way
process involving a certain public and the journalist. The
latter sensitive to the mood of the public b o t h reflects it
and stimulates it further by indicating to it a certain direc
tion. W i t h its response the public stimulates further the
journalist, or even compels him, to pursue more intensively
the line of action he originally m ay have just suggested.
The "power of opinion" that is set into moticn b y these
leaders, once aroused, may sweep them along altogether unex-

2
pe ct ed paths. On the other hand, the leader has a stronger
impact on the public than he has on the crowd. He can sug
gest actions to the public that the crowd w o u l d not tolerate.
Tard e remarked that there seems to be greater m o d e s t y in
~*~Ibid. , p. 58 .
2
I b i d ., p . 47.
-25 146
1
the crowds than there is in some publics.
Still, publics represent social progress from fragmen
tary, constricted, and diffe ren tia ted forms of human assoc ia
tion to extensible, interpenetrating ones. However, this
social progress is not a b li nd deterministic process that
collectivities automatically undergo, but one that relies
on the thought, independent and strong, of the individual
and especia lly of the intellectual. Thus, Tarde closes his
essay on the public and the crowd wi t h a brief note on the
role of the intellectual in modern democracies, in w h i c h it
becomes increasingly difficult to escape the obsession of
2
fascinating agitation.
C o n v e r s a t i o n , _a Factor of Public
Opinion
The press and the publics that it generates are but
one of the factors of public opinion and a recent one. It
is co nv ers ati on that must be acknowledged as the continuous
and universal factor.
Tarde engaged in a long description and analysis of
conve rsa tio n that he viewed as the elementary form of human
interaction, and as such w o r t h y of being studied systematic
ally.
1 2
I b i d ., p , 58. I b i d ., p. 61.
147
26
His study is neither truly systematic nor exactly
very thorough; however, it is hard to find among subsequent
sociological studies of the process of communication one
that matches T a r d e 's awareness of its infinite implications.
W h a t he tried to do was "to sketch as briefly as possible,
the p s ych ol ogy or rather the soc io log y of conversation."'*'
Such a sociology should deal with the problem of determining
the varieties of conversation; of tracing its development in
its successive phases; of examining its causes and its
effects, its relationships wi th social developments and
cultural transformations in language, norms, art, and liter
ature. By applying the qua nti ta ti ve approach, it would
moreover be possible to di st ing uis h between what is variable

2
and wh at is constant in it.
Quoting from a letter of the Encyclopedist Diderot to

3
Necker, Tarde indicates from the outset his conception of
~*~Ibid. , p . 8 5.
2 I b i d ., p . 86.
3
"Public opinion, this motivating force whose power
for good and for evil we know, is, at its origin, but the
result of a small number of men wh o speak after having
thought, and who continue to form centers of instruction at
different points of society, from which, reasoned errors and
truths gradually reach the remotest limits of the city,
w h e r e they become established as articles of faith."
I b i d ., p. 83.
conversation as the social phenomenon that best demonstrates
the process of wave -li ke social contagion, or better of prop
agation and diffusion, from centers of action.
His definition of conversation is "all talking without
direct or immediate utility, when one talks for the sake of

1
talking . . . ."
In tracing its development, Tarde observed that lan
guage must have been the first esthetic luxury that man has
enjoyed. Besides a large number of original observations,
we find in T a r d e 's treatment of conversation the very inter
esting hypothesis that speech evolved from the monologue to
the dialogue. He based it on the idea that evolution pro
ceeds from the unilateral to the reciprocal. Indeed, Tarde
treats language as an invention which, like all inventions,
lends the inventor and the first skillful users a certain
superiority leading them to become the nuclei of propagation
and diffusion. In the case of conversation, Tarde observed
that there is constant increase in two respects, in the num
ber of people w h o talk among themselves and in the number

2
and range of topics they talk about.
Conversations vary greatly according to the charac

ter of the speakers, their degree of culture, social
standing, rural or urban origin, professional habits,
1 2
Ibid. Ibid., p. 109.
and religion. T he y differ depending on the topic, on
the tone, formality, and rapidity of speech, and their
duration . . . . 1
To study conversation better, Tarde found it necessary
to set up a dual typology. Thus, he distinguished first con-
versation-fight or arguing and co nversation-exchange or
mutual exchange of information; he also di stinguished obli
g ato ry or ceremonial conversation and optional or sp ont ane
ous conversation. The trend is for conversation to develop
from unilateral ceremo ni al conversation and arguing implying
social inequality toward spontaneous free dialogue reflect-
2
mg equality and unity.
Discussing the salon movement of the Precieuses in
France under Louis XIV, Tarde tried to demonstrate ho w by

3
cultivating the art of talking for the sake of talking,
these Parisian wom en favored the diffusion of sensitivity
and of feelings and con tributed to the reduction of social
inequality in their society and eventually in the entire
nation.
There is an essential interplay between con versation
^ I b i d ., p . 86.
2 I b i d ., p. 108.
^Tarde even po in ted out that "for the Precieuses . . .

conversation was so absorbing an art that they wer e very
cautious at their gatherings not to do any wo rk wi t h their
hands despite the hbits to the contrary of the wo m e n of the
period." I b i d ., p. 114.
150
-29
and the social and cultural factors of language, religion,
economy and leisure, government, and social structure.
These are its determinants but at the same time they undergo
the effect of communication.. T a r d e 's central proposition
was that communication and social interaction, especially
when they are of the co nv er sa ti on- ex cha ng e type, create the
conditions for what w e w o u l d now call "consensus" and the
emergence of a code of standards in every one of these
areas:
By discussion as well as b y the exchange of ideas, by

competi ti on and conflict as well as b y work, we all
collaborate always toward a higher h a r m o n y of thoughts,
w or ds and actions; toward a stable e q u i li br iu m of
judgments wh ic h are formulated into literary, artistic,
scientific, philosophical, and religious doctrines; or
toward a stable eq ui li bri um of actions in the form of
laws and moral principles . . . .^
Conve rs at io n is most c l ose ly linked wi t h public opin
ion. As they vary together, it is possible to make infer
ences about either one from what is k no wn about the other.
The e v o lu ti on of power is thus explained by the evolution of
opinion, w hi ch is explained b y the evolution of conversation,
which, as Tarde de mon strated at some length, is affected by
a number of different factors and especi all y the practices
and approaches of sociali zat io n at home, at school, on the
^ I b i d ., p. 148.
151
-30
job, at the church, through the political platform, the book,
and the press."*-
If public opinion is gen erated b y private co nve rsa
tions as much as b y public deliberations, we can see the
cafes, the clubs, the salons, the stores, and all the places
2
wher e people assemble and talk as real "factories of power."
This is so, however, only w h e n these private conversations
can be fed w i t h information on public matters p r i ma ri ly
through the press, in T a r d e 's time, through the media of
communication, we woul d say today.
Thus, in T a r d e 1s view, the press and the other media
produce an interplay between the private and the public
spheres of life, a process that he envisioned as expanding
in ever-widening circles to encompass eventually the entire
humanityo In his words, the press
. . . has co mpleted the task, begun b y conversation

and carried on b y correspondence . . . of fusing
personal opinions into local public opinions, and these
into national public opinion and into world public
opinion^ the grandiose unification of the Public Mind
L 'Opinion et la F o u l e , A Work Rich

in Significant Implications
In rev iewing T a r d e 's book in 1901, Rene Worms, the
Se cretary General of the International Institute of
1 2
I b i d ., p. 136. I b i d ., p. 157.
152
E-31
Sociology and the editor of Ija Revue Internationale de
S o c i o l o q i e , observed that the author's discussions abound
in valuable implications. Indeed, it is b y this trait that
this work wh il e always delightful and timely, resists syste
matic analysis and orderly presentation. W h a t Rene Worms
said more than sixty years ago, could still help us in our
effort to place T a r d e 's work in focus:
To the economist he [G. Tarde] draws attention to the

fact that there is real cooperation among competitors.
To political science he demonstrates that it is the
broade nin g of public opinion through the diffusion of
the press and of conversation on poli ti ca l subjects
that has led to democracy. He even made a contribution
to linguistics b y sketching a histor y of speech, first
u nilateral then bilateral, and by dem onstrating in the
language development of the child the recapitulation
of the evolution of language in mankind. In education,
he defends the classical studies for providing topics
of conversation common to all ages, professions and
countries. Several are the topics that he thus
refreshes b y just touching on them. It will be neces
sary that scholars deepen and extend the paths that he
opened. But is it not a rare merit that he marked the
starting point and the direction of m a n y new paths?"*-
A l'economiste il ouvre les yeux sur la cooperation

veritable des concurrents. A la science politique, il
montre que ce qui a fait la democratie, c'est l'elargisse-
ment de 1'opinion, due a la diffusion de la presse et de la
conversation sur des sujets politiques. Il apporte meme son
concours a la linguistique, en esquissant une histoire de
la parole, unilaterale d'abord, puis bilaterale et en
montrant dans 1 ‘evolution du langage chez I 1enfant une
repetition resumee de 1'evolution du langage dans l'humanite.
En pedagogie, il defend la culture classique, comme creant
un sujet de conversation commun a tous les ages, a toutes
les professions et a tous les pays. No mb reu x sont les
sujets q u 'il rajeunit ainsi rien q u 'en les effleurant. Il
153
-32
Having endeavored to untangle the w e b of ideas in
T a r d e 's L ’Opinion and to present his central propositions,
we will now set as our next task to consider those among
them that viewed from the perspective of current develop
ments in public opinion study w o u l d have significant impli
cations .
faudra sans doute que 1'effort des savants s'attache ensuite

aux voies qu'il a ouvertes, pour les creuser et les prolonger
Mais n'est-ce pas un rare merite que d'avoir marque le point
de depart et 1'orientation de tant de chemins nouveaux.
Rene Worms, Rev ie w of L 'Opinion et la F o u l e . Revue Interna
tionale de S o c i o l o g i e , IX (1901), 857-58.
CHAPTER VII
S OCI OLO GI CAL IMPLICATIONS IN T A R D E 'S AP PR O A CH TO
THE STUDY OF PUBLIC OPINION
The analysis of T a r d e :s w o r k brings forth both its
in t e r di sc ip lin ar y and its sociological implications. it is
pr i m a r i l y the latter that constitute Tarde's contribution
to the study of public opinion. Indeed, this essentially
ignored wo rk -- i t is missing from the list of references of
p r a ct ic al l y all current studies of public opinion— demon
strates that it is very much through sociological research
that our understanding of the cluster of phenomena consti
tuting public opinion can be advanced, but also that soci
ological theory itself will gain in b o t h depth and extent
if public opinion becomes a central concern in sociology.
We do not say that T a r d e 's sociological theory of
public opinion is fully adequate today. His effort was
intended to be and was a pioneering one. However, in devel
oping his theory, explicitly or implicitly, he indicated
problems and areas of research and formulated theoretical
propos i t i o n s .
154
Problems and Areas of Public
Opinio n R e s ea r ch
We have already presented the qu estions that Tarde
considered. His topics are esse nti all y the emergence and
development of the public, w h ic h is the mat ri x of public
opinion, and the role of the press and con versation in the
diffusion of public opinion. These are the pivots around
which he cons tru cte d his sys te m of propositions. Translated
into specific areas of sociological re se ar ch these questions
can be formulated into the problems of determining empirical
indicators of public opinion; the nature of its structural
bases; the conditions, technological as well as social,
affecting communication; the nature and the effects of
pe rs o n- to - p e r s o n interaction in compar is on to those of
interaction at a distance; the role of elites and of leaders
in both the private and the public spheres of life.
W e recognize, in these formulations, areas of soci
ological res ear ch in which there has be en achieved more or
less si gn ificant work. We consider it a merit of T a r d e 's
approach to the study of public o p ini on that it implies
their relevance. We should mo reover say that it was on
the part of Tarde also a foresight, since at his time not
much so ci ological research had b e e n done that could be
brought together in an attempt to c l ar if y the ph enomena of
rI I— 3 156
public opinion. He had sensed not only the direction of
sociology toward empirical pursuits, but also of modern
life becoming increasingly public and intellectualized,
so that issues of public concern wo ul d have a world-wide
range.
Highlights A m o n g T a r d e 1s Ge n e r a l
Propos itions
It is impossible to make a me ani ngf ul formulation of
the most pert ine nt today among Tarde's ideas without making
a reference to his central conceptions of social evolution,
without recalling that in his view everything evolves,
through success ive transformations from di v e r s i t y to unity.
Fu nd am en ta l to his theory of publ ic opinion is the
proposition that opinions are or iginally judgments that
occur in individuals about a matter that ma y be of concern
to more than a single individual. A matter m a y become of
collective c on ce rn simply because of its timeliness, that
is because it is sim ultaneously perceived, Through contact,
which is go ve r ne d by ma n y factors, both social and physical,
the judgment is communicated, confronted and compared,
following w h i c h there is agreement or disagreement.
We say opinion, but there are always two opinions

about ev ery problem. Except that one of the two
succeeds rather quickl y in eclipsing the other b y its
more rapid and more brilliant radiation, or because
, . . it is expressed louder.^
^Tarde, L 'O p i n i o n , pp. 68-69.
The process is repeated and the original individual judg
ments are eliminated, reinforced, modified, and ultimately-
fused into a collective judgment. The nature of the social
aggregate and of the means of communication determine the
limits for this p r o c e s s , The individuals are therefore the
nuclei of this process, nuclei, as Tarde said, generating,
receiving and transmitting messages and creating currents
of opinion. The traditional community, the institutions,
the sect, the crowds are the loci of conversation and of
the ci rc ulation of opinions. Th ey are all circumscribed;
the c o m m u n i t y and the institutions b y tradition, the sect
by reason that is by its own normative code, and the crowd
by physical conditions. A current of opinion may become
strong enough to overcome the opposition of either tradition
or reason, still it is localized with respect to both those
it involves and the issues it refers to.
True public opinion, extensible in b ot h the above
respects, could emerge only after the appearance of the
press and the rapid and wide circulation of the newspaper.
Only then can the waves of opinion expand, gaining in
strength as they do, but also causing the people in the
communities, the institutions, the sects to form through
their awareness of being all s i mu lt an eo usl y concerned over
the same matters, an essentially spiritual social aggregate,
the public, placed at a higher level wher e the material
dif ferences are not perceptible.
This conception constitutes the origin of all of
T a r d e 's f o r m u l a t i o n s . Among them, those on the press are
both pertinent to present day phenomena and suggest further
investigation, The press, according to Tarde, is not a
source of opinion but is like a "pump,"^ it draws and con
veys information. However, even so it is apt to create
what we consider to be public issues, Indeed, sensitive
to the concerns of this or the other segment of the public
the press reflects them in its pages; b y doing so it draws
on them the attention of people w h o otherwise w o u l d have
remained indifferent. To stress this point Tarde referred
to the anti-semitic sentiments during the famous Dreyfus
2
affair, on the part of people who "had never seen a Jew"
and who in no w a y could have any interests involved. This
pr op osition is w o r t h particular at tention today when both
the issues in national or international affairs, and the
results of the polling of opinions on them are wi del y pub
licized through the w id el y circulating press, the radio
and television,
^ I b i d ., p . 7 5.
Î b i d ,, p. 16.
Having had no ex perience with either the radio or
television, Tarde implied that although the press m a y lead
the publics to abuses, in the long run, because of the
reflect ive reaction of the reader, it promotes rationality.
However, as it has been poin te d out b y Harry E. Barnes, had
Tarde w r i tt e n "after the radio, moving pictures, and tele
vi sion ha d come into existence, he w o u l d probably hav e gone
even further in conceding the approximation of public opin
ion to crowd attitudes."'*" Barnes further implied that the
modern media of co mmunication contribute to make the public
"crowd-like" and in general promote the growth of "crowd-
2
m i n d e d n e s s ."
In Marshall McLuhan's^ writings and more in the impac
that they have had we can see a measure of the relevance
that has today T a r d e 's con ce rn wi th the processes involved
in the emergence of public issues. What is even more sig
nificant, however, is the importance that Tarde attributed
to the role of private conversations in this respect and in
"''Harry E. Barnes, "The Social and Political T h e o r y

of G. Tarde" in Introduction to the H is to ry of S o c i o l o g y ,
ed. H a r r y E. Barnes (Chicago: The U ni ve rs it y of Chic ago
Press, 1948), p. 479,
2
I b i d ., p. 480.
Ê.g., Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (New

York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964).
gener al in the development of public opinion. The lonely
newspaper reader who has no o p p o r tu ni ty to talk wi t h someone
about what he has read does not contribute much to public
opinion. Inversely, wi t h o u t the circulation of the news
paper, conversations would revolve around the perennial
topics of local concern and gossiping. The interplay of
the press and private c o nv er sa ti on has important effects,
of w h i c h the increase in the number and the varie ty of the
speakers as well as of the topics of conversation has the
most far-reaching implications. T ar de explored a number of
them, and due to his e xt ra or di na ry perceptiveness and per
s p i c a c i t y his observations startle us b y their relevance and
timeliness. Indeed, they point to the gains in intellectu
a li ty and objectivity that are ob ta in ed in the long-run,
when the pattern is set for m a n y people to exchange freely
views on a variety of topics. These gains in turn promote
both na tional integration and democracy, for they devel op
at the expense of social class distinctions and other diff er
entiations and fragmentations. T a r d e 's observations bring
us ahead of the current conceptions that see modern society
bec o m i n g increasingly a "mass" so c i e t y that is m a r k e d "by
m e d i o c r i t y and by vu lgarity and b y the loss of autonomous
judgment by co nt emporary man.""'' It is not that Tarde
^“Rob er t K. Merton, "i nt roduction to the Compass Edi

tion," The Crowd b y Gustave Le B o n (New York: The Viking
Press, 1960), p. xxxiii.
[1-8 16l
pr ec l ud ed the appearance of these traits, but he looked
b e yo nd them at the possibilities inherent in the devel op
ments of his time. It is these germinal generalizations in
p ar tic ul ar that can be transformed into hypotheses to be
tes te d through the instruments now available and against
current reality. Though not inspired b y T a r d e 1s work, the
w e l l - k n o w n study on the "two-step flow of communication"^
illustrates the w a y in w h i c h Tarde's ideas can be used in
research„
Co nc l u d i n g Remarks
"The analysis of a work of T a r d e ’s is in every case
a task bo t h fascinating and difficult," was said b y Eugene

2
d' Eichtal in 1902 and in closing the discussion of T a r d e 's
L 'O p in io n we cannot but agree w i t h him. The pres en ta ti on
in the Ap pe n d i x of the Engli sh translation of T a r d e 1s work
is made so that those of his ideas that promise to be ger
minal m a y appear in their innumerable nuances.
In trying to discover the reasons explaining the
obl ivion into w hi ch T a r d e 's wo r k fell we pointed out most
Êlihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Personal I n f l u e n c e ,

The Part Played by the People in the Fl o w of Mass C o m mu ni ca
tions (Glencoe, Illinois: The Fr e e Press, 1955).
2
" L 1analyse d'une oeuvre de M. Tarde est tonjours
une tache a la fois seduisante et argue," Eugene d'Eichtal,
"Revue Critique, _La Psychologie E c o n o m i q u e ," Revue Philosoph-
i q u e , LIII (1903), 523.
TI-9 162
of its faults, deficiencies, and weaknesses. Our task has
be en to demonstrate that they should not be allowed to
obscure any longer what is scientifically valuable in
Tarde's work. It is ironically T a r d e 's w i d e l y recognized
charm that is to be blame d most since ma n y have dismissed
his w o r k for being the creation of a "dilettante" lacking
scientific value.
Tarde danced the step of charm., D u r k h e i m is br a n

dishing the Archangel's inflamed sword. He wants to
chase from the Garden of Sociology--and who would
blame him for it— all the distinguished a m a t e u r s , the
thinkers of sorts . . . .^
At this time, Gabriel Tarde is still out of the J G a r d e n of
Sociology." It is our hope that our wo rk may contribute to
make his return legitimate.
"Tarde dansait le pas de la se'duction. Durkheim

br and it 1 1epee flamboyante de l'archange exterminateur,
Il veut chasser du Jardin de Sociologie— et qui pourrait
1'en b l a m e r ? - - les amateurs d i s t i n g u e s , les penseurs en
tous genres ... Ac hil le Ouy, "Les Sociologies et la
Sociologie," Revue Internationale de S o c i o l o g i e , XLVII
(1911), 245.
APPENDIX
OPINION A N D THE CROWD
by
Gabriel Tarde
Translated from the first
French edition b y
Artemis Emmanuel
A1 164
FOREWORD
The term collective psycho lo gy or social psychology
is often given a chimeric meaning that we must reject, since
it implies the conception of a collective m i n d , a social
c o n s c i o u s n e s s , and a we existing outs id e or above individual
minds. In order to d ra w a clear line of distinction between
conventional psychology and social psychology, we believe
there is no need for this m y sti fy ing conception. We would
rather call the latter intermental p s y c h o l o g y .^ Indeed,
while the former concentrates on relations between the mind
and the totality of other individuals outside it, intermen
tal ps ychology studies, or should study, the relationship
between minds and their unilateral or reciprocal influence
on each other--first unilateral, then reciprocal. Thus, the
NOTE: The footnotes of the book's author are marked

with asterisks. The translator's notes are numbered as in
the t e x t .
^"The author used here the term psy ch olo gie inter-
s p i r i t u e l l e . In translating we used the term "intermental
psychology" that G. Tarde used in the title of an article,
"La Psyc hol og ie int ermentale," in Revu e Internationale de
S o c i o l o g i e , IX (1901), 1-15. Th roughout this book and in
general in his work, G. Tarde shows the tendency to use the
terms "collective psychology," "social psychology," "inter
mental psychology," and "interpsychology" interchangeably.
differ en ce between the two p s yc ho lo gi es is analogous to the
di fference between the genus and the species. In this case,
the species, that is intermental psychology, is so special
ized and important that it must be detached from the genus
and treated by methods appropriate to it.
The various studies pr e s e n t e d here are fragments of
such a conception of collective psychology. A close bond
uni te s them. It appeared ne cessary to include in this
volume, as a supplement, the study on the criminal crowds,

•k
in order to place it in its correct context. The p u b l i c ,
w h i c h is the special object of the main study, is actually
a dis pe rs ed crowd, where the influence of one mind on another
has become an effect at a distance, at an ever-increasing
distance. Then, Public O p i n i o n , arising from all these
interactions either at a distance or in direct contact, is
to crowds and publics what, in a way, thinking is to the
body. If, among all interactions from which opinion results,
one seeks the most general and constant he readily perceives
■k
The study on criminal crowds appeared originally in

the Revue de Deu x Mo n d e s in December, 1893, then in Melanges
So ci ologiques (Storck et Masson, 1895) . The other studies,
"The Public and the Crowd" and "Public Opinion and C o n v e r s a
tion," appeared respectively in 1898 and 1899 in the Revue
de Paris.
that it is this fundamental social relation, conversation,
which has been most completely neglected by sociologists.^
A complete history of conversation among all peoples
and throughout the ages would be a social science document
of t he greatest significance. There is no doubt that this
endeavor presents difficulties. But if, through the col
laboration of several researchers, these difficulties were
surmounted, the comparative study of the data, collected
from among the most varied races on this subject, would
yie l d a large number of general principles providing an
appropriate basis for a true science, comparative c o n v e r s a
tion . Such a science could then take its place alongside
comparative religion or comparative art— or even comparative
industry, which is otheriwse called political economy.
Naturally, I do not claim that I could draw, in a few
pages, the design of this science. Lacking sufficient data
even to sketch it, I can only try to indicate its place in
the future, and I would be happy if by succeeding to arouse
1
Concern with "conversation" has appeared in the work
of early sociologists, such as C. H. Cooley, Georg Simmel,
and G. H. Mead, and, more recently, in the work of Robert
Redfield, The Social U se s of Social S c i e n c e : The Papers of
Robert R e d f i e l d , 1963; Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld,
"The Two-Step Flow of Communication," in Personal I n f l u e n c e ,
1955; and Erving Goffman, Interaction R i t u a l : Essays on
Face-to-Face Behavior, 1967 .
A4 167
regret that it does not exist, I inspired in some young
researcher the desire to fill this large gap.
G. TARDE
May 1901
( 168
OPINION AND THE C R O W D 1
THE PUBLIC AND THE CROWD
Not only is the crowd attractice and irresistibly
appealing to its viewers, but its very name exercises an
extraordinary fascination on the modern reader. Cert ain
writers are much too inclined to designate b y this ambiguous
word all kinds of human groupings. It is important to put
an end to this c on fus io n and, in particular, to stop c o n
fusing the crowd w it h the p u b l i c , a word w h i c h is itself sus
ceptible of various meanings, but which I wi ll try to define
precisely. We say; the public of a theater, the public of
this or that gathering; here, public means crowd. This
meaning, however, is not the only one, or even the principal
one. While the importance of this meaning either decreased
or remained stable in modern times, from the moment that
printing was invented, there appeared an e n t i r e l y different
Later on, referring to this title G. Tarde indicated

that it should have bee n The Public and Public O p i n i o n .
G. Tarde, "L 'Int er ps yc ho lo gi e, " Archives d 'Ant hro po lo gi e
gie C r i m i n e l l e , X I X (1904), 560.
169
kin d of public; a publi c w hi ch continues to grow, and the
expa nsi on of which is one of the most prominent c h a r a c t e r
istics of our times. Cr ow d ps ychology has b e e n developed;
we must now develop the psychology of the public. The word
public, in this sense, refers to a coll ec ti vi ty of the mind,
to ph ys i c a l l y separated individuals, whose coh es io n is purely
mental. W h e r e does the public originate? H o w is it born?
H o w does it develop? W h a t are its varieties? What is the
relat io ns hi p between the public and its leaders, its r e l a
tionship to the crowd, to corporate bodies, to states?
Wha t is its power for good or for evil; its manner of feel
ing and acting? This is what we propose to investigate in
this study.
In the lower animal communities, as so ci ati on consists
chiefly of a physical aggregate. As we go hig he r on the tree
of life, social relations become more intellectual. However,
if the individuals are separated from one another to the
point of no longer seeing one another, or if they rema in
thus sep ar at ed beyond a very short period of time, their
association ceases. Thus, the crowd presents, in this
respect, something of a parallel wi t h animal nature. Is it
not, indeed, a cluster of psychic contagions r e s u lt in g ess en
tially from physical contacts? But, all communications from
mind to mind, from soul to soul, do not requir e that bodies
be in close proximity. This condition is less and less ful
filled when currents of opinion take shape in our civilized
societies. It is not at gatherings of men in the streets or
public squares that are born and develop these types of
social rivers — these great movements, which are now cap
tivating even the stoutest hearts and the most resistant
intellects, and which ul timately become consecrated into
laws or decrees by pa rl iaments or governments. Strangely,
those who are carried away in this fashion, who mutually
influence one another, or rather, who transmit to one
another ideas suggested from higher social levels, are not
people rubbing elbows. They do not see and they do not
hear one another. They are all sitting, at home, reading
the same newspaper; and they are dispersed over a vast area.
Then, what is the bond that exists among them? A ch arac
teristic of this bond is to be found in the simultaneous
ma ni fe s t a ti o n of their convictions or passions, but also in
the awareness that each one has that an idea, or a will, is
shared, at the same time, by a large number of other men.
■k
Let us observe that these hydraulic comparisons come

naturally to the writer whenever he deals with crowds as
well as with publics. In this, they resemble each other.
A mo v i n g crowd, on the evening of a public holiday, moves
with a slowness and many whirlpools that remind one of a
stream w ith no prec is e bed. For, there is nothing less
comparable to an or g a n i sm than a crowd, except a public.
Both are, m ore or less, waterways whose course is ill-defined.
It is enough that the individual be aware of this, although
he does not see these other men, to become affected by them
taken as a whole, and not solely by the journalist, that
common inspirer, who is hims el f invisible and unknown, and,
for this very reason, all the more fascinating.
In general, the reader is not aware that he is sub
jected to this persuasive, almost irresistible, influence
from the newspaper that he habitually reads. As for the
journalist, he is, on the whole, aware of his disposition
to please his public, whose nature and preferences he never
ignores. The reader, however, is m u c h less aware: he
hardly suspects the influence exerted on him by the mass
of the other readers. Nonetheless, this influence is u nq ue s
tionable. It is exerted, both on his curiosity, which
becomes all the more vivid as he knows, or as he believes,
it to be shared by a larger or more select public; and on
his judgment, whi ch seeks to agree with that of the majority,
or of an elite of the other readers, as the case may be. I
open a newspaper that I think is today's, and avidly read
some of the news items; then, I realize that this paper is a
month old, or that it is yesterday's, and at once it ceases
to interest me. H o w does this sudden loss of interest come
about? Have the reported facts lost their intrinsic interest
No, but we say to ourselves that we are the only ones reading
them, and this is enough. This proves, therefore, that our
great curiosity was due to an unconscious illusion that we
were sharing our mental state wi th a large number of other
minds. There is an analogy betwee n yesterday's newspaper,
or that of the day before, compared to today's, and a speech
that one reads at home compared to a speech one listened to
while in the midst of a crowd.
Wh en we unwittingly experience this invisible c o n
tagion of the public, of which we are a part, we tend to
explain it simply by the value placed on timeliness."'" If
today's newspaper is of such interest to us, it is because
it writes only of current events. It is probably the t i m e
liness of these events, not the idea that we and others find
out about them simultaneously, that arouses our interest in
them. But, let us analyze carefully this strange sense of
t i m e l i n e s s , the growing interest for which is one of the
most obvious characteristics of civilized life. Is what is
2
referred to as "news" only what has just occurred? No, it
is everything that inspires a general interest, at this
"'"We used the term "timeliness" to translate the

French term "actualite," which in the context above is taken
in the meani ng of "state of what is of the present moment."
2
W e used the term "news" here to translate the French
term "actualite," which in the context above is taken in the
meaning of "something that is of the present moment."
particular moment, although it may be an old event. Every
thing concerning Napole on has been news in recent years.
Everything popular is news. Anything recent but at this
moment neglected by the public whose attention is turned
1 .
elsewhere is not news. Du ri ng the Dreyfus case, important
events of potential interest to us occurred in Afr ic a or in
Asia. But they were not considered newsworthy. In short,
the pass ion for news progresses with sociability, of which
it is but one of the mor e striking manifestations. More
over, as it is the task of periodicals and of the daily
press in particular, to focus on subjects of current inter
est, we should not be surprised to see develop among the
readers of the same newspapers a kind of bond that draws
them together, a type of association which has received very
little attention but which is very important.
Intensive social life, or urban life, which exposes
individuals to suggestion in proximity is, of course, an
essential pre requisite for this suggestion at _a distance
among individuals making up the same public. We begin as
children, as adolescents, to experience vividly the effect
"'‘T he author refers to the Dreyfus case— or 1 1Affaire

as it is often ca lled— which was the controversy that fol
lowed the trial for treason, in 1894, of the Fr ench army
officer, A l f r e d Dreyfus, a n d w h i c h deeply marked the p ol it i
cal and social history of the Third Republic, and, indeed,
of mo de rn France.
174
on us of others looking at u s , an effect w h i c h is expressed
s u b c o n s c i o u s l y in our attitudes, our gestures, the modified
course of our ideas, in our h esitating or excited speech,
and in our judgments and our actions. It is only after
years of having experienced and e x e rcised on others this
e ffective a c t ion_of looking that we become capable of being
affected even b y the thought that another person is looking
at u s , b y the idea that we are the object of attention of
persons distant from us. Similarly, it is after w e have
known and, for a long time, b e e n exposed to the suggestive
power of a dogmatic and authoritative voice, heard close to
us, that the reading of a vigorous statement is sufficient
to convince us, and that even the simple awareness of a
large number of fellow-creatures adhering to this judgment
predisposes us to judging likewise. Therefore, the f o r m a
tion of a public presupposes a mental and social evolution
far more advanced than the formation of a crowd. Purely
ideational suggestibility, contagion w i t h o u t contact, is
involved in this entirely abstract and yet so real grouping.
This intellectualized crowd, raised, so to speak, to the
square power, could evolve only after centuries of a cruder
and a more elementary social life.
Al2 175
II
T h e r e is no word, in Latin or in Greek, that c o r r e s
ponds to what we m e a n by public. T h e r e are words to
designate the people, the assembly of armed or non-armed
citizens, the electorate and all v a rieties of the crowd.
But w here is the writer of antiquity who thought of speaking
about his public? Everyone of them k n e w only his a u d i e n c e ,
in the h a l l s rented for public lectures where poets, con
t emp oraries of Pliny the Y o u n g e r , ’*' gathered in small con
genial crowds. As for the dispersed readers of the
manuscripts, copied by hand and p r o d u c e d to the extent of
a few scores of copies, they were not at all conscious of
forming a social aggregate as are today the readers of the
same newspaper or, at times, the readers of a fashionable
novel . Di d a public exist in the M i d d l e Ages? No, but
t her e were fairs, pilgrimages, tumultuous multitudes, where
pious or b elligerent emotions, fits of temper or panics,
found expression. The public could emerge only after the
initial w i d e s p r e a d expansion of the invention of printing
in the sixteenth century. The long distance transmission
R o m a n author and administrator (61 or 62--ca 113 A . D . ) .

He left a coll e c t i o n of private letters of great literary
charm w h i c h intimately illustrate public and private life
in the he y d a y of R o m a n Empire.
A13 176
of power is nothing compared to this transmission of thought
over great distances. Is not thought the social force par
excellence? Think of the id e e s - f orces of Mr. F o u i l l e e . We
have seen a profound innovation of incalculable effect: the
daily and simultaneous reading of the same book, the Bible,
issued for the first time m millions of copies, giving to
the unified mass of its readers the feeling that they formed
a new social body detached from the Church. However, this
nascent public was itself nothing more than a Church apart
w ith which it appeared to b e confused. This is the weakness
of Protestantism, to have b e e n both a public and a church,
two aggregates governed b y different principles and of an
i rreconcilable nature, The public properly speaking emerged
in a clear-cut fashion only under Louis XIV. But, in this
period, though there were, at the crowning of princes, at
the great festivals, at the riots caused by periodic famines,
crowds as impetuous and as large as these of today, the pub-

. 2
lie was composed of only a narrow elite of "honnetes g e n s 1'
Âlfred Fouillee (1838-1912) is a French scholar who,

in developing his sociological theory, made the attempt to
combine the ideas of social contract and organism. He is
b e s t k n o w n for his concept of idees- f o r c e s . According to
his theory, an idea is not just a powerless representation,
b u t a real dynamic force w h i c h influences the behav i o r of
individuals and masses (La Psychologie des i d e e s - f o r c e s ,
Paris, 1893; L' Evolutionisme des idees- f o r c e s , P a n s , 1906)
2
This expression refers to people who are cultured.
177
A14
who read their monthly gazette, or rather a small number of
books written for a small number of readers. Moreover, these
readers were mainly c o n c entrated in Paris, especially at the
royal c o u r t .
In the Eighteenth Century, this public rapidly grew
in size and became fragmented. I do not think that before
Bayle^ a philosophical public existed, distinct from the
great literary public or be g i n n i n g to detach itself from it .
For by public I do not mean a group of scholars who, despite
their dispersion over various pro v i n c e s or states, are n e v e r
theless united by their common concern for similar lines of
resea r c h and by the reading of the same writings, but are so
few in number that they all c o rrespond with one another and
derive from these personal relationships the principal main
substance, their scientific communion. A special public
takes form only from the indefinable moment when those p e r
sons devoted to the same studies are too numerous to be able
to k n o w one another in this personal fashion, and the bond
of a certain solidarity has de v e l o p e d among them only on
account of impersonal c o mmunications of sufficient frequency
and regularity. In the second half of the eighteenth
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) was a French philosopher

famous for his encyclopedic dictionary: Dictionnaire
h i s t o r i q u e et c r i t i q u e , 1692.
178
M5
century, a political public was born, matured, and soon, in
its overflowing, absorbed all the other publics, literary,
philosophical, or scientific just as a river does its t r i b u
taries. However, up to the time of the French Revolution,
the life of the public had little intensity of its own and
gained importance only through the life of the crowd, to
w h i c h it was still attached as long as the salons and the
cafbs wer e the centers of an intensive social life.
T he birth of the press and consequently of the public
can be traced to the Fr e n c h R e v o l u t i o n - - in itself an expres
sion of the growing pains of the public. It is not that the
R e v o l u t i o n did not arouse crowds also, but in this there was
nothing to distinguish it from the civil wars of the past,
of the F o u r t e e n t h and the Six t e e n t h Centuries, and the
Fronde itself."*" The Fronde crowds, the League^ crowds, the

3
Caboche crowds were neither less fearsome nor perhaps less
Fronde was called the civil war that took place in

France (1648-53) while King Louis XIV was a minor.
2
It is question of the League, or confederation of
the C a t holic party, that was formed in France in the s i x
tee n t h century in view of d e f ending the Catholic faith
against the Calvinists.
3
A popular movement (_c 1413) that took its name from
its leader Caboche, a Paris butcher.
numerous than those of July 14th and August 10th. For a
crowd cannot g r o w be y o n d a certain point, determined by the
limits of the voice and the eye, without immediately breaking
up or b e c o m i n g incapable of collective action. This action,
after all, never changes: barricades, looting of palaces,
massacres, demolitions, and fires. There is nothing more
m o notonous than these age old ma n i f e s t a t i o n s of its activity.
But what c h a r acterizes 1789, what the past had never seen,
is the swarming of avidly devoured newspapers which flour
ished at this time. If several were still-born, others
provided the spectacle of an unheard of diffusion. Each of
*2 3
these great and odious publicists, Marat, Desmoulins,
July 14 refers to the rise of Parisians in 1789 d u r

ing the French Revolution, which resulted in the capture of
the Bastille. August 10 refers to the Parisian insurrection
in 1792 that led to the imprisonment of King Louis XVI.
★
"The term publicist, says Littre, is in the D i c t i o n
ary of the Academy only from 1762," and, moreover, it is
included, he says--as it still does in most of the d i c t i o n
aries— only with the meaning of author who writes on public
law. The meaning of the word, in current usage, has
bro a d e n e d only in the course of our century, while that of
the p u b l i c , on account of the same cause, became more and
more limited, at least in the way I am using it.
2
Emile Littre (1801-81), a French philosopher and
scholar of the Positivist school of thought, was the author
of the Dietionnaire de la langue f r a n c a i s e .
^Jean-Paul Marat (1743-93) is the w ell-known figure

in the French Revolution, considered as a demagogue and
instigator of mob action; he was the editor of L 'Avis du
P e u p l e ; Camille Desmoulins (1760-94) was a lawyer who took
an active part in both the attack on the Bastille and the
August 10, 17 92 revolutionary movement.
Pere Duchesne, ^ had its public, and we can consider the
incendiary, looting, murderous, cannibalistic crowds, which
devastated the F r ance of that time from north to south, and
east to west, like tumors, like malignant eruptions of these
publics on whom their evil cupbearers (triumphantly carried
to the Pantheon after their death) daily poured the p o i s o n
ous alcohol of empty v iolent words, It is not that the mobs
were composed exclusively of newspaper readers even in Paris
This was even truer in t he provinces and in the country.
But they always r e p r e sented the leaven, if not the dough.
Clubs, cafe gatherings, w h i c h played such an important role
during the revolutionary period, also sprang from the public
whereas, before the Revolution, the public was the result
rather than the cause of cafe gatherings.
The revolutionary public, however, was primarily
Parisian. Beyond Paris, it had only faint repercussion,

2
Arthur Young, during his famous trip, was impressed by the
fact that so few leaflets were circulated even in the cities
It is true that his ob s e r v a t i o n applies to the beginning of
the Revolution; a little later, it would lose m u c h of its
^"Pere Duchesne" was the title of a violent r e v o l u

tionary paper issued by Jacques R. Hubert (1757-94), a
French politician.
2
A n English economist (1741-1820).
accuracy. Nevertheless, to the end, the lack of rapid c o m
m u n i c a t i o n constituted an insuperable obstacle to intensive
and wide s p r e a d dissemin ation of the life of the public. How

i
could newspapers, which arrived only two or three times a
week and eight days after they had appeared in Paris, give
their readers in the South the feeling of timeliness and the
sense of simultaneous unanimity, without which the reading
of a newspaper is really no different from that of a book?
It was left to our century, w i t h its improved means of
t r a nsportation and instantaneous transmission of thought
over any distance, to give publics, all publics, the indefi
nite extension of which they are capable and which creates
such a striking contrast betw e e n t hem and the crowds. The
crowd is a social group of the past; after the family, it is
the most ancient of all social groups. In all its forms,
whether standing or seated, motio n l e s s or moving, it cannot
extend itself beyond a very limited radius; when its leaders
cease to control it, when it no longer listens to them, it
breaks loose. The largest audience ever seen was that of
the Coliseum; still, it did not number over one hundred
thousand persons. The audiences of Pericles or Cicero, even
those of the great teachers of the Mi d d l e Ages, those of a
Peter the Hermit or a Saint Bernard, were undoubtedly
smaller by far. Therefore, there is nothing to indicate
that eloquence, whether political or religious, made great
strides in antiquity or the M i d d l e Ages. The public, how
ever, is infinitely extensible. The more it extends, the
mor e intensive its particular life becomes and the more
it seems to be the social g roup of the future. Thus, three
inventions, printing, the railroad, and the telegraph,
supporting one another, gave rise to tremendous power of
the press, that marvelous t e l ephone that has so enormously
expanded the old audience of speakers and preachers. I
cannot concede to a vigorous writer, Dr. Le Bon, that our
age is the "era of crowds." It is the era of the public or
of the publics, something that is quite different.
Ill
Up to a certain point, we could apply the term ap u b
lic to what we call a w o r l d , "the literary world," the
"political world," etc., except for the fact that the term
world implies, among those who are a part of it, a personal
Peter the Hermit was a monk who was the principal

preacher of the First Crusade. He died around 1115. Saint
Bernard (1090-1153), a mystic and reformer who earned the
r e putation of having the ability to transform intransigent
opponents into enthusiastic followers.
183
h.20
contact, an exchange of visits, of receptions, which need
not exist among members of the same public. However, as we
can already see, an immense dista n c e separates the crowd
from the public, despite the fact that the public originates
in part from a k i n d of crowd, from a s p e a k e r 1s audience ,
Bet w e e n the two there are other significant differences that
I have not yet mentioned. One can belong at the same time,
and in fact one always belongs simultaneously to several
publics, just as to several organiz a t i o n s or sects, but one
can belong to only one crowd at a time. From this stems the
far greater intolerance of crowds, and, consequently, of
nations in w h i c h the crowd spirit pred o m i n a t e s because one's
being is entirely captured, irresistibly caught up by a
force without a c o u n t e r w e i g h t . H e n c e the advantage in the
gradual substitution of publics to a transformation always
accompanied by progress in tolerance if not in scepticism.
It is true that, as often happens, from an overexcited p u b
lic are born fanatic crowds which surge to the streets
shouting long live or death to anyone. In this sense, the
public might be defined as a virtual crowd. However, if
this d e g e neration of the public into a crowd is extremely
dangerous, it is, on the whole, rather rare. Without e x a m i n
ing whether these crowds, born of the public, are not, after
all, somewhat less brutal than the crowds existing before a
public, the o p p o s i t i o n b e t w e e n two publics, always ready to
fuse on their indeterminate borderlines, is evidently a far
lesser threat to social peace than the clash b e t w e e n two
opposing crowds.
The crowd, a more natural grouping, is more subjected
to the forces of nature; it depends on rain or good weather,
on h eat or cold; it is more frequent in summer than in
winter, A ray of sunshine brings it together, a shower d i s
perses it. Bailly,^ w hen he was mayor of P a n s , blessed
rainy days, and was saddened to see the sky clear. However,
the public, a g r o uping of a higher order, is not subject to
these v a riations and whims of physical environment, of
seasons, or even of climate. Not only the b i r t h and growth,
but also the very over-excitement of the public, social
maladies of increasing seriousness that have appeared during
this century, are free from these influences.
It was in m id-winter that there raged, over the whole
of Europe, the most acute crisis of its kind m cur knowledg
the Dreyfus affair, Was this crisis more passionate in the
South than m the North, as crowds are? No, it was rather 1
Belgium, Prussia, and Russia that it excited the imagination
J e a n - SyIvain Bailly (1736-93) was mayor of Paris

after the capture of Bastille in 1789.
185
A22
Finally, the imprint of race'*' is less marked on publics than
it is on crowds. It cannot be otherwise because of the
following consideration.
Why, indeed, does an English meeting differ so r a d i
cally from a French club; a September massacre from an
American lynching; an Italian festival from the crowning of
the Tsar, at which an assembly of two h undred thousand
moujiks is not moved by the disaster in which thirty t h o u
sand of them would perish? Why is it that on the basis of
the nationality of a crowd, a good observer can almost p r e
dict the w ay in w h i c h the crowd will behave? Actually, he
can do so with far greater certainty than predicting the
behavior of each of the individuals composing the crowd.
W h y is it that despite the great changes that in customs and
ideas in France or in England, in the last three or four
centuries, French crowds of our times, Boulangist or anti-
semitic, exhibit so many of the traits found in the crowds
of the League or the F r o n d e — just as English crowds of today
remind us of those of Cromwell's time? This is so because
in the compos i t i o n of a crowd, individuals enter only by
their national similarities, which are added to one another,
^The term "race" was not used then in the w ay social

scientists and b i o l o g i s t s use it now. It was primarily
taken to mean p e ople w ho have the same ancestors, and in
this respect it also implied the bond of heredity.
forming one whole, and not by their differences, which are
neutralized. It is also because in the rumbling of a crowd
the edges of individuality become mutually dulled, in favor
of the national type that emerges. This is always the case,
regardless of the individual action of the leader or leaders,
which, nevertheless, always felt, is also always counter
balanced by the reciprocal action of the followers.
The influence exercised by the publicist on his p u b
lic, though far less intense at a given moment, is far more
powerful on account of its continuity, than the brief and
transient impetus the crowd is given by its leader. M ore
over, this influence is always supported, never resisted, by
the much weaker influence that the members of the same public
exercise on one another, thanks to their awareness of the
simultaneous identity of their ideas or their inclinations,
of their convictions or their passions, that are daily
inflamed with the same bellows.
One can contest wrongly, but not without speciously
appearing right, that every crowd has a leader, but, in
reality, it is often the crowd that leads its chief. But,
who would contest that every public has its inspirer, and
sometimes its creator? What Sainte-Beuve^" says about the
■^Charles-Augustin de Sainte-Beuve (1804-69) was a

famous literary critic who conceived literary criticism as
the reconstruction of the genius of each writer.
genius, that "a genius is a king who creates his people," is
especially true of the great journalist. H o w many publicists

:k
does one see creating their public! In truth, Edouard
Drumont w o u l d not have b e e n able to excite anti-semitism if
his attempt did not coincide with a certain widespread state
of mind. As long as no resounding voice was raised that
would lend common expression to this state of mind, it
remained p u rely individual, not very intense, even less c o n
tagious, and unaware of itself. He w ho expressed it also
created it as a collective force, perhaps factitious, but
nonetheless real. I know of regions of France where nobody
has ever seen a single Jew. This does not mean, however,
that a n t i - s e m i t i s m cannot flourish there, since people read
anyway anti-semitic newspapers. Socialist and Anarchist
tendencies were also insignificant b e fore a few famous pub-
licits, Karl Marx, Kropotkin, and others voiced them and
d i s s e m i n a t e d them in their own likeness. It is, co n s e
quently, easy to understand why the imprint of the indi
vidual genius of the leader is more p r o n o u n c e d on a public
★
W i l l it b e said that, if every great publicist
creates his public, every public, at all numerous, creates
its own publi c i s t ? This last p r o p o s i t i o n is far less true
than the first. We can actually observe quite a number of
groups which, for years, do not succeed in giving birth to
the w r i t e r w ho is adapted to their true outlook. This is
the case of the Catholic world at present.
188
A25
than the genius of nationality, and w hy the opposite is true
in the crowd. Similarly, it b ecomes clear why in each of
its principal types the public of a certain country appears
changed, within a very few years, when., its leadership is
changed. For example, the French socialist public today in
no way resembles the socialist par t y of the time of Proudhon--
while French crowds of all kinds maint a i n their identity
through the centuries.
It may b e objected that the newspaper reader keeps
more of his f reedom of thought than the individual who is
lost and carried away in a crowd. He can reflect in silence
on what he is reading and, despite his habit u a l passivity,
it may occur to h i m to change his newspaper until he finds
one that suits him, or that he believes suits him. On the
other hand, the journalist himself seeks to please h i m and
to retain h i m as a reader. The statistics about new s u b
scriptions and cancellations are an excellent thermometer,
frequently consulted, which warns the editors about the line
of conduct and thinking to be followed. In a famous affair,
an indication of this sort motivated the sudden about-face
of a large newspaper, and this recantation is not unusual.
Thus, the p u blic sometimes reacts upon the journalist, while
the latter acts continu ally on his public. After some
initial fumbling, the reader has selected his newspaper, and
189
A26
the n e wspaper has sorted out its readers. There has bee n a
mutual selection, hence, mutual adaptation. The reader has
chosen a newspaper that pleases him, one that flatters his
-prejudices or emotions. The newspaper ha s selected a reader
agreeable to it, a docile and credulous reader, w h o m it can
easily direct b y making some concessions to his prejudices--
concessions analogous to the oratorical p recautions of
ancient orators. It has b e e n said that the ma n who reads a
single b o o k is to be feared. But what is he alongside the
reader of a single n e wspaper? And, actually, this man is,
with rare exceptions, each one of us. Here lies the danger
of m o d e r n times. The n the process of double selection and
double adaptation, through which the public is transformed
into a h o m o g e n e o u s group-- w e l l - k n o w n and subject to m a n i p u
lation b y the w r i t e r — instead of p r e v e n t i n g the publicist
from u l t i m a t e l y having a decisive influence on his public,
allows h i m to deal wit h it with greater force and certainty.
The crowd is in general far less h o m o g e n e o u s than the p u b
lic; it enlarges as it is joined by those w h o are just
curious, h a l f - a d h e r i n g persons, who are soon t emporarily wen
over and assimilated in it, but who nev e r t h e l e s s are the
reasons wh y it remains difficult to give these incoherent
elements a co m m o n direction.
A27 190
IV
One m ight dispute this relative h o m o g e n e i t y of the
public under the pretext that just as "you cannot step twice
into the same r i v e r , " y o u never read the same book."
Although this ancient paradox is debatable, is it still true
to say that we never read the same n ewspaper? There will be
those wh o t hink that as the newspapers are mor e varied than
the books, the adage is even more applicable to the former
than to the latter. However, every n e w spaper ha s in fact

. - 2
its own g i m m i c k , and this gimmick, g i v e n constant play,
attracts the attention of all the readers, and hypnotizes
them. In fact, despite the variety of its articles, every
page has a g a u d y color that sets it apart, a specialty, be
it pornographic, defamatory, political, or other, to which
all the rest is sacrificed, and on w h i c h its public avidly
concentrates. Catching the public b y this bait, the jour
nalist leads it anywhere his heart desires.
Another consideration. The public, after all, is
only a kind of " c u s t o m e r , " but a special k ind that tends to
"'"This is an allusion to Heraclitus' fluidity: "You

cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are
continually flowing on. . . . " P. Wheelwright, Heraclitus
(New York: Atheneum, 1964), p. 29.
2
The author's expression is, a. son c l o u ; this is a
colloquial expre s s i o n meaning that something attracts
attention b y a parti c u l a r trait.
eclipse all others. The fact that one buys the same products
in the same types of stores, that one is outfitted at the
same dressmaker or tailor, and that one often eats at the
same restaurant, established among persons of the same world
a certain social bond, and p resupposes among them affinities
that this bon d tightens and stresses. Each one of us, in
buying what meets his needs, is more or less vaguely c o n
scious of expressing and developing hi s ties with the social
class which feeds itself, is outfitted, and satisfies itself
in every wa y in an almost identical manner. The economic
fact, the only one studied b y economists, is therefore c o m
p l i cated with a sympathetic r e l a t i o n s h i p also deserving of
attention. T h e y consider the consumers of a product, or
service, as me r e l y competitive rivals quarreling over the
object of their desires; but, they are also congeners,
f e l l o w - c r e a t u r e s , who are seeking to strengthen their s i m i
larity, and to distinguish themselves from others. Their
desire is fed b y the desire of the other, and in this very
emulation there is a secret c o m munion of feeling which seeks
to be increased. But, h o w much more intimate and deep is
the bon d that is formed among those w h o habitually read the
same newspaper. Here, no one w o u l d think of speaking of c o m
petition; there is but a communion of suggested ideas, and
the consciousness of this communion--but not of this sug
gestion wh i c h is, nevertheless, manifest.
Just as for every tradesman there are two kinds of
customers, the regular and the floating, so for the news
paper or the r e v i e w there are also two kinds of publics: a
stable, consolidated public, and an unstable, floating p u b
lic. The distribution of these two p ublics varies a great
deal from one paper to the other; to the old papers, organs
of the old parties, the second kind does not count, or
b a r e l y counts. And I admit that in this case the p u b l i c i s t ’s
effect on the h o m e he has entered is seriously obstructed by
the intolerance of this home, from wh i c h he w o u l d be imme
diately expelled should h e express any dissent. On the
other hand, the publicist has a quite d i f ferent effect,
lasting and penetrating on a stable party. It is noteworthy,
however, that the publics that are loyal and traditionally
attached to a certain newspaper tend to disappear being
increasingly replaced b y more mobile publics, on which the
hold of the talented journalist is much easier if not more
solid. We may, with good reason, deplore this development
in journalism, for the stable publics make the journalist
honest and convinced, just as capricious publics make journa
lists superficial, volatile, and disturbing; but, it appears
that this e v o lution is for the time b e i n g irresistible and
hardly reversible. We can already perceive the prospect of
the increasing social power that it opens to writers. It
may b e that this development will more and more subject m e d i
ocre journalists to the whims of their public; it is n e v e r t h e
less certain that it will more and more subordinate a
subjugated p u blic to the despotism of the great journalists.
It is they far more than the statesmen, even though the
latter may be superior, who make public opinion and lead the
world. And, once they have imposed themselves, what a strong
throne is theirs. Compare the rapid erosion of the p o l i
ticians, even of the most popular ones, to the prolonged
indestructible reign of h i g h l y talented journalists. This
reign reminds one of the longevity of Louis X I V or the
indefinite success of illustrious w riters of comedy and
tragedy. These autocrats never grow old.
This is the reason why it is so h a r d to make an e f f e c
tive law regulating the press. It would be as if one wanted
to regulate the sovereignty of the Great King or Napoleon.
The offenses of the press, even the crimes of the press, are
almost as unpu n i s h a b l e as the offenses of the tribune in
antiquity and those of the chair in the M i ddle Ages.
If it were true that, as the praisers of crowds are
in the habit of repeating, the histo r i c a l role of i n dividual
ism is destined to continue its decline as societies evolve
194
A31
into democracies, we should be especially surprised to see
the journalists gain daily. Yet, we cannot ignore that it
is the journalists who fashion o pinion in times of crisis;
and, when two or three great chiefs of political or literary
clans decide to rally b e hind the same cause, however bad
this cause m ay be, they are certain to triumph. This fact
implies something very significant: The most recent of
social groupings, and the one with the greatest potential
for expansion as our democratic c i v i lization progresses,
that is the public, is the one that presents the greatest
opportunity for strongly individualistic personalities to
impose themselves, and for original individual opinions to
spread.
One needs only open his eyes to see that the division
of society into publics, a p u rely p s y chological division
corresponding to differences in states of mind, undoubtedly
tends not to substitute itself for, but, more and more
noticeably and effectively, to superimpose itself on the
division of society into religious, economic, aesthetic, and
political sections, into c o r p o r a t i o n s , sects, occupations,
schools, and parties. It is not only these types of crowds
of the past, the audiences of tribunes or preachers, whi c h
195
A3 2
are d o minated or expanded b y their corresponding p a r l i a m e n
tary or religious publics, but also not a single sect exists
which does not want to have its own journal in order to
surround itself w i t h a public radiating b e y o n d itself and
generating a sort of surrounding atmosphere, in which the
sect is immersed, a collective c o n s ciousness w hich makes it
shine more brightly. And, surely we cannot say of this
consciousness that it is a simple e p j p h e n o m e n o n ,^ itself
ineffective and inactive. Likewise, there is no profession,
large or small, that does not aspire to h a v e its journal or
its review, just as in the Middle Ages every corporation
wanted to h a v e its chaplain, its regular preacher; just as
in Greek antiquity, every class h a d its own orator. Is it
not also the first concern of every newly founded literary
or artistic school to h ave its journal, w i t h o u t which it
would not consider itself complete? Is there a party or
fragment of a p a r t y that does not h a s t e n to express itself
noisily in some daily newspaper, by which it h opes to expand,
and through w h i c h it is undoubtedly s t r e n g t h e n e d ,before it is
changed, fused w ith another party or fragmented? A party
without a journal is comparable to a h e a d l e s s monster,
î.e., a p h e n o m e n o n that occurs together wit h another

phenomenon, in an accidental manner, w i t h o u t exercising on
it any effect.
A3 3 196
although what is considered thus as a monstrosity was typical
of all the parties of antiquity, the Middle Ages, or modern
Europe up to the French Revolution.
This t ransformation of various groups into publics is
explained by a growing need for sociability, for a regular
c ommunication among associates b y means of a continuous flow
of information and common stimuli. This transformation is,
therefore, inevitable. It is important to search for the
effects that it has or will very likely have on the destinies
of groups thus transformed in terms of their durability,
stability, and strength, as well as of their conflicts or
alliances.
In terms of stability and.strength, the old groupings
certainly have nothing to gain b y this change. The press
mobilizes everything that it touches and vitalizes it. There
exists no Church, h o w e v e r immutable in appearance, which,
from the moment that it submits to the mode of continuous
publication, does not develop the signs of internal m u t a
tions impossible to hide. To b e convinced of this efficacy,
at once d issolving and regenerating, inherent in a newspaper,
we need only compare the political parties b e f o r e the e x i s
tence of the press to those of the present time. Were they
not then less ardent but more durable, less alive but more
tenacious, more fixed in their dimensions and more solid.
more resistant to efforts to renew or fragment them? From
the centuries old opposition, so sharp and so persistent,
between the Whigs and Tories, what remains today in England?
Nothing was rarer in the France of times past than the
appearance of a new party. In our time, the parties are in
the process of perpetual alteration, of regeneration, and of
spontaneous generation. Thus, there is less and less worry
and concern about their platforms, for it is w ell k n o w n that
if they come to power, they will do so only after b eing
thoroughly transformed. In-a short time there will remain
a memory only of the hereditary and traditional parties of
old times.
The relative strength of the old social aggregates is
also significantly m o d ified by the action of the press. At
the outset, let us observe that the press is far from favor
ing most professional grouping. The p r o f essional press,
devoted to judicial, industrial, agricultural, and trade
interests is the least read, least interesting, and least
active press, except when dealing with a strike or labor
politics. It is the division of society into groups based
on theoretical ideas, idealistic aspirations, and emotions
that is given tangible impetus and p r e p onderance by the
press. The press prides itself on expressing these inter
ests only by disguising or sublimating the m into theories
and emotions. Even w h e n it turns t h e m into emotions, it
intellectualizes and idealizes them; and, ho w e v e r dangerous
this t r a n s figuration may sometimes be, it is, everything c o n
sidered, a h a p p y one. Although ideas and emotions may well
boil up while clashing w i t h each other, they are always less
irreconcilable than interests.
Whether religious or political, pa r t i e s are the social
groups on w h i c h newspapers have the greatest hold and which
they enhance the most. Mobilized into publics, parties
become deformed, reformed, and transformed w i t h a rapidity
that wou l d h a v e shocked our ancestors. And, one must admit
that their m o b i l i z a t i o n and their intertwining are hardly
compatible w i t h the regular operation of Pa r l i a m e n t a r i s m in
the English style. This may be a minor misfortune, but it
brings about a profo u n d modi f i c a t i o n of the parliamentary
system. At the present time, parties absorb one another or
disappear in a few years. In some cases, they expand at an
incredible rate. Then they acquire enormous b ut temporary
strength. They assume two traits that w e did not recognize
in them before: they b e c o m e susceptible of interpenetration
and internationalization. They can p e n e t r a t e each other
easily because, as we said above, each of us is part, or may
be part, of several publics at one and the same time. They
are i n t ernationalized b e c a u s e the w i nged w o r d of the
199
newspaper rushes crosses national frontiers wi t h o u t any
difficulty, something that, in the past, the voice of the

*
most famous speaker, the party leader, could never do.
It is the press that lends its own wings to pa r l i a m e n t a r y
or club eloquence and spreads it over the w h o l e world. If
this international scope of parties transformed into p u b
lics makes h o s tility among them more dreadful, their
ability to penetrate one another and the vagueness of
their boundaries facilitate a l l i a n c e s — although immoral—
and encourage hopes of a final peace treaty. Thus, it
appears that the transformation of parties into publics
works more against their permanence than their unity, more
against tranquility than peace, and that the social a g i t a
tion that it produces prepares rather the w a y toward social
unity. This is so true that, despite the divergence and
m u l t iplicity of publics co-existing and intermingled in a
society, they seem to form one and same public b y their
partial agreement on certain important points. This is what
*
C e r t a i n large newspapers, the Times and the F i g a r o ,
and certain large reviews have their public scattered t hrough
out the entire world. The religious, scientific, economic,
and esthetic publics are essentially and c o n t i nually inter
national;; the religious, scientific, etc. crowds are so only
rarely in the form of congresses. Moreover, congresses were
able to become international only because they w e r e preceded
along these lines b y their respective publics.
200
A3 7
is called Public Opinion, the political impact of whi c h is
constantly increasing. At certain critical moments in the
life of peoples, w h e n a national danger appears, this fusion
of which I am speaking is remarkable and almost complete.
At these times, we see the social group par e x c e l l e n c e , the
nation, like all the other groups, t r a nsform itself into a
large cluster of feverish readers, avidly reading news
reports. In time of war, no classes, occupations, labor
unions, or parties, seem to remain of the social groupings
in France, except the French army and the "French public."
Of all the social aggregates, however, the crowd is
closest to the publics. Even though the public is very
often b ut an enlarged and dispersed audience,
it differs from the crowd in many characteristic ways, as
we have already seen. These differences are in fact so
important as to account, to some extent, for an inverse
ratio bet w e e n the progr e s s of crowds and that of publics.
It is true that tumultuous street gatherings are born of
excited publics. And, since the same public may be spread
over a vast territory, it is possible that noisy multitudes,
born of this public, gather in several towns at the same
time and start to shout, plunder, and kill. This phenomenon
has been observed. But, w h a t we do not see is the crowds
that would have gathered h a d there b e e n no publics. If we
were to assume that all newspapers were eliminated and, with
them, their publics, should we not expect the people to m a n i
fest a much stronger tendency, than at the present time, to
aggregate in larger denser audiences around the chairs of
professors, and even of preachers, to fill public places,
cafes, clubs, salons, and lecture halls, as well as theaters,
and to b e h a v e everywhere more noisily than they do now?
We are not thinking of all the discussions in the
cafes, the salons, the clubs, that the polemics of the press
inspire. They are a relatively harmless antidote. What is
true is that the number of listeners, in general, continues
to decline in public gatherings, and that our most popular
speakers fall far short of the success of Abelard'*' who led
thirty thousand pupils to the b o t t o m of the Paraclet valley.
Even if the listeners are numerous, they are less attentive
★
We could even say that every public is described by
the nature of the crowd to wh i c h it gives birth. The pious
public is typified by the p ilgrimage to L ourdes— the "society"
b y the races at Longchamps, balls, and p a r t i e s — the literary
p u b l i c b y the theater audiences, and receptions at the
Acad e m i e F r a n c a i s e — the industrial public b y its strikes--
the po l i t i c a l public by its election gatherings, its Houses,
its Deputie s - - t h e revolutionary public b y its riots and
barricades. . . .
"^Pierre Abelard (1079-1142) was a French scholastic

theo l o g i a n and philosopher.
A3 9 202
than those b e f o r e the invention of printing, when the c o n s e
quences of the lack of attention were irreparable.
With its now half-empty lecture halls our university
no longer experiences the concentration of attention it p r o
duced in the past. Most of those who would then have been
pass i o n a t e l y curious to hear a speech, now say to themselves:
"I'll read it in my newspaper. ..." And it is thus that,
little b y little, the publics enlarge themselves, while the
crowds b e c o m e smaller and tend to decline even faster in
terms of their importance.
W hat has become of the time w h e n the sacred eloquence
of an apostle, a St. Colomban, or a St. P a t r i c k , 1 converted
entire p eoples w ho clung to his every word? At present, it
is the newspapers that accomplish the conversion of masses.
Thus, whatever the nature of the groups into which a
society is divided, whether they have a religious, economic,
political, or even a national character, the public is their
final state, and, in a way, their common denominator. It is
to this purely psychological aggregate of mental states in
p e r p e t u a l mutat i o n that everything is reduced. Significantly,
it is the professional aggregate, founded on the mutual
1St. Colomban (ca, 545-615) was an Irish monk;

St. Patrick (377-460) is the b i s h o p h o n o r e d by the Irish
as their s a i n t - p a t r o n .
A40 203
e xploitation and adaptation of desires and interests, that
is most affected b y this civilizing transformation. Despite
all the dissimilarities that we have noted b etween the crowd

•k
and the public, these two extremes of social evolution have
this in common: the bond among the various individuals who
constitute them develops not because these individuals,
through their very diversity and their complementary s p e c i a l
ties, integrate with one another so as to form a whole. On
the contrary, it develops because these individuals reflect
one another, and, through their innate or acquired similari
ties, fuse into a simple and powerful u n i o n — b ut so much
stronger in a public than in a c r o w d!--into a communion of
ideas and emotions which, nevertheless, allows free rein to
their individual differences.
VI
H a ving discussed the birth and the g r owth of the
Public, m a rked as it is b y its p a rticular traits, similar
or dissimilar to those of the crowd, and h a v i n g indicated
its g e n e alogical relations with the social group, let us now
try to sketch a classification of its varieties compared to
those of the crowd.
k
The family and the horde are the starting point of
this evolution. But the horde, the rough and plundering
band, is nothing else but the crowd in motion.
We can classify the publics, as well as the crowds,
from several points of view; from the point of v i e w of sex,
there are masculine and feminine publics. But the feminine
publics, composed of readers of novels or fashionable poetry,
fashion journals, feminist reviews, etc. . . ., ha v e no
resemblance wh atsoever with the crowds of the same sex.
Numeric all y speaking, they are entirely different and of a
less aggressive nature. I am not speaking of congregations
of women in churches. But when, by chance, wo me n gather in
the streets, they are always frightening b y their extraordi-
1 2
nary exaltation and ferocity. Jannsen and Taine should be
re-read on this subject. The first tells us about Hofmann,
a wi tc h and virago, wh o in 1529 led ba nd s of peasants, both
men and women, into rebellion by Lutheran preachings. "She
bre athed only fire, plunder, and murder," and uttered spells
which, be li ev ed to render her b a nd it s invulnerable, turned
them into fanatics. Taine describes the conduct of women,
even young and pretty ones, on the days of October 5 and 6
of 1789. They talked only of tearing to pieces and qu ar t e r
ing the Queen; of "eating her heart" and "making cockades
"'‘Jean Jannsen (1829-91) was a German historian.

2
Hi ppolyte Taine (1828-93) was a French historian,
philosopher, and literary critic. His Origines de la France
contemporaine contains the account of the French Revolution.
205
A42
out of her j e w el s. 1' They had only cannibalistic ideas,
which they apparently put into practice. Should we be
induced to say that, despite their seeming gentleness, wome n
harbor wild instincts and homicidal dispositions which come
to light when they are assembled? No, obviously what happens
in these gatherings of wom en is that everything that is most
impudent, daring, and, I would even say, most masculine in
them, comes to the fore. Corruptio optimi p e s s i m a . One
certainly does not need so much impudence or perversity to
read a newspaper, even a violent and perverse one. Hence,
undoubtedly, the better composition of publics of women, in
general of an aesthetic rather than political nature.
With respect to age, juvenile cr ow ds — whether parades
or mobs of students, of the street urchins of Paris— are
more important than juvenile publics. Of these, even the
the literary ones have never exercised any serious influence.
On the other hand, publics of old people lead the business
world in which crowds of old people have no part whatsoever
This imperceptible gerontocracy constitutes a beneficial

2
counterweight to the ephebocracv in the electoral crowds.
i.e., the best ."'ings corrupted become the worst; an

old saying that may be found in the writings of St. Thomas
Aquinas.
2
Ephebocracv is a term that G. Tarde seems to have
created b y analogy to g e r o n t o c r a c y ,- it means, the rule of
the y o u t h .
206
A43
dominated the young who had not yet had the time to lose
interest in the right to vote. Crowds of old people are
extremely rare. We might cite some tumultuous councils of
old bishops in the early Church, or some stormy sessions in
ancient and modern Senates, as examples of excesses assembled
old people are capable of committing, or of the collective
juvenile mood that they may develop in their gatherings.. It
appears that the tendency to flock together increases from
childhood to youth, then declines from this stage to old age.
It is not the same as the inclination to congregate into
corporate groups, which is born only at the outset of youth
and continues to gro w until maturity, and even old age.
We can classify crowds according to time, season, and
latitude. We have stated why we believe this distinction
is not applicable to publics. The effect of physical agents
on the formation and development of a public is almost nil,
while it is all-important in the origin and be ha vi or of
crowds. The sun is one of the greatest tonics of crowds;
summer crowds are much more feverish than winter crowds.
Perhaps, if Charles x"' had waited until December or January
before issuing his famous ordinances, the result wo uld have
be en different. But, the influence on publics of race--the
‘'“Charles X (1757-1836) was King of France from 1824

to 1830.
term race taken in its national m e a n i n g — is not less si gn i fi
cant than on crowds. Indeed, the "frenzy" characteristic of
French publics is related to the furia francese,^
In spite of everything, the most important distinction
that we must make about the various publics, as well as
crowds, is with respect to the nature of their goal or of
their b e l i e f s , Persons passing in the street, each going to
his own work, peasants gathered m a market-place, and casual
strollers, may form a very dense mass; they are but a throng
until the moment when a common faith or a common goal arouses
them or causes them to join together. When a new sight
attracts their eyes and their minds, when an unpredicted
danger or a sudden indignation orients their hearts toward
the same desire, they be g i n to aggregate obediently. This
initial stage of social aggregating is the crowd. We can
similarly state that as long as the readers, even habitual,
of a newspaper read only the bulletins and news items of a
practical importance or concerning their own private affairs,
they do not form a public. If I were to bel ie ve that, as is
often claimed, the advertising newspapers are destined to
grow at the expense of the tribune type of daily, I would
This is an Italian expression, meaning French fury,

that Italians, since Macchiaveli, have used to describe
French impulsiveness.
A45 208
hasten to erase everything that I wrote above on the social
transformations operated by journalism. But that is not so,
*1
not even in America. Also, it is only from the moment that
the readers of the same issue of a paper allow themselves to
be won over by the same idea or emotion that inspired it,
that they really constitute a public.
Therefore, we must classify crowds as well as publics
first on the basis of the goal or the belief that inspires
them. But, let us begin b y distinguishing them according to
whether it is a belief, an idea, or a goal that inspires
them. There are the believing crowds and the desiring
crowds; or rather--for among assembled men or even men
united over a distance, everything, whether thought or desire
is readily pushed as far as it wil l go--there are the crowds
★
In his fine work on the Principles of Sociology the
American G i d d m g s speaks, incidentally, of the important role
played by the newspapers in the Civil War, And, in this c o n
nection, he opposes the popular opinion according to which
the press would from now on submerge all individual influence
under the daily flood of its own impersonal opinions.". , ,
The press," he said, "has made its deepest impression upon
public opinion wh e n it has been the mouthpiece of a c o m m a n d
ing personality, a Garrison, a Greeley, . , . Besides, the
public does not realize that be hi nd the curtain, in the n e w s
paper office, the man of ideas w h o is unknown to the world is
known to all his fellows of the craft, and stamps his indi
viduality upon their thoughts and their work."
’'"The passage quoted is in F. H. Giddins, Principles

of Sociology (New York: Macmillan, 1896), pp. 139-140,
209
A46
or the publics which are convinced and fanatic, and crowds
or publics w h i c h are passionate and despotic. We have only
these two categories to choose from. Let us admit, however,
that publics are less extreme, less despotic or less dogmatic
than the crowds. But their de spotism or their dogmatism, if
less sharp than that of crowds, is, on the contrary, far
more tenacious and durable.
Whe the r believing or desiring, crowds differ ac cor d
ing to the nature of the group or the sect to which they are
attached. The same distinction applies to publics, which,
as we know, always originate in organized social groups, and

★
represent their inorganic transformation.. But let us, for
a moment, deal with crowds alone. The crowd, a seemingly
amorphous group born through spontaneous generation, is m
fact always aroused by a social body. It is some member of
this b o d y that serves as a ferment to the crowd and gives it

k k
color,. Thus, we will not confuse the rural crowds and
crowds of kinsmen that, in the Middle Ages, were formed by
the prestige of a sovereign family and in order to serve its
k
Here is another proof that the organic bon d and the
social bo nd are different, and that the progress of the lat
ter in no way implies the progress of the former.
■k k
As I stated above, it is so, even when it is an o u t
growth of the public; for the public itself is the t r a ns fo r
mation of an organized social group, party, sect, or ’•
corporation.
210
A47
whims with the crowds of flagellants that, in the same
period, were summoned by the pr e a c hi ng of monks and p r o
claimed their faith along the roads. We will not confuse
the prayi ng and processional crowds that the clergy led to
Lourdes"'" with the howling re vol uti ona ry crowds incited by

2
a Jacobin, or with the pitif ul and famished crowds of
strikers led by a trade union., Rural crowds, which are
har der to mobilize, are more formidable once they have been
launched. There is no Parisian riot whose ravages compare

3
with those of a Jacquerie. Religious crowds are the most
inoffensive of all; they b e co me capable of crimes only when
an encounter with a dissident and counter-demonstrating
crowd offends their intolerance, not greater but only equal
to that of any crowd. Individuals as such can be liberal
and tolerant; but, gathered together, they become a u t h o r i
tarian and tyrannical. This is due to the fact that through
The famous Roman Cat holic shrine of our Lady of

Lourdes in southwestern France, w hi ch was instituted after
the visions of Bernadette Soubirous in 1859, and which is
visited by more than two mi lli on pilgrims from all over the
world annually.
2
Member of the famous po li ti ca l club of the French
Revolut ion which was offici al ly called the Society of the
Friends of the Constitution.
3
Name given originally to an insurrection of the
p ea sants in northeastern France against the nobles in 1358
w hi ch was marked by appalling atrocities.
A48
211
mutual contact beliefs are exalted. Indeed, there is no
strong conviction that can bear contradiction, Hence, the
massacre of the Arians by the Catholics and of the Catholics
by the Arians,^ that in the fourth century bathed in blood
the streets of Alexandria, Political crowds, mainly urban,
are the most passionate and furious. Fortunately, they are
volatile, passing with the greatest ease from hate to ad o r a
tion, from a fit of anger to a fit of gaiety. Economic and
industrial crowds, like rural crowds, are much more h o m o g e
neous. They are unanimous and persistent in their beliefs,
larger and stronger. In their furor, they are on the whole
less inclined to murder than to material destruction.
Esthetic crowds--which, together with the religious
crowds, are the only noteworthy be li evi ng crowds--for some
unknown reason have been neglected, I call so those crowds
which are incited by an old or new school of literature or
art to take position for or against, for example, a dramatic
or musical work. These crowds are perhaps the most i n to le r
ant, pre cisely because of the arbitrary and subjective nature
of the judgments of taste which they proclaim. Indeed, they
feel all the more deeply the need to see spread and p r o p a
gated their enthusiasm for this or the other artist, for
The reference is to the religious controversy in i ti

ated b y the teachings of Arius in the fourth century.
Victor Hugo, for Wagner, for Zola, or, inversely, their
horror of Zola, Wagner, Victor Hugo, since propagation of
their artistic faith is almost the only possi bl e justifica
tion of this faith. Thus, wh e n they are confronted with
opponents, who themselves form crowds, their anger may on
occasion become bloodthirsty. Was not blood shed, in the
eighteenth cenrury, in the struggles bet we en partisans and
adversaries of Italian music?
But, however different they may be in terms of their
origin, as well as of other characteristics, crowds resemble
one another in certain traits: their prodigious intolerance,
their grotesque arrogance, their unhealthy sensitiveness,
their maddening sense of irresponsibility, bo rn of the il lu
sion that they are omnipotent, and their total loss of the
sense of moderation, resulting from the excess of emotions
mutually exalted. Bet ween hate and adoration, between horror
and enthusiasm, between the cries "long live" and "death tc, ''
there is no middle course for a crowd. "Long live" means
live forever. It seems to be a wish for divine immortality,
a beginning of glorification. A mere trifle is enough to
change glorification into eternal damnation,
It seems to me that many of these distinctions and
considerations could be applied to various publics if we
take into account the fact that in their case these traits
A50 213
are less pronounced. Publics, like crowds, are intolerant,
conceited, and presumptuous. Under the name of publie
o p i n i o n , they believe that everything must yield to them,
even truth wh en it opposes them. Is it not also evident
that as group spirit, public spirit if not crowd spirit,
develops in our present-day societies through the ac c e l e r a
tion of currents of intellectual exchange, the sense of
mo der ati on becomes increasingly lost in it? In this spirit
people are overrated or rejected wi th the same haste. The
literary critics themselves, turning into the complacent
echo of the tendencies of their readers, hardly know h o w tc
grade or measure their judgments: they too are either
acclaiming or in su l t i n g . H o w far away are we already from
the bri ll ian t judgments of a Sainte-Beuve; In this respect,
publics, like crowds, somehow remind one of alcoholics, And,
indeed, intensive collective life is a powerful intoxicant ,
But, publics differ from crowds m the sense that
publics of faith and of ideas, whatever their origin, are in
greater pr oportion than publics of pass io n and of action,
whereas believing, idealist crowds exist in a smaller p r o
po r ti on than emotional, turbulent crowds. It is not just
the religious public, born of churches, or the esthetic p u b
lic b o r n of schools of art, that is driven b y a credo and an
ideal, but also the scientific and the philosophical publics,
A51 214
in their numerous varieties, even the economic public which,
by translating wants, idealizes them. Therefore, through
the tr an sfiguration of all social groups into publics, the
world gr adually intellectualizes itself. As to publics of
action, one w o u l d think that, properly speaking, these p u b
lics could not exist if he did not k n o w that, born of p o l i t i
cal parties, such publics impose on statesmen orders
inspired by some publicists. Furthermore, because the
action of publics is more intelligent and more enlightened,
it may be, and often is, much more p ro du ct iv e than that of

*
the crowds.
VII
This is easily proved. Whether created primarily by
either common beli ef s or by common consent, crowds can p r e
sent four modes of existence marking the various degrees of
★
Another noteworthy difference. It is always under
the form of polemics of the press that the public manifests
its existence and, then, we witness the battle of two p u b
lics, whic h often takes the form of a duel between their
publicists. But, it is extremely rare to have the c o n fr on t a
tion of two crowds, like those conflicts over processions
which, according to Mr. Larroumet, sometimes occur in
Jerusalem, The crowd likes to march and to deploy alone, to
display its force and to press it on the defeated, defeated
without a struggle. What we sometimes see is a regular
force at grips w it h a crowd which, if the weaker, backs off,
if the stronger, crushes and massacres the opponent. We also
see not two crowds but one two-headed crowd. Parliament,
dividing itself into two parties that fight each other with
words or with their fists, as in Vi enn a . . . or even in Paris
215
A5 2
their passivity or activity. They are expectant, attentive,
demonstrative, or acting, Publics present the same vari e
ties .
Expectant crowds are those which, assembled in a
theater be fore the rising of the curtain, or around a g u i l l o
tine before the arrival of the convict, wait for the curtain
to rise or for the convict to arrive; or those which rush tc
meet a king, an imperial visitor, a train that carries a
popular figure, a tribune, or a victorious general, and wait
for the procession of the sovereign or the arrival of
the train. Collective curiosity in these crowds reaches
unheard of proportions, h av ing no relation to its purpose
whic h is sometimes insignificant. It is even more intense
and exaggerated in expectant crowds thaji in expectant p u b
lics, in which it develops to a high degree when millions of
readers, excited over a sensational case, eagerly await a
verdict, a judgment, or news of any kind. The least curious
the most serious of men, if he happens to join any of these
feverish gatherings, wonders what keeps h i m there despite
his urgent business, what is the strange need that, like
everybody else around him, he feels to see the passing of an
emperor's coach or the bla ck horse of a general.. A general
observation: expectant crowds are always much more patient
than individuals in similar cases. During the Franco-Russian
216
A53
ceremonies, masses of Parisians stood tightly packed and
motionless, for three to four hours, along the route to be
followed by the tsar, without any sign of discontent. From
time to time, some carriage was mistaken for the be g i n n i n g
of the p r o c e s s i o n but, once the error was recognized, the
waiting would resume without the repeated illusions and
deceptions seeming to produce their usual exasperating
effect. We also kn o w h o w long curious crowds spend watching
a military parade, waiting in the rain and even after dark.
On the other hand, it often happens at the theater, that the
same public, having quietly accepted an excessively long
wait, suddenly becomes exasperated and can no longer bear
even a minute of further delay., W h y is it that crowds are
always both more patient and more impatient than the indi
viduals? Both cases are explained by the same psychological
cause: the mutual contagion of feelings among those p r e s e n t ,
As long as no ma ni festation of impatience, no stamping of
the feet, hooting, noise of walking sticks or feet, has been
produced in a gathering--and naturally nothing like this is
produced, since it would serve no purpose before a capital
execution or a pa rade--everyone is impressed by the spectacle
of the resigned or cheerful attitude of his neighbors, and
unc onsciously reflects their resignation or their c h e e r f u l
ness. But if someone--when for example in a theater it can
serve to shorten the delay--takes the initiative to show his
impatience, he is soon imitated step b y step and the impa
tience of each individual is doubled by that of the others.
Individuals in crowds simultaneously attain the highest
degree of bo t h mutual moral attraction and mutual physical
repulsion (an antithesis whi ch does not exist for publics).,
Indeed, whi le they nudge one another w it h their elbows, at
the same time, they visibly wish to express only feelings
similar to those of their neighbors- In the conversation
that they sometimes start among them, they only seek to
please one another without distinctions of rank or class,
Atte nti ve crowds are those which are formed around
the chair of*a preacher or professor, of a speaker's rostrum,
of a stand, or before a stage where a moving drama is p e r
formed, Their attention--as well as their m a t t e n t i o n - - i s
always stronger and more persevering than that of each of
the individuals m them if he were alone- A professor made
a remark to me about this kind of crowds that seemed tc the
point: "An audience of young men at the Law School or at
any other school," he told me, "is always attentive and
respectful, w he n it is not large; but, if instead of nu m b e r
ing twenty or thirty, they are a hundred, two hundred, or
three hundred, they often cease to respect and listen to
their professor, and there is frequently an uproar. Divide
A55 218
a hundred rebellious and turbulent students into four groups
of twenty-five each and you will have four audiences full of
attention and respect," This is due to the fact that the
proud sense of their number intoxicates men in a crowd and
causes them to hold in contempt the isolated man who is
speaking to them, unless the latter manages to dazzle and
"charm" them. But, we must also say that when a large au di
ence allows itself to become captivated by the speaker, it
is more respectful and attentive the larger it is.
Another observation: In the crowds fascinated by a
show or a speech, only a small number of spectators or
listeners pay much attention; many of them only half-see and
half-hear, or do not hear and do not see at all. Despite
this, however bad or however expensive their seats may be,
these persons are satisfied and regret neither their time nor
their money. For example, there are these people who waited
two hours for the arrival of the tsar, When he finally
passed by, crowded as they were b eh ind several rows of p e r
sons, they saw nothing. All they enjoyed was hearing the
more or less expressive and deceptive noise of the carriages
However, b ac k home, they described this spectacle in good
faith, as if they had really wit ne ss ed it, for actually they
saw it through the eyes of the others. They would be very
surprised if they were told that a man in the provinces who.
at a distance of two hundred leagues from Paris, was looking
at a p ho to gra ph of the imperial pr oc e s s i o n in his illustrated
newspaper was more truly a spectator than they themselves.
Why are they so convinced of the opposite? Because, to tell
the truth, on such occasions it is chiefly the crowd that
becomes its own spectacle. The crowd attracts and admires
the crowd.
Between the more or less passive crowds about which
we have just spoken and the active crowds, the demonstrative
crowds hold the middle position. Whether they express their
conv iction or their emotions of love or hate, whether they
be cheerful or grieved, it is always in the extreme manner
typical of them, We notice about them two rather feminine
characteristics: a remarkably expressive symbolism together
with an enormous lack of imagination in the renewal cf their
symbols, which are always the same and repeated to the point
of boredom. The parading of banner s and flags, statues,
relics, sometimes cut-off heads on the top of pikes, the
shouting of hurrahs or clamorings. hymns or songs; they have
been able to invent nothing more to express their feelings
But, if they have few ideas, they hold fast to them and
never tire of uttering the same cries, of starting the same
processions over again,, Publics, toe, b e c o m e demonstrative
once they have reached a certain point of excitement. They
A57 220
demonstrate not only indirectly,, through crowds born of them
but also and pri ma ri ly directly, through the stimulating
effect they have on the very persons who have inspired them--
but who can no longer control them--by the torrents of
lyricism or insults, of adulation or defamation, of utopian
frenzy or bl o o d t h i r st y furor that they cause to flow from
the pens of their obedient journalists, the masters who have
become their serfs, It follows then that their dem on str a
tions are much more varied and more dangerous than those of
crowds, We must accordingly deplore the inventive genius
that, on certain days, is wasted on ingenious lies, on
specious myths, which are continually proven false and
continually re-created, for the simple pleasure of offering
every public the food it likes to have, and of expressing
what it believe s to be true or wants to be true
Let us deal with the acting c r o w d s , What can crowds
really do? I can see what they can undo or what they can
destroy. But what can they produce with the lack of c o h e r
ence and coo rdination inherent in their actions? Organized
corporations, sects, and associations are productive as well
as destructive. The bridge buildi ng orders''’ m the Middle
Ages constructed bridges, the monks of the West cleared
~'~Freres pontifes
A58 221
regions and founded towns; the Jesuits, in Paraguay, carried
out the most curious experiment in cooperative community
living'*' that has ever bee n successfully attempted; the c o r
poration of masons erected most of our cathedrals. But, can
we cite a house built by a crowd, a piece of land cleared
and plowed by a crowd, any industry created by a crowd? For
a few thin Liberty trees that they planted how many forests
were burned, mansions plundered, and castles demolished by
them., For one popular prisoner that they occasionally
liberated, how many lynchings and h o w many prisons that were
br oke n open by the American or revolutionary masses for the
purpose of massacring hated, envied, or feared prisoners,
We can classify acting crowds into crowds of love and
crowds of hate. But, to what truly productive tasks do love
crowds apply themselves? We do not k no w which is mere d i s a s
trous, hate or love, the curses or the enthusiasms of crcwds
When, prey to cannibalistic frenzy, they howl, they are
horribl e indeed, But when they grovel at the feet of one
of their huma n idols, unharness his carriage and raise it
on their shoulders, the object of this adulation--mother of
dictatorships and tyrannies--is usually someone half-insane
XVie p h a I a n s t e r l e n n e : m the manner of the utopian

society conceived by the French social reformer, Charles
Fourier (1772-1837),
A5 9 222
like M a s a n i e l l o , 1 a wild beast like Marat, a quackish general

2
like Boulanger, Even when they surround a rising hero, such
as Bon aparte returning from Italy, with delirious applause,
they can only prepare for disasters through the excessive
pride that they arouse in him, and that may cause his genius
to degenerate into insanity. However, it is for a Marat m
parti cul ar that crowds display all their enthusiasm. The
glo rification of this monster, the worshipping of his ''sacred
heart" exh ibited at the Pantheon, is a glaring example of
the power for mutual blinding and mutual hallucination, of
which assembled people are capable. In this irresistible
drive, cowa rdi ce has had a rather small part, as if drowned
m gener al sincerity.
But, it must be said, there is an enormous variety cf
crowds of love, a variety that plays a very necessary and
be nef ici al role and serves as a counter-weight to all the
wrong done by all other types of gatherings. I wish to
speak of the h ol id ay crowds of feast, of the cheerful crowds,
of crowds m love with themselves, intoxicated solely by the
^Masaniello, or rather Thomas Aniello (1623-47), an

Italian fisherman who led the insurrection cf the Neapolitan,
and who was assassinated in 1647,
2
Georges Boulanger (1837-91), French general, who was
made ministe r of war in 1886, He was involved in political
intrigues during the last years of his life
pleasure of assembling for the sake of assembling, Here. I
ha st en to s trike out from wha t 1 said above about the no n
productive character of crowds everything that is m a t e r i a l i s
tic and narrow. Surely, all pr od uctivity does not consist
in bu il di ng houses and in ma nufacturing furniture, clothes
or food. Social peace, social unity, is maintained by
popular celebrations, merry-making, periodic rejoicings of
entire villages or entire towns, where all dissent is m o m e n
tarily erased m a common desire, which is the desire to
meet one another, to rub elbows with one another, to sympa
thize. This peace and this unity are products no less
precious than all the fruits of the earth and all the
objects of industry, Even the feasts of the Federation
celebrations in 17901--so short a calm betwe en two stor ms- -
had the temporary merit of pacification. Let us add that
patriotic enthusiasm-- another variety of love and of the
love of self, cf collective and national love--has also
often inspired generosity m crowds, If it has never
brought victory in battle, it nevertheless had the effect
of strengthening the spirit of the armies exalted by these
generous c r o w d s ,
‘'“The Fete de la F e d e r a t i o n , on July 14, 17 90, was

h eld m P a n s on the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille
and represents an attempt that was made then to create a
feeling of national unity,
After having discussed the holiday crowds can I
forget the mo urning crowds, those that under the burden cf
a common grief, follow the funeral procession of a friend,
a great poet, or a national hero? These also are powerful
stimuli cf social life,, Through these common griefs and
joys, a peo pl e gains experience m uniting into a single
bundle all wills.
In short, the crowds in general are far from d e s e r v
ing the evil that has been said of them and that I myself
have said on occasion. If we weigh, in its entirety, the
daily work of crowds cf Icve, of the holid ay crowds, espe
cially with the intermittent and localized work of crowds
of hate, we will recognize, in all fairness, that the forme
have contributed much more to the weaving or tightening of
social bonds than the latter have to tearing at. places this
fabric. Let us imagine a country where there were never
riots cr vengeful uprisings of any kind, but where, at the
same time, public celebrations, cheerful street dem on st ra
tions, and popular enthusiasm were unknown. This insipid
colorless country would certainly be far less impregnated
with a pro found feeling of its nationality than a country,
which is the mcst agitated in the world by public troubles
and even by massacres, but which, in be twe en these frenzies
has preserved, like Florence m the Middle Ages, the custom
225
A6 2
of large religious or secular celebrations, of common
rejoicing, of games, processions, and carnivals., Thus,
crowds, gatherings, jostlings. and mutual influences among
me n are far more useful than harmful to the development of
sociability, Yet, m this, as m everything, what can be
seen prevents us from thinking about what cannot be s e e n ,
This is probably the reason for the strict attitude s o c i o l o
gists usually take with regard to crowds- The gcc-d effects
of crowds of love and of joy are hidden in some corners cf
the heart, Long after the feast is over, there remains an
abundance of congenial con ciliatory disposition that
expresses itself in a thousand unseen ways, m the gestures,
words, and contacts of daily life, On the other hand, the
anti-social work of crowds of hate is plainly evident, and
the spectacle of the criminal damage for which they are
responsible remains long after they are gone and makes their
memory an abomination.
May I speak now of the acting publics, without m i s
using the metaphor? Is not the public, that widely d i s
persed crowd, essentially pa ss iv e? Actually, when the
public has to a certain level of exaltation, about which
its publicists are warned through their habit of daily
auscultating it, it acts through them, just as it d e m o n
strates through them, and it imposes itself on the statesmen
who bec om e its executors. This is what we call the power cf
public opinion. It is true that this power attests e s p e
cially to the power of its leaders who have set it into
motion. Yet, once aroused, it sweeps them alcng unexpected
paths, Thus, this action of publics is. above all, a some
times formidable reaction to their publicists who e x p e r i
ence pressure from them which they themselves have brought
on,, Like the very essence of the public this action is
entirely intellectual. Like the action cf the crowds, it
is inspired by love or by hate but, unlike it, when inspired
by love, it often has immediate results becau se it is a
more deliberate and calculated action, even when violent
The good this action produces is not limited to the e v e r y
day exercise of social congeniality, a feeling that is
stimulated among individuals by the daily renewed sense of
their spiritual contact, It also inspires mutual assistance
and c o m p a s s i o n , If the joys and sorrows of the public are
neither periodic nor regulated by tradition, they possess,
no less than do the celebrations of the crowds, the gift cf
appeasing conflicts and calming hearts. We must bless
the frivolous press, I do not mean the pornographic press,
for keeping the public m an almost constant good meed,
favorable to peace. As to the publics of hate, we know them
too. The evil they do or cause is far greater than the
A64 227
ravages caused by furious crowds.. Publics are much less
bl in d and much more durable crowds whose more perspicacious
anger accumulates and endures for months and y e a r s .
Therefore, after all that has been said about the
crowds, I am surprised that nothing has b ee n said about the
crimes of publics- For, there certainly are criminal,
ferocious, and bloodthirsty publics just as there are c r i m i
nal crowds. If the criminal tendencies of the former are
less evident than those cf the latter, how much more real,
more refined, and more profound they are, and for this
reason less excusable: However, attention was usually paid
only to crimes and the offenses committed against publics,
to the lies, abuses of trust, and real frauds on a large
scale that they so often suffer by the fault of their
leaders. We must also mention the crimes and offenses
committed against crowds, and which are no less odious nor.
perhaps, less frequent, The voters are Lied to: their votes
are swindled with false promises, solemn commitments that
will never be honored, and defamatory calumnies that are
made up,. It is easier to cheat crowds than publics, for the
speaker who deceives them usually has no one to contradict
him, while the various newspapers serve as antidotes to one
another. Notwithstanding this, it should not be concluded
that because publics may be victims of true crimes, they
cannot themselves be criminal.
Since we have just referred to the abuses cf trust cf
which publics are the object, let us here open a parenthesis
to note h o w inadequate is the very individualistic concept
of legal b o n d ,^ as the jurists have always defined it so far
and h o w much it needs to be revised to co rrespond to the
changes in our customs and mores that the birth and growth
of publics have produced. According to prevailing notions
a legal bond, resulting from a promise, exists only if this
promise has been accepted by the person or the persons to
whom it is made, something that implies a p e r sonal rel at io n
ship among the persons involved This worked be fo r e the
invention of printing, wh e n the human promise could carry no
further than the human voice, and when, in view of the
narrow limits of the social grcup within which one engaged
in a busin ess relationship, the customer was always p e r
sonally known by the trader, the be ne ficiary by the doner,
the debtor by the creditor. Thus, the bi la ter al contract
could be assumed to be the most important and almost exclu
sive form of obligation. But, from the time the Press
became important it is less and less to pa rticular persons,
and more and more to collectivities that, through the n e w s
papers, we address ourselves, with which we enter into
L ien de droit
relations of all kinds, we engage commercially through a d v e r
tisement and political ly through programs. What is fortunate
in this respect is that these engagements, even the most
solemn, are simple uni lateral desires not bound by the reci
procity of simultaneous desires; they are simple premises
not actually accepted or susceptible of being accepted, and.
*,1 , 2
as such, they are deprived cf any legal sanction
Nothing is more apt to favor what we may call social plunder
We might also say that a promise made to a crowd is difficult
to be legally sanctioned by reason of the essentially
transient character of the crowd which is assembled only
for a moment, and is never the same again, There is the
case of a certain candidate for deputy who, before four
thousand persons, had sworn that at the second ballot he was
going to w it hd ra w m favor of his republican opponent if he
obtained fewer votes than he. He did receive fewer votes,
but he failed to withd r aw at all, and he was elected, Here
is what encourages the political quacks And. m such a
case, the result of the premise should not be given any
On this subject see our The T ransformat ions cf Law,

p. 116 and 307, as well as the thesis cf Mr Rene Worms on
Unilateral Wi 11
. Tarde, Les Transformations du droit (Paris;

F. Alcan, 1895),
2 r A
Rene Worms, Volonte unilater ale cons ideree comrne
source d 'obligation en droit romain comme en d r o l t franca is
(Paris; v, Giard et E, Briere, 1891).
A67 230
legal sanction, because once the crowd has been dispersed,
there is no longer anyone, even someone who was part of it,
who can claim to represent it, to act in its behalf. But.
publics are permanent; so, I do not see why, after a de l i b
erately deceitful piece of news has been published as true,
the trusting readers, who because of this artful, selfish,
venal lie were led to unfortunate speculation and financial
disaster, should not have the right to sue the roguish p u b
licist who duped them, so that he may make amends. Perhaps,
then, the public character of a lie, instead cf being the
attenuating or absolving circumstance that it is now, will
be regarded as an aggravation in pr oportion to the size cf

★
the deceived public would b e , It is inconceivable that a
writer, having scruples about lying in private life, would
lie shamelessly and lightheartedly tc a hundred thousand or
five hundred thousand persons who read his work; and that
many people knowing this would continue to regard hi m as an
honest man.
But, putting aside this legal question, let us return
to the crimes and offenses of publics. It is certainly true
that there are insane publics; the Athenian public was
For, the same thing holds true for publics just as

for assemblies, the more numerous they are the easier they
are to deceive, something jugglers k n o w perfectly well.
certainly one when it forced its government to declare war
to Turkey, 1 a few years ago.
It is no less certain that there are delinquent p u b
lics., Are there not cabinets that, under the pressure of
the public, of a domineering press, and net wishing to fall
honorably, had to introduce and pass laws persecuting and
despoiling various categories cf citizens? Certainly, the
crimes of publics are less colorful and seem less atrocious
than the crimes of the crowds, They differ from the latter
by four characteristics: First, they are less offensive;
second, they are less vindictive and more selfish, less
violent and more crafty; third, they are mere widely and
more permanen tly oppressive; fourth, they are mere assured
of impunity,
Should we seek a typical example cf the crimes of
crowds; the Revolution cf T a m e ^ provides us with as many
as, and more than, we may desire. In September. 1789. at
Troyes, a rumor circulated against Huez, the mayor: He is
The author refers to the Greco-Turkish War of 1897:

the intervention of the European powers m the Greek g o v e r n
ment's efforts to annex the island of Crete from Turkey
exasperated Greek public opinion to the point of demanding
war on Turkey, a war in which Greece was summarily defeated
and humiliated,
2
The three volumes on the French Revolution (1878-84)
of H. Taine' s work Les O n q i n e s de JLa F r a n c e c o n t e m p o r a i n e ,
which was reissued m 1899 m eleven volumes
A69
a hoarder, he wants to make people eat h a y . Huez was a man
kn own for his kindness, who had rendered many services to
the city.. This did not matter., On September 9, three w a g o n
loads of bad flour were found; the people gathered and
shouted: "Down with the mayor; Death to the mayor!" Huez,
while leaving the courtroom, was thrown to the ground,
kic ke d and beaten, and struck on the head with a woode n shoe,
A woman rushed up to the old man, trampled his face with her
feet, and drove scissors into his eyes several times. He
was dragged, then pulled back, then dragged again along the
streets and in the gutters "with a piece of h ay in h is
mouth," There followed lootings and the de st ruction of
hou ses and, as a notary public recorded, "more than six

ic
hundr ed bottles w r e drunk or carried away."_______________ __
As we see, these collective murders were net inspired
by avarice like those committed by our cut-throats or by the
revolutionary publics that, in the same period, through the
voice of their newspapers and their terrorized r e p r e s e n t a
tives, had lists cf outlaws drawn up or passed laws of c o n
fiscation in order to obtain the spoils of their victims.
Faire manger du foin au p e u p l e .,
R e v o l u t i o n , Vol, I. p.. 88. In the same period, the

crowd did worse things at Caen: Major de Belsunce was d i s
membered, like La Perousse in the Fiji Islands, and a woman
ate his h e a r t ,
A7 0 233
No, they were inspired by vengeance, like the family murders
of barba rian clans, They were dictated by the need to p u n
ish the real or imaginary crimes, like American lynch ings
At all times and m all countries, homicidal or looting
crowds think of themselves as avengers and the summary jus
tice they deal out is strangely reminiscent by the v i n d i c
tiveness and extreme cruelty of its penalties, by its very
symbolism as demonstrated by the piece of hay in the mouth
of Huez, of the justice of primitive times.
In truth, can we call criminal a crowd maddened by
the conviction that it is being betray ed and made to starve
or that it is to be exterminated? In general, criminal is
here but the instigator or group of instigators, the author
or authors cf the murderous slanders . The greatest excuse
of crowds m their worst excesses is their stupendous
credulity, which reminds one of a hypnotized person Pub
lics are much less credulous and, for this reason, their
responsibility is much greater. Assembled people are much
more credulous than each individual taken separately
Because their attention is concentrated on a single object,
a kind of collective single-mindedness puts them in a state
comparable to a trance or hypnosis, in which the field cf
consciousness, considerably narrowed, is completely taken
over by the first idea that presents itself. Therefore, any
A71 234
assertion that is made in a decided and strong voice needs
no other proof, During the war of 1870,^ after our first
disasters, the rumor circulated, in many rural areas, that
certain large landowners or priests were sending the Pr u s
sians huge sums of money, a hundr ed or two hundred thousand
francs, This was said of men who at the same time were very
hon orable and very much m debt and who would have had con
siderable difficulty in obtaining even one tenth of this
money, Some of them had sons m the army,.
The peasants would hardly have believed these h o m i
cidal tales as long as they lived scattered through the
countryside; but, assembled at the fairs or markets, they
suddenly put credence m these odious lies, and the crime
of Hautefaye was the bl oody r e s u l t ,
Crowds are not only credulous but also insane They
share several of the characteristics that we have noted
about them with the inmates cf our asylums: exaggerated
pride, intolerance, immoderation in everything Just like
the insane, they always pass from extreme elation to extreme
depression; one moment they are heroically furious, the next.
''"The Franco-Prussian War that lasted from July 19,

1870, to May 10, 1871, when the French emperor, Napoleon III,
was defeated.
A7 2 235
they are overcome by panic. They have true collective h a l l u
cinations: Men in crowds believe that they see or hear
things that once as individuals they neither see ncr h e a r .
When they believe that they are being pursued by imaginary
enemies, they found this belief on reasoning that is typical
of the insane. We find a good example in T a m e , Towards
the end cf July, 1789, under the impact of the national d i s
turbances that had aroused feverish gatherings everywhere,
m the streets and m the public places, a rumor had g r a d
ually spread that soon invaded the regions cf the Angoumcis
of the P e n g o r d , and Auvergne: ten thousand, twenty t h o u
sand brigand s were coming; they ha d been seen; there, cn
the horizon was the dust they had raised; they were killing
everybody in sight, "Thereupon, whole parishes escaped, in
the night, to the woods, abandoning their homes, taking
their furniture with them," Then, the evidence was u n m i s
takable, The people returned to their towns. But then they
developed a reasoning identical to that of the delirious
victims cf a persecution psychosis who, experiencing a feel
ing of anxiety of morbid origin, imagine enemies to justify
it, So these populations say to themselves, the fact that
we arose means that there was danger And, _if the danger
does not come from b r ig an ds , it c o m e s from e lsewhere " ; from
elsewhere means from hypothetical conspirators. Hence, the
all too real persecutions.
Should we conclude that collective crimes exist in
name only? And, should we consider as crimes only the in di
vidual criminal actions of the leaders? This would be going
toe far and pushing to the limit the relative truth of the
preceding considerations When in a Roman circus, the
crowd signaled the death of a defeated gla diator for its
pleasure, was it not savagely homicidal despite the at tenu
ating circumstances derived from heredit ar y custom? More
over, there are crowds which were born criminal and which
did not become so by accident; there are crowds as criminal
as the leaders they have chosen because they resemble them.
These are the crowds composed of evil-doers w h o m a secret
affinity has brought together, and whose pe rve rsi ty has been
aroused by their grouping, They are aroused to the point
that actually they are less criminal than they are criminal!
i nsa ne ,^ if we could use this term about individual cri mi
nality to describe collective criminality. The c n m i n a l I v
insane individual, this dangerous and repulsive lunatic who
kills and commits crimes by morbid impulse, but whose m o r
bidity is less a deviation than the exagge rat ion of the
Aliene criminel
A74 237
tendencies of his normal character, of his false, egoistic,
and wicked nature, assumes a larger collective identity when
in times of trouble escaped prisoners engage in blcody
crgies,
H o w far afield this kind of crime is from the crimes
of the public. When the public is criminal, it is so by
party interest rather than vengeance, by cowardice rather
than cruelty. The public is terroristic because of fear,
not bec aus e of an outburst cf anger. It is especially
capable of criminal complacency towards its chiefs of
m a n u t e n q o l i s m e ^ as the Italians say. But, why be concerned
with the public's own crimes, since it is equivalent to p u b
lic opinion, and since, once again, opinion is sovereign
and, as such, irresponsible; It is especially when the
crimes cf the public are attempted and net consummated that
they can be persecuted: and yet, this can c.nly be dene
against the publicists, who have inspired them, or the
leaders cf crowds which, born of publics, have engaged t h em
selves m these attempts. As to publics themselves, they
remain in the shadow, intangible, waiting for the time to
start again Usually when a crowd commits crimes--tc begin
with Parliaments which are semi-corporate crowds and have
M a n u t e n g o l i s m e : complicity; manutengolo is the

Italian term for the receiver of stolen goods.
A7 5 238
often be en the accomplices of so many despots--t'nere is
behind it a public that inspires it. Is the voting public
that has nominated partisan, fanatic deputies not implicated
m their offenses, m their criminal plots against the free
dom, propert y and life of the citizens? Dees it net f re
quently re-elect them, and, in this way. endorse their
crimes? It is not only the voting public that has been a
criminal accomplice Even the ncn-votirig public purely
passive in appearance acts in reality through these who
seek to flatter it, to win it ever. It was nearly always
in complicity with a scoundrel public, from the moment when
the public was being born, that the greatest historical
crimes were committed: Perhaps the Saint Bartholomew s Day
Massacres,'*' certainly the per se cut ion of the Protestants
under Louis XIV. and so many others) The September M a s s a
cres had the enthusiastic approval of a certain public.
Without it and without its provocations, they would net have
taken place.. On a lower level are the electoral frauds
which at this time are widely pr ac tic ed in some cities Are
net these grcup offenses committed with the more or less
conscious complicity of an entire public? As a general rule,
XS t . Bartholomew Day's Massacres were ordered on

August 24, 1572, against the Protestants by King Charles IX
of France at the instigation of Catherine de M e d i c i s .
239
or almost; behind criminal crowds are even more criminal
publics, and, at their head, publicists w h o are even more so.
Publicists derive their power m a in ly from the instinc
tive knowledge of the psychology of publics. Th ey k n o w their
likes and dislikes; that wit h them one migh t wi t h impunity
take the liberty of presenting pornog ra ph ic descriptions,
that crowds would not tolerate. Indeed, theater crowds, for
example, have a collective mode sty that checks the individu-
*1
ual cynici sm of the persons composing it. This mod es ty is
lacking from the particular publics of cer ta in newspapers.
We may even say about the press publics that they are ch a r a c
terized by collective impudence mad e up of relative mod es
ties , But, whet her they be publics or crowds, unfortunately
all collectivities resemble one another in one respect:
In their deplorable tendency to submit to the stimulus of
envy and hate. For crowds, the need to hate is a corollary
to the need to act. To incite their en th u s i a s m does not
lead far; but to offer them a mo tive and an object of hate
is to give free rein to their activity which, we know, is
Crowds sometimes also present a collective h onesty

made up of collective dishonesty. In 1720, after a fever of
financial speculations, the English Parliament, "almost all
the members of w h i c h had taken part in that speculative
debauche, condemned it as a b o d y and o rdered that its p r o
moters be p e rsecuted for having corrupted public figures,"
(Claudio Janet, le_ C a p i t a l ) .
■''Claudio Janet, Le C a p i t a l , la S p e c u lation et la

finance au X I X Siecle (Paris: E. Plon & Co., 1892).
240
destructive as long as it is expressed b y definite acts.
Hence the success of the proscription lists in the riots.
Wh at the angry crowds want is a h ea d or heads. Publics are
fortunately less simplistic in their activity, and they turn
toward an ideal of reforms or utopias as readily as toward
ideas of ostracism, persecution, or confiscation. But in
addressing themselves to the inborn ma li gni ty of publics,
their inspirers lead them only too ea si ly toward objects of
their own wickedness. Discovering or thinking up a new,
large object of hatred to present to the public is still one
of the safest ways to become one of the kings of journalism.
In no country, at no time, have apologetics been as much
successful as defamation.
But, I would not like to end on this pessimist
thought. Despite everything, I am inclined to believe that
the profound social transformations that we owe the press
are in the direction of ultimate unit y and pacification.
As we have seen, by being substituted for or superimposed on
the older groupings, the new and still more extensive and
more massive groupings that we call publics do not just cause
the reign of fashion to succeed that of tradition; they also
cause the neat and persistent distinctions among the many
varieties of human association and their endless conflicts
to be replaced by an incomplete, variable, and ill-defined
241
fragmentation w h i c h is in a process of perpetual renewal
and mutual penetration. To me, this appears to be the c o n
clusion to b e drawn from this l engthy study.
But, I h a sten to add that it w o u l d b e a serious error
to give the credit for human progress to collectivities,
even in their most intellectual guise. Untimately, all
fruitful initiative emanates from independent and strong
i ndividual thought;and in order to think one has to isolate
himself not only from the crowd, as Lamartine"*- has said,
but also from the public. This is what the great praisers
of the mass forget, and they overlook a certain c o n t r a d i c
tion that their arguments contain. In general, they show
so much admiration for allegedly anonymous and collective
great works only because they w i s h to express their contempt
for an individual genius other than their own. It is
therefore w o r t h observing that these famous admirers of
multitudes alone and full of contempt for all men as
individuals, have been prodigies of arrogance. No one
more than Wagner, if not Victor Hugo, after perhaps
"*"G. Tarde alludes to Lamartine's lines, "One must

isolate h imself from the crowd in order to think and become
one with it in order to act" :
II faut se se p a r e r . pour p e n s e r . de la f o u l e ,
Et s'jr confondre pour a g i r .
Cit e d in G. Tarde, "Appendice: La Psychologie des foules,"
Essais et melanges sociologigues (Lyon: A. Storck, 1895),
p. 425..
A7 9 242
Chateaubr ia nd and Rousseau, has pr ofessed the theory a c c o r d
ing to which "the people is the effective force of a w o r k of
art" and "the isolated individual is incapable of inventing
anything and can only take credit for a common invention."
These are expressions of admiration for collective a c h i ev e
ments that cost nothing to anyone's self-pride, and they are
comparable to satires that offend no one because they are
addressed to all without distinction
The danger in new democracies is the increasing d i f f i
culty thinking men have to escape the obsession cf fas ci na t
ing agitation. The descent in a diving bell is difficult in
a very rough sea. The leaders given prominence by our
mo dern societies are more and more the writers who live m
continuous contact with them. The powerful influence that
these individuals have--an influence definitely preferable
to the blindness of leaderless crcwds--is already a rejection
of the theory cf creative masses. But this is not sufficient:
and, as it is not enough to spread an average culture e v e r y
where, and as it is necessary above all to keep raising high
culture to even higher levels, we may, like Sumner Maine,'
concern ourselves with the future fate of the last
^"Sir Henry James Sumner Maine (1822-88), an English

jurist and historian, a pioneer in the study of comparative
law whose b o o k Ancient Law (1861) was very influential in
po litical theory and m anthropology.
243
A80
i n t e l l e c t u a l s , whose lonq-term services do not strike the
eyes., What saves the mountains from being levelled and
transformed into farm lands, into vineyards, or into p a s
tures by the mo untain people is not at all the notion of the
services rendered b y these natural w a t e r - c a s t l e s . It is
simply the solidity of their peaks, the hardness cf their
substance, which is too costly to dynamite. I am afraid
that what will preserve the intellectual and artistic s u m
mits cf manki nd from destruction and democratic leveling
will not be gratitude for the good that the world owes them
and the just appreciation of the value of their discoveries,
What will it be then? I would like to believ e that it will
be the strength of their resistance, Let us beware, lest
they should b re ak down.
II
PUBLIC OPINION A N D CONVERSATION
PUBLIC OPINION
In modern times, public opinion is to the public what
the soul is to the body, and the study of one na t u r a l l y
leads us to the other. Will the objection be raised that
there was always a public opinion, whereas the public as we
have defined it is rather recent? This is true, bu t let us
see to what this objection is reduced. What is public
opinion? How is it born? Wh a t are its various sources?
H o w is it expressed while developing, and whether b y being
expressed, it grows, as is shown b y universal suffrage and
journalism, the modes of its expression today. Wh a t is its
p ro du ctivity and social importance? How is it transformed?
A n d toward what outlet, if there is an outlet, are its
mul ti ple currents directed? These are some of the questions
to which we shall try to outline some answers.
At the outset let us say that in the word public
opinion we usually confuse two things which are in fact
b l en de d but w h i c h should be distinguished for the purpose of
244
analysis: public opinion in the proper sense of the word,
which is a collection of judgments, and general will,
wh i c h is a collection of desires, it is primarily, but not
exclusively, with public opinion conceived in the first of
these meanings that we are concerned here.
However great the importance of public opinion may be,
and despite its present day excesses we should not over-rate
the role it plays, Let us try to delineate its domain
Opini on must not be confused with two other parts of the
social mind, which at once feed and limit it, and wh i c h are
in a perpetual dispute wi th it over boundaries, One is
Tradition, the condensed and accumulated extract of what was
the opinion of the dead, a heritage of necessary and salutary,
though often a bu rden to the living, presumptions. The
other is what I woul d like to give, a collective abbreviated
name, Reason.'*’ By this term I mean personal, relatively
rational--although often irrational--judgments of an elite
wh ic h isolates itself and thinks, and which stays out of the
popular mai n stream in order to channel it or to direct it,
Priests, first of all, philosophers, scholars, jurists--coun-
cils, universities, judicial courts— either successively or
simultaneously, the incarnation of this resisting and guiding
G. Tarde uses the term raison,
reason, cl ea rl y distinct from both emotional sheep-like
drives of the masses and the motives or age-old principles
deep in their hearts. I would like to be able to add to
this enum era tio n the Parliaments, Chambers or Senates,
Ar e n ' t their members elected p r ec ise ly to deliberate in c o m
plete independence and to serve as a brake to the public
course of action? But there is a long w a y between the
ideal and the reality of things.
Long before having a general opinion, felt as such,
the individuals that compose a nation are conscious of
sharing a common tradition, and k n o w i n g l y submit to the
decisions of a reason that they d ee m to be superior, Thus,
of these three branches of the public mind the last one to
develop, but also the more likely to grow from a certain
point on, is public opinion. And, opinion grows at the
expense of the other two. Again st its intermittent assaults
no national institution resists. Before its threats or
summons there is no individual reason that is not shaken
and does not hesitate. Wh i ch of these two rivals does
Op in ion hurt most? This depends on those who direct it.
W h e n they belong to a reasoning elite, they sometimes may
so arouse Public Opinion that like a battering ram it
tears a gap in the rampart of tradition and widens it by
d e st ro yin g it, a rather dangerous undertaking. But, when
the le adership of the crowd is left to anyone who comes
along, it is easier for him, b y relying on tradition, to
arouse public opinion against reason, although the latter
eventu al ly t r i u m p h s „
Everyt hi ng would be for the best if the role of
opinion was limited to popularizing reason in order to c o n
secrate it into tradition. In this way, the reason of
today w o u l d become the public opinion of tomorrow, and the
tradition of the day after tomorrow. But, instead of s e r v
ing as a link betwee n its neighbors, Public Opinion is fond
of taking sides in their quarrels. Thus, sometimes, intoxi
cated b y the popularity of new doctrines, it ransacks the
cu st oma ry ideas or institutions before it is in a position
to replace them? at other times, coming under the influence
of C u s t o m it expels or oppresses the rational innovators, or
even forces them to put on the traditional livery, a hypo
critical disguise.
These three forces, differ from one another as much
b y their very nature as by their causes and effects. They
converge, but very unequally and variably, to form the value
of things; and, the value is quite different, depending on
whethe r it is prim ar il y a qu estion of custom, fashion, or
reason. Later on we will say that through the ages, conver
sation and, at present, the Press— that most important source
248
of c o n ve r sa ti o n— are the main factors in public opinion, not
f o rg et ti ng — it goes without saying— tradition and reason,
wh ic h are ever present and leave their mark on it. The

k
factors of tradition, in additi on to public opinion itself,
are up bringing within the family, professional apprentice
ship, and school instruction, at least in its elementary
form. In all the judicial, philosophical, scientific, and
even the church circles, w h e r e reason is formulated, it
develops out of its characte ri sti c sources of observation,
experience, inquiry, or, in any case, reasoning and deduc
tion b a s e d on the texts.
The contests or alliances of these three forces,
their clashes, their reciprocal encroachments, their in te r
action, their many varied relationships are what presents
the most poignant interest in history. Social life contains
nothing that is more visceral and more productive than this
long labor of often b l o o d y opposition and of adaptation.
Tradition, which always stays national, is more confined
between fixed limits, but infinitely more profound and more
stable than Public Opinion, which is light and transient
k
This word factor is mo reover ambiguous; it means
channel or s o u r c e . Here, it means channel. For con ver sa
tion and education only con ve y the ideas of which opinion
and tradition are made up. The sources are always indiv id
ual efforts, small or great inventions.
like the wind, but also, like it, expansive, constantly
aspiring to be come international, like reason. Gen erally
speaking, we can say that the cliff of tradition is con
stantly being eroded b y the overflow of Public Opinion, an
ebbless tide. public Opinion is stronger the we a k e r is
tradition, but this fact does not mean that reason is also
weaker then. In the Middle Ages, reason, as represented by
the Universities, the Councils, and the Courts of Justice,
was much stronger than it is today in resisting and forcing
back popular public opinion. It was far less strong in
opposing and reforming tradition. It is unfortunate that
Public Opinion has become all-powerful not only against
tradition, w hi c h is quite serious in itself, but also
against reason— judicial reason, scientific reason, and
legislative or political reason. If it is not invading the
laboratories of scientists--the only inviolable sanctuary
so far--it overflows the courtrooms and submerges Parlia
ments. Indeed, there is nothing so alarming as this deluge
that has no visible end.
Having delineated the domain of public opinion let
us now try to better define it. It m a y be said that
public opinion is a momentary, and a more or less
logical group of judgments which, since they provide answers
to problems of the day are reproduced over and over again in
persons of the same country, of the same period, and of the
same society.
All these conditions are essential. It is also essen
tial that each of these persons be more or less conscious of
the similarity between his own judgments and those of others;
for if each one of them bel i e v ed himself to be alone in his
understanding no one wo u l d feel close to and, because of
this, no one wou ld be drawn into an association with those
who think as he does, even though he m a y not be conscious of
it. Moreover, so that this awareness of the similarity of
ideas may develop among the members of a society, is it not
necessary that the cause of this similarity lie in the expres
sion through speech, through writing, or through the Press
of an individual idea wh i c h then gr adually becomes general?
The transformation of an individual opinion into a social
opinion, into "public opinion," can be traced in antiquity
and the Middle Ages to public speech, in our days to the
Press, but always and above all to the private conversations
which we will soon discuss.
We say opinion, but there are always two opinions
about every problem. Except that one of the two succeeds
rather quickly in eclipsing the other b y its more rapid and
more brilliant radiation, or because, though less wi despread
it is expressed louder.
Throughout history, and even in the most barbaric
times, there existed a public opinion, but it differed pro
foundly from the one we know. In the clan, in the tribe,
in the ancient city itself, and in the city of the Middle
Ages, all the people knew one another personally. When,
through private conversations or the speeches of orators, a
common idea was established in the minds of people, it did
not appear like a stone fallen f ro m the sky, like something
w it h an impersonal, and therefore more fascinating, origin.
Everyone thought of it as connected wi th the tonal quality
of a voice, with a face, w i t h a familiar personality from
w h o m it originated and wh o lent it a living aspect. For
the same reason, it served as a link only among persons,
who seeing and speaking to one another every day, would not
fool one another.
An opinion ma y well be widespread, it does not

demonstrate at all if it is moderate; but, however little
a violent opinion may be spread, it demonstrates a great
deal. Also, the "demonstrations" of opinion— an expression
both very comprehensive and very cl e a r — play an immense role
in the fusion and the inter-penetration of the opinions of
various groups and in their propagation. Through the demo n
strations, it is the most violent opinions that become
aware sooner and more clearly that thevco-exist, and in
this wa y their expansion is strangely favored.
"''The author's term for demonstrate is manifeste.
252
As long as the territory of the State did not extend
beyond the city walls, or at most the borders of a small
canton, public opinion, formed in this manner, was original
and strong— strong against tradition itself at times, but
chiefly against individual reason. In the government of
men it has pl aye d the leading role of the chorus in Greek
tragedy. This is a role that in its turn modern opinion,
although of an entirely different origin, aspires to assume
in our large states or in our fast expanding federations.
But, in the prodi gi ou sly long interval that separates these
two h ist ori ca l phases, the importance of public opinion
suffered a great decline, explained b y its fragmentation
into local opinions, lacking the usual ties among them, and
knowing nothing of one another.
In a feudal state such as England or medieval France,
every city, every market-town had its internal dissensions,
and its separate politics. In these enclosed areas the cu r
rents of ideas, or rather the whirl wi nd s of ideas that turned
round and round, were as different from place to place, as
they were alien and indifferent to one another, at least in
ordinary times. In these places, local politics were not
only all-engrossing, but to the extent--the slight extent--
that people w e r e interested in national politics, they dis
cussed them only among themselves. T he y had only the vaguest
idea of the w a y the same questions were solved in the
253
LO
neighboring towns. There was no "public opinion," but
thousands of separate opinions w i t h no link whatsoever
among them.
The book first, then and wi t h greater effectiveness
the newspaper, provided this link. The periodical press p e r
mitted these primary groups of unanimous individuals to form
a secondary, and very superior, grouping whose components
are close ly associated w it hou t ever having seen or kn own one
another. This gave rise to important differences, and among
them the following: in the p r i m a r y groups, opinions are
weighed, rather than are counted,^ while in the secondary
and much larger group, in w h i c h one participates b li nd ly
withou t seeing the others' opinions can only be counted not
weighed. Without knowing it, the Press has therefore wo r k e d
to create the power of the n u m b e r s , and to decrease the
power of quality, if not of intelligence.
By the same token, the Press has suppressed the c o n
ditions that made possible the absolute power of rulers,
w h i c h was great ly favored, b y the fragmentation of opinion
into local opinions, what is more, absolute power found in
this fragmentation the reason for its existence and its
justification. How can a countr y exist as such when its
The author uses the Latin terms ponderantur and

numerantur.
254
various regions, cities, towns, and villages are not linked
by a collective consciousness of the unity of their views?
Is it really a nation? Is it anything but a geographic,
and at most a political expression? Yes, it is a nation,
but only in the sense that the political submission of these
various fragments of a kingdom to the same chief is the
beginning of the creation of a nation. For example in the
France of Philip the F a i r , 1 except on some rare occasions
w h e n a common danger, one and the same object of general
anxiety, overshadowed all other concerns in all the towns
and in all the fiefdoms, there was no public m i n d . There
were only local minds motivated se parately b y their fixed
ideas or fixed emotions. But the king, through his fu nc
tionaries, was aware of these very diverse states of mind,
and b y incorporating them in his mind, by the summary k n o w
ledge that he had of them, and on which he based his plans,
he unified them.
This was a very delicate, very imperfect unification.
It was only the king who had some vague awareness of what
was general in the local concerns. On ly in his person did
^Philip IV the Fair, King of France, reigned from

1285 to 1314.
they interpenetrate. When the Estates General were assem
bled, a new step was taken toward this nationalization of
regional and cantonal opinion. In the mind of every deputy,
the local opinions were confronted, were recognized as simi
lar or dissimilar, and the whole country, turning its at t e n
tion toward its representatives and developing some interest--
though infinitely less than at p r e se nt — in their tasks, gave
the appearance of a nation conscious of itself. Moreover,
this intermittent, occasional awareness was quite vague, slow,
and dim. The meetings of the Estates were not public. In
the absence of the press, the speeches were not published;
and in the absence of postal service, letters could not com
pensate for the lack of newspapers. In short, through the
more or less distorted news, carried from mouth to mouth,
b y travelers on foot or on horse-back, b y wandering monks,
or b y merchants taking weeks and months, one knew that the
Estates had met, and that they had dealt with this or that
subject, but this was all they knew.
Let us observe that members of these assemblies, dur
ing their short and rare meetings, also formed a local
group, the locus of intensive local opinions, born of man-
to-man contacts, personal relationships, and reciprocal
influences. And, it is thanks to this superior, temporary,
and elective local group that the inferior, permanent, and
h e r e di ta r y local groups composed of relatives or traditional
friends in the market-towns and fiefdoms felt united in a
tem po ra ry grouping.
II
The development of postal services, by increasing
public correspondence first and private corre sp on de nc e later*
the development of roads, by multiplying new person to per
son contacts; the development of standing armies, b y causing
soldiers from all provinces to meet and to fraternize on the
battle fields, and finally, the development of royal courts,
by su mmoning the cream of the nobility from the four corners
of the country to the royal capital, contributed to the
creation and gradual formation of a public spirit. However,
it was the printing press that was primarily responsible for
this important undertaking. It is the task of the press,
once it has developed into the stage of the newspaper, to
give national, European, or world wide scope to w ha te ve r
is local, which, despite its intrinsic interest, would for
me r l y have remained unknown beyond a certain limited radius
A "great crime" is committed somewhere. The Press
immediately covers it and, for some time, the public of
France, of Europe, and of the world, thinks of nothing but
257
L4
Gabrielle Bompar, Pranzini, or the Panama affair."'" The
Lafarge affair, about a "wife slaying" committed at the
depths of a castle in the Limousin region, was one of the
first court debates to receive national coverage from the
periodical press whic h was already adult or rather adoles
cent at this time. A centu ry and a half ago, wh o would
have discussed such an affair beyond the borders of the

2
Limousin region? If the Calas affair and other cases of
the same kind became public issues, it was partly because
of the immense re put at io n of Voltaire and partly because
of the ext ra -j ud ic ia ry interest that the emotions of the
times caused: an interest in no w a y local but, on the con
trary, one that could not be more general since rightly or
w r o n g l y it concerned j udiciary errors, constituting the
trial of our institutions, of the whole judicial system..
At a different pe rio d in our history, the national emotion

3
aroused by the affair of the Knight Templars was another
"*"Crimes or scandals that were in the news in the

1 8 8 0 's and the 1 8 9 0 ' s.
2
Jean Calas, a merch an t of Toulouse, had been
falsely accused and convicted for killing his son; he was
acquitted after a re-trial and the famous defense by
Voltaire.
3
King Philip the Fair, who was in conflict with Pope
Boniface VIII, be g a n p roceedings in 1307 against the order
of Templars, and finally suppressed it.
case in point.
We might assert that until the French Revolution,
there was no great non-political crime in common law, not
sectarian purposes, which aroused the interest of the whole
of France.
Court reporting, as we k n o w it, which, unfortunately,
is today a very important element of collective consciousness
and of public opinion; without alarming and only through
purely unbiased indiscreetness, or dramatic curiosity, it
makes the eyes of countless dispersed spectators— an immense
and invisible Coliseum— converge on the same criminal drama,
for weeks at a time. This bl o o d y spectacle, the most indis
pensable and the most exciting of all for modern peoples,
was unknown to our ancestors., Our grandfathers were the
first to acquire a taste for it.
Let us try to be more precise. In a large society,
divided into nations and subdivided into provinces, fiefdoms,
and townships, there was always, even before the press, an
international public opinion, aroused from time to time.
Under it, there were national public opinions, also inter
mittent but more frequent; under them almost continuous
regional and local public opinions. These are the s up er im
posed layers of the public mind. Onl y the proportion of
these various layers in terms of their importance and of
their volume, has considerably varied, and it is ea sy to
see in whi ch direction. The further back one goes into the
past the more he finds local opinion to be dominant. The
accomplis hm en t of journalism has b e e n to gradually na t io na l
ize and even to increasingly internationalize the public
mind.
Journa li sm is like a suction and force pump. Every
morning it receives information from all points on the globe
and, on the same day, propagates it to all points on the
globe, in consideration of what, in the judgment of the
journalist, is or appears to be of interest, a judgment that
is m od if ie d b y the goal that the journalist pursues, and the
part y for wh i c h he speaks. Actually, this news, that is
reality, is an impulse that gra du al ly becomes irresistible.
In expressing public opinion, the newspapers began by co nv ey
ing first the purely local opinion, of privileged groups,
of a court, of a Parliament, or of a capital city whose
gossip, discussions, and debates they reproduced. They
ended by moulding opinion and almost guiding it to their own
liking by imposing upon discussions and conversations most
of their daily topics.
260
A17
I I I
We will never know, or imagine, the extent to which
newspapers have transformed and, at the same time, enriched
and leveled, unified in space and diversified in t i m e , the
conversations of individuals, even of those w h o do not read
newspapers, but who, b y talking with newspaper readers are
forced to follow in the groove of their borro we d thoughts.,
A pen is enough to put into m ot io n thousands of t o n g u e s „
Parliaments existing before the Press were so p r o
foundly different from Parliaments since the Press that
they seem to have only the name in common. Th ey differ by
their origin, b y the nature of their mandate, b y their o p e r
ations and by the extent and effectiveness of their action.
Before the Press, the deputies of the Cortes, of the Diets,
of the Estates General, could not express public opinion,
that did not exist yet. They only expressed local opinions
of an entire ly different nature, as we know, or national
traditions. These assemblies constituted only a juxtaposi
tion of heterogeneous opinions linked with individual and
diverse concerns which, for the first time, w er e learning
to perceive their discords or their agreements.. In this
way, these local opinions would become conscious of one
another. It was however an entirely local awareness confined
in a na rrow enclosure, or radiating with some intensity only
in the towns where these gatherings took place,, So, whe n
the town in qu est ion was a capital city, like London or
Paris, its mu nicipal council could believe itself authorized
to compete in importance with the Chamber of Deputies of the
nation; this explains, during the French Revolution, the
exorbitant claims of the Commune of Paris, challenging or
subjugating the Co nst ituent Assembly, the National Assembly,
and the Convention, The Press lacking then the enormous
wings that railways and the telegraph have given it, could
bring Parliament in an intensive, rapid communication only
w i t h Parisian public opinion. At present, thanks to an
adult Press, every European Parliament is in continuous,
instant contact, in a lively, reciprocal interaction, with
the opinion not only of a single large city but of the
entire country, of which it is both one of its m a n if es ta
tions and one of its principal stimuli, both the curved and
the concave lens. instead of causing local, distinct opin
ions to be added together it leads the multiple expressions
and varied facets of a single national view to in terpene
trate .
The old parliaments were groups of heterogeneous
mandates, related to different interests, rights, and p r i n
ciples; the new parliaments are groups of homogeneous mandat
19
l 262
even w h e n contradictory, because they are related to identical
concerns conscious of their identity. Moreover, the old dep u
ties w e r e different from one another on account of the o r i g
inal procedures in the mode of their election; they were all
based on the principle of electoral inequa li ty and di ss i m i
larity of various individuals and on the eminently personal
character of the right to vote, The power of the majority
was not yet b o r n nor recognized as legitimate. For this
ver;y reason, in the deliberations of assemblies--thus elected,
a simple numerical majority was not consid ere d b y anyone as
having the force of law.
In the more "backward" States, una ni mit y was required,
and the will of all the deputies minus one was defeated by
the opposition of the single dissident. Thus, neither in
the recruiting of representatives nor in their functioning,
was the rule of the ma jor ity conc eiv ed or conceivable before
the flourishing of the Press and the nationalization of
public opinion, Since then, no other law seems conceivable,
despite all the perils and all the absurdities it implies,
universal suffrage is gradually spr eading everywhere until
it acquires the wi s d o m to reform itself. In spite of evi
dent objections, it is admitted that all must comply before
the gravest decision taken b y half the voices plus one.
Universal suffrage and the omn ipotence of parliamentary
majorities have been possible only through the prolonged
and accumulated action of the Press, a sine qua non condi
tion of a large equalitarian democracy, not to say of a
small democracy limited to the walls of a Greek city--
state, or a Swiss canton.
The differences to which I have just referred explain
something else, that is, the sovereignty inherent in Parlia
ments since the Press and which the Parliaments b e f ore the
Press never thought of claiming. They managed to become
equal, then superior to the ki n g only when the*'-incarnated
national consciousness as well as, and then b e t t e r than, the
king, accentuating b y expressing the already existing public
opinion and general will, which, so to speak, pla y a role in
their deliberations. Parliaments lived w it h them in such
intimate union that the monarch could not continu e to think
of himself as their sole or most perfect representative.
As long as these conditions are unfulfilled--and they are
so in the period of the large states only after the advent
of journalism— the most popular assemblies, e ve n in times
of revolution, do not succeed in persuading the people or
themselves that they possess sovereign power.. Faced with a
defeated, disarmed king who is at their mercy, they are seen
to negotiate with him re sp ectfully and consider themselves
fortunate in obtaining from him, from King John,
for example, a charter, thus recognizing, not by supersti
tion bu t by reason, b y a profound and secret social logic
the neces sit y of his prerogative. Monarchies existing
befo re the Press could and were compelled to be more or
less absolute, intangible, and sacred, because they were
the embodiment of national unity; since the Press, this is
no longer possible because national unity has be e n achieved
without and better than by them. They can continue to exis
however, but only b y being as different from the old mo n
archies as modern parliaments are from the parliaments of
the past. The supreme merit of the monarch of old was to
c o ns ti tu te the unity and consciousness of the nation; the
m o na rc h of today can have no other justification except to
express this unity which is constituted outside himself by
the contin ui ty of a national public opinion aware of itself
and to c o n f o r m or submit to it without enslaving himself to
it.
To conclude on the social role of the Press; is it
not to the great advances of periodical Press that we owe
above all the clearer and broader definition, the new and
more pr onounced sense of nationa li ty that politically c h a r
acterizes the times in whi ch we live? Is it not due to the
^The Magna Carta to which King John set his seal in

June, 1215.
Press the fact that as our internationalism grew, so did our
nat ion al ism which even though it appears to be the negation
of the former could very we l l be its complement? If in the
place of decreasing loyalism growing nationalism has become
the new form of our patriotism, should we not re cognize this
frightful productive power? We m a y be surprised to see that
the more states influence and imitate one another, and are
ass im ilated and m o r all y unified, the deeper the distinctions
of their nationalities and the more irreconcilable their
antagonisms appear. At first sight, we do not understand
this contrast between the nationalistic nineteenth century
and the cosmopolitan character of the preceding century.
But, this seemingly pa ra doxical result is the most logical
one in the world. While the exchange of goods, of ideas, of
examples of all kinds bet we en either neighboring or distant
peoples was accelerated and multiplying, the, thanks to n e w s
papers exchange of ideas, especially, progressed even faster'
among the individuals of peoples speaking the same language.
Therefore, although the absolute difference of nations may
have diminished because of this, their relative and con
scious difference was increased. Let us observe that in our
times the geographical limits of nationalities tend in cr eas
ingly to coincide with those of the principal languages.
There are states in which the fight of the languages and
266
that of nationalities are but one and the same. The reason
is that national feeling was revived b y journalism, and that
the truly effective range of the newspapers stops at the
borders of the language in whi ch they are written.
The influence of books, whi ch has preceded that of
newspapers and which predominated in the eighteenth, as well
as in the seventeenth century, could not produce the same
results. Books could cause all those wh o read them in the
same language to feel their linguistic identity, still what
they dealt with was not current events or questions of inter
est to all the readers simultaneously. Literature bears w i t
ness to national existence, but it is the newspapers wh i c h
stir up national life and wh i c h give rise to the unified m o v e
ments of feelings and wills in their imposing dail y fl u c t u a
tions. Instead of, like newspapers, deriving their own inter
est from the definite timeliness of their information, books
seek to interest prim ari ly by the general and abstract c h a r a c
ter of the ideas they contain. Therefore, they are more apt
to create a humane current, as did our eighteenth cen tu ry lit
erature rather than a national or even an international cur
rent. For international and humane are two different things:
a European federation of the type our internationalists might
positiv ely conceive has nothing in common wit h the " h u m a n e
ness" deified by the Encyclopedists, whose ideas on this
point were made dogma by A u g u s t e Comte. Consequently t her e
is g r o u n d to t h i n k that it is the p r i m a c y of the b o o k over
the n e w s p a p e r as the e d u c a t o r of p u b l i c opinion, that e x
plains the c o s m o p o l i t a n , abstract character that the p u b l i c
mind tended to develop, at the b e g i n n i n g of the F r e n c h
Revolution.
CONVERSATION
We have just had a first, quick glance at our subject
in order to give an idea of its complexity. After having
defin ed opinion, we have made a special effort to show its
rel ati on sh ip to the press. But, the press is only one of
the causes of public opinion, and the most recent. If we
studied it before the others it is because it is the most
prominent. But, because it is an unexplored territory, it
is now appropriate to study more thoroughly the factor of
pu blic opinion that we have already recognized as the most
continuous and most universal, the little invisible fountain
h ea d that unevenly flows always and everywhere; conversation
First the conversation of an elite. In a letter of Diderot
to Necker, in 1775, I find this very correct definition:
268
.25
P u b l i c O pi n io n , this m o t i v a t i n g f or c e w h o s e p o w e r for
g o o d a nd for evi l we know, is, at its origin, b u t the
r e s u l t of a s m a l l n u m b e r o f m e n w h o s p e a k a ft e r h a v
ing t ho ug ht , a n d w h o c o n t i n u e to f o r m c e n t e r s of
i n s t r u c t i o n at d i f f e r e n t p o i n t s of the society, fro m
w h i c h r e a s o n e d e r ro rs and t r u t h s g r a d u a l l y r e a c h e v e n
the r e m o t e s t c i t y limi ts w h e r e t h e y b e c o m e e s t a b l i s h e d
as a r t i c l e s of faith.
I f w e d i d n ot talk, even though n e w s p a p e r s m ig h t
appear— and assuming this, we cannot c o n c e i v e of their p u b l i
c a t i o n - - t h e y w o u l d h a v e no d u r a b l e a n d p r o f o u n d a c t i o n on
the mind;- they would be like a v i b r a t i n g chord without a
s o u n d b o ar d . On the o t he r hand, if n e w s p a p e r s and e ve n
speeches w e r e mi ss in g , and y e t c o n v e r s a t i o n s u c c e e d e d in
making progress without this n o u r i s h m e n t - - s o m e t h i n g that is
also inconceivable— it could, in the lo n g run, supplement
to a c e r t a i n d e g r e e the s o c i a l r o l e of the t r i b un e a n d the
press, as a factor shaping public opinio n.
B y c o n v e r s a t i o n I me a n all d i a l o g u e w i t h o u t direct, or
immediate utili ty , w h e n one s p e a k s for the s ak e of speaking,
for p l e a s u re , for play, or out of c i v i l i t y . Th i s definitic-n
excludes bot h the c ou r t interrogations a nd the d i p l o m a t i c or
commercial negotiations and councils, a n d even the s c i e n t i f i c
congresses, although these a b o u n d in s u p e r f l u o u s small talk.
It does not exclude so ci a l flirtations or, in general, love
talk, despite the frequent transparency of its goal, which
does not p r e v e n t it as s uc h f r o m b e i n g pleasant.. It includes,
269
l26
on the other hand, ail the solemn conversations about
wealth among barbarians and the savage. If I were only c o n
cerned with polite and cultivated conversation, as a special
art, I could hardl y trace it further back, at least since
the end of classical antiquity, than to the fifteenth century
in Italy, to the sixteenth or the seventeenth century in
France, and then England, and to the eighteenth century in
Germany, But, long before the bl oo m i n g of this flower of
the civilizations, its first buds began to appear on the
tree of languages; and although less productive in visible
results than the small talk of an elite, the talks of pr im i
tive peoples do not fail to have a great social importance,
Never, except in a duel, do w e observe someone with
all the amount of attention of whi ch we are capable as we
do in talking wi th him, This is the most constant, the most
important, and the least noticed result of conversation.,
*1
It marks the highest point of s po n t a n eous a t tent ion that
men pay to one another and through wh ic h they influence one
another to a far greater degree than in any other social
if
The clear, profound studies of Mr, Ribot on "sp on
taneous attention" the importance of wh ich he demonstrated,
are well known,
^ T h , A. Ribot (1839-1916), French philosopher and

editor of the Revue Ph il os oph iqu e, who was known for his
work in psychology.
relationship, By causing them to come together, it makes
them communicate with one another b y an action as irresist
ible as it is unconscious. It is, therefore, the most power
ful agent of imitation, of the propagation of feelings,
ideas, and modes of action, A lively speech, wh ich is well
received, is often less suggestive because it admits the
intention of being so, The speakers act on one another at
very close range, not only b y language but also b y the tone
of the voice, by looks, facial expression, and the magnetism
of gestures. It is justly said of a good talker that he is
a c h a r m e r , in the magic sense of the word. Te lephone c o n
versations, w he re most of these elements are missing, tend
to be boring w h e n they are not purely utilitarian.
Let us sketch, as br ief ly as possible the psychology
or rather the soci ol og y so to speak of conversation. 'What
are its varieties? What have been its successive phases,
Despots are well aware of this. Therefore, they

suspi cio us ly w a t c h the talks of their subjects and prevent
them as mu c h as possible from talking among themselves.
Auth or i t ar ia n housewives do not like to see their servants
talk with other people's servants, for they k n o w that this
is how they "get ideas." From the time of Cato the Elder,
Roman ladies w ou ld gather together to chatter, and the fierc
censor looked w i t h disapproval on these small feminine c i r
cles, these beginnings of the feminist salons. In his
advice to his overseer, he says about the wi f e of the latter
"She should fear you, she should not like luxury very much,
she should see as little as possible of her neighbors and
other women."
its history, its evolution? What are its causes and what
its effects? What are its relations with social peace,
with love, with the transformations of language, customs,
and literature? Each of these aspects of so vast a subject
would require a volume, So, we cannot pretend to exhaust it
Co nversations vary greatly according to the character
of the talkers, their degree of culture, social standing,
rural or urban origin, professional habits, and religion,
Th ey differ depending on the subject treated, on the tone,
formality, and rapidity of speech, and on their duration.
The average walking speed of pedestrians in various capitals
of the wo r l d has been measured. The statistics pu blished
showed a great divergence in these speeds but also what is
constant in all of them. I am inclined to believe that, if
it. were considered appropriate, we could likewise measure
the speed of speech in every city, and we would find great
fluctuations from one city to the other, as well as from one
sex to the other. It seems that the more civilized man
becomes the faster he walks and talks, In his Voyage to
J a p a n , Mr. Bellessort notes " the slowness of Japanese c o n vei
sations, the noddings of the head, the immobile bodies
kneelin g around a brazier." All the travellers have noticed
the slow speech of the Arabs and other primitive peoples,
Does the future belong to the peoples who speak s lo wly or- to
those who speak rapidly? Probably, to those who speak
rapidly but I b el ie ve it is worthwhile to treat with numer
ical precision this aspect of our subject, the study of which
is related to a sort of social p s y c h o - p h y s i c s . For the time
being, the elements are lacking.
Con v er sa t io n between inferior and superior is of an
entirely different tone, even of a different speed, than it
is betw ee n eq uals— between relatives than between strangers--
between persons of the same sex than between men and women.
Small town conversations among f e l l o w - c i t i z e n s , who are
close to one another because of h e r e d i t a r y friendships, are,
and ought to be, quite different from big city conversations
among educat ed people, who kno w one another very slightly.
The former as well as the latter speak about what is best
kno wn or m os t common among them, wh e re ideas are concerned.
Amon g the latter, only, what is common, in this respect is
shared also w i t h a host of other persons since they do not
k n o w one another personally; hence their inclination to talk
about general subjects, to discuss ideas of a general inter
est. But the former do not have any ideas that are more com
mon to them, and at the same time m or e familiar, except the
peculiarities of the life and character of other persons
among their friends: hence, their p r o p e n s i t y to go ssip and
to slander. If there is less slander in the cultivated
circles of the capitals, it is not because there is less
wickedness there; but there is less raw material w i t h i n its
reach, unless it is practiced, which is often the case, on
well-known political personalities, or stage celebrities,
On the other hand, this public gossip is superior to the pri
vate gossip that it replaces, unfortunately, only in that it
attracts the interest of a larger number of people,
Leaving aside many secondary distinctions, let us,
above all, distinguish between conversation -st rug gle and
conversation-exchange,^ between discussion and mutual ex
change of information. There is no doubt, as we will see,
that the second develops at the expense of the first. The
same thing happens in the life of the individual, who is more
inclined to argue and fight in his adolescence and youth,
but avoids co nt rov ers y and seeks the reconcili ati on of ide.-is
as he advances in age.
Let us also distinguish between com pu ls or y con ver sa
tion-regulated and ritualized ceremonial--and optional con
versation. The latter generally takes place only among
equals, and equ al it y among men favors its progress, as it
contributes to narrowing the scope of the other . There is
nothing more grotesque, unless it is explained historically.
The author uses the terms con versation-lutte and

conversation-echanqe,
31 274
than the obligation imposed on functionaries b y decrees,
and on private citizens by etiquette, to pa y periodic visits
to one another, during w h i c h they sit together and are
forced, to torture their minds, for half an hour or an hour,
in order to talk to one another without saying anything, or
in order to say what they are not thinking and not to say
what they are thinking.. The universal acceptance of such a
constraint is understood only if we trace it to its origins.
The first visits paid to the great or to chiefs b y their
inferiors, to sovereigns b y their vassals, were primarily
for the purpose of bearing gifts whic h we re at first spon
taneous and irregular but later became cus tomary and regular,
as Herbert Spencer has abundantly shown. At the same time,
it was natural that those visits would be the occasion for
a longer or shorter conversation, consisting of exaggerated
compliments on the one hand and of protective thanks on the
other. Here conversation is but the accessory of the gift,
The customs of visits and gifts are interconnected.,

It seems probable that the visit was only the necessary c o n
sequence of the gift. The visit is, after all, a survival-
the gift was originally the reason for its existence, and
has survived it. However, something still remains, and in
many visits, in rural areas, when one goes to see hosts who
have children, it is still the custom, in ma ny countries,
to bring can dy and sweets. In the past, compliments as
well as visits must have simply accompanied the gifts..
And, similarly, after the decline of the cu stom of gift g i v
ing compliments survived, but they were gr adually m ut ua li zed
and be came conversation.
an d it is thus p e r c e i v e d b y m a n y p e a s a n t s in m o r e b a c k w a r d
regions in t h e i r r e l a t i o n s w i t h p e r s o n s of a s u p e r i o r rank,
Little by little, these t wo e l e m e n t s of the a r c h a i c v i s i t s
became dissociated, the g i f t b e c o m i n g a tax and the tal k
developing in its o w n w a y b u t n ot w i t h o u t k e e p i ng , even
among e quals, s o m e t h i n g of its p a s t ceremonial character.
This is the r e a s o n for t h os e p h r a s e s and ritual formalities
with which every conversation begins and ends. Despite
their variations, all a g r e e in s h o w i n g a v e r y v i v i d concern,
for the p r e c i o u s existence of the p e r s o n a d d r e s s e d or a
strong desire to see h i m a g ai n, These phrases and f or mali
ties, which are b e c o m i n g sh or t er , b u t w hi ch , nevertheless,
remain the p e r m a n e n t framework of c o n v e r s a t i o n , m a k e of the
latter a tru e social institution,
Another o r i g i n of o b l i g a t o r y c o n v e r s a t i o n s must, h a v e
been the p r o f o u n d b o r e d o m that loneliness c a u se s in p r i m i
tive p eop l e, a nd the i l l i t e r a t e in g e n e r a l , when t h e y h av e
leisure time. Then the i n f e r i o r m a k e s it a point of going,
even w i t h o u t a g if t in hand, to p r o v i d e companionship for
his s u p e ri o r, and talk w i t h h i m in o r d e r to e n t e r t a i n him,
By this o r i g i n as w e l l as b y the other, the r i t u a l framework
of c o m p u l s o r y c o n v e r s a t i o n is e a s i l y u n d e r s t o o d ,
As for o p t i o n a l conversations they originate in h u m a n
s o c i a b i l i t y w h i c h has always resulted in s p o n t a n e o u s exchar.gr
when peers and f rie nd s came int o co nt ac t .
276
II
Since we have just discussed the evolution of c o n v e r
sation, should we not go further back to seek its first
seeds? Wi th o u t any doubt, although I am not tempted to go
as far ba ck as animal societies, as the twitterings of s pa r
rows in the trees or the noisy crowing of crows in the air.
But, it m a y be co nf idently suggested that from the most
ancient beginnings of the articulated language and the l a n
guage of gestures, the pleasure of speaking for the sake of
speaking, in short, of conversing, must have b ee n felt. The
creati on of speech is incomprehensible if we do not admit that
language was the first esthetic luxury of man, the first great
use of his inventive genius, that it was loved and worshipped
for its own sake as a w or k of art or a toy much more than as
a tool. Is it not possible that speech be born of song, of
a song set to dance, just as writing, much later, was born
of drawing? It seems that before pri mitive men would speak
to one another, w he n they met at leisure, they began b y sing
ing together or by singing to one another. A surviving r e m
nant of these musical conversations m a y be seen in the alt er
nate songs of the shepherds in the eclogues,'*' as well as in
''‘Short pastoral poems.
the custom, still alive among the Eskimos, who sing against
someone instead of making fun of him, A l s o their alternate
satirical songs, like inoffensive and prolonged contests,
play the same role that animated debates do among us.
Anothe r conjecture seems likely to me, I refer to my
comparison of a moment ago., Long before writing could be
put to its customary uses, to correspondence b et wee n friends
or relatives, or to conversations by letter, it. was found
only on inscriptions on stone of religious or royal origin,
in official records or sacred c o m m a n d m e n t s , From these
heights, b y a series of century-old complications and vulgar'
izations, the art of writing reached the point where postal
services became indispensable. The same is true with speech
For a long time before it was used in conversation, it was
only a means of expressing the orders or warnings of chiefs
or the judgments of moralist poets. Therefore, it was of
necessity a mo nologue at first. Dialogue came only a f t e r
wards, according to the law b y which the unilateral always
precedes the reciprocal.
This law applied to the subject at hand is su s c e p
tible of several equally legitimate meanings. First, it is
reasonable to believe that at the first dawn of speech, in
the first family or in the horde that heard the first m u m b
lings, one individual more gifted than the others had the
278
35
monopoly of language; the others m e r e l y listened, able to
understand h i m only with some effort, but still unable to
imitate him. This special gift mu st have contributed to
raising one man above the others. From this it follows that
the monologue of the father talking to his slaves or his
children, of the chief giving orders to his soldiers, pre
ceded the dialogue of slaves, children, or soldiers among
themselves or wi th their master. in a reverse way, later
on, the inferior spoke to those hi gh in rank to compliment
them, as I have said, before the latter deigned respond to
him. Without accepting Spencer's explanation of the origin
of compliments which, according to him, was exclusively traced
to military despotism, we must recognize that compliments
were a unilateral relationship which, as inequality
decreased, became mutual, developing into the type of con
versation which I call compulsory. The prayer to the gods,
like compliments to chiefs, is a ritualized monologue, for
the monologue is natural to ma n and in the form of a psalm
or an ode, of lyricism, it has always been typical of the first
phase of religious or secular poetry. It must be noted that
as prayer develops, it tends to become a dialogue, as can
be seen in the Catholic mass. W e k n o w that the songs
addressed to Bacchus we re the beginnings of Greek tragedy.
Through the survival of the chorus whose role continually
d ec re as e s, the e v o l u t i o n of Greek tragedy presents quite a
number of transitional s t e ps b e t w e e n the m o n o l o g u e a nd the
dialogue„ Greek tr ag e dy was o ri gi nal ly , a n d h as remained
to the end, a religious cer emo ny , which, l i ke all religious
ceremonies in t h e i r l as t s t a g e of d e v e l o p m e n t in s u p e r i o r
r eli gi o ns , comprises both r it u a l m o n o l o g u e s and dialogues,
b o t h p ra y er s and c o n v e r s a t i o n s , But the n e e d to t a lk g a i n s
ground more and m o r e over the n e e d to pray,
People have always t alked about what thei r p r i e s t s
or the ir m a s te r s, their orators or thei r journalists have
t au g ht them. Therefore, monologues pronounced by superiors
f e e d the d i a l o g u e s among equals.. L et us a d d that very
r a r e l y are the r o l e s b e t w e e n two s p e a k e r s perfectly eq u a l .
M o s t often, one s p e a k s m u c h m o re than the o t h er , P l a t o ’s
dialogues are an e x a m p l e of this., T he transition from m o n o
l og ue to d i a l o g u e is p r o v e d in the e v o l u t i o n o f p a r l i a m e n
t a r y .e lo q ue nc e . Sole mn, emphatic, uninterrupted speeches
w e r e usua l in the o l d p a r l i a m e n t s ; they are very much the
exception in the n e w p a r l i a m e n t s . The m o r e w e a d v an c e, the
more the s e s s i o n s of the Ho u se s of D e p u t i e s sound like d i s
cussions, if no t of the s a l o n type, at l east of
In the l e g a l c e r e m o n i e s of p r i m i t i v e R o m e ( ac tions
of the law) t h e r e a r e a l s o r i tu a l c o n v e r s a t i o n s , W e r e they
preceded b y monologues?
the club or cafe t y p e 0 Between a speech in the French
Chamber of Deputies disturbed b y frequent interruptions and
certain violent conversations, the distance is minimal,
One speaks to teach, beg, or command, or ask que sti on
A que sti on followed by a response is already a dialogue in
embryo. But, if it is always the same person who asks the
questions and the other who answers, the resulting unilatera
interrogation is not a conversation, that is a reciprocal
interrogation, a threading and an interweaving of questions
and answers, of teachings exchanged, of mutual objections.
The art of conversation was b o r n only after a long sh a r p e n
ing of the minds that followed centuries of pr el imi na ry
exercises that must have started in the most remote times,
It is not in the earliest periods of p r e - hi st or y that
people talked the least or tried the least to talk.. As
conversation implies, above all, leisure, a certain w a y of
life, and opportunities for gettin g together, the rough
* i
and often idle existence of pr imitive hunters or fishermen
In the paleoli thic period called the M a g d a l e n , whe n

a naive art flourished, and wh e n everything revealed a
peaceful, h a p p y population (on this subject see M. de Mor-
tillet, _La Fo rmation de la nat io nal it e francaise) , they
talked un do ubt edl y a great deal in the beautiful barracks
where they lived at that time. In the Lettres e d i f i a n t e s
there is very often a que sti on of the taste that the savage
hunters of America, and esp ec ia ll y their women, have for
conversation. A young woman convert :s praised by a
281
38
who gathered so often to hunt, fish, or eat together the
fruits of their collective efforts, could only favor the
oratorical duels of the better speakers. For example, the
Eskimos, w ho are both hunters and fishermen, talk a great
deal. This child people is already familiar with the p r a c
tice of visiting.
Men meet separately to talk, women gather among them

selves and, after having wept for the dead relatives,
find their own subjects of conversation in gossip.
Co nversations during meals can last for hours, and
center about the principal occupation of the Eskimos,
hunting. In their narrative, they describe in the
smallest detail all the movements of the hunter and
the animal. In describing a seal hunting episode, they
sketch with the left hand the leaps of the animal, and
with the right all the movements of the kayak (the boat)
and the weapon.*
Pastoral life allows as much leisure as hunting does,
but it is more regular and more boring, and keeps men d i s
persed for longer periods of time. Shepherds, even the
nomads, Arabs or Tartars, are silent, If the bucolic
a missio nar y for not wasting her time in the "numerous

visits" that the women of the country (Canada) make. Else
where, it is said that there was agreement in praising this
young women in spite of the inclination of the savages to
"back-biting." The Illinois tribe, another letter tells us,
"do not lack wit, they can tell a joke in a very ingenuous
way."
1Gabriel de Mortillet (1821-1898), French archeolo-

gist.
* ..
Tenisheff, L'activate de 1' homme, 1898,
282
'9
poems of V i r g i l or T h e o c r i t u s seem to i n d i c a t e the co nt r ar y ,
let us not forget that these two p o e t s described the c u s t o m s
of shepherds who were c i v i l i z e d b e c a u s e of the p r o x i m i t y of
l a r g e c i ti e s. On the o t h e r hand, pastoral life is linked to
a patriarchal system in w h i c h the v i r t u e of h o s p i t a l i t y is
practiced, a v ir t u e w h i c h - ~ l i k e the s o c i a l hierarchy, al so
born at this so c ia l s t a g e - - m i g h t be the o r i g i n of o b l i g a t o r y
conversation _
On e of the c a u s e s w h i c h m u s t h a v e m o s t delayed the
i n t r o d u c t i o n of c o n v e r s a t i o n , before the e s t a b l i s h m e n t of a
s trong hierarchy, is t h e fa ct that u n r e f i n e d p e op l e, when
among equals, tend to s p e a k al l at the sa me time and to inter-

A
rupt one another constantly. There is no fault ha r de r to
correct in c h i l d r e n than this. T o let the s p e a k e r t al k is
In his trip to Tripolitania (1840), Pezanc is

impressed by the deafening noise at the audiences of a b e y ;
"The Mameluks and the Negroes," he says, "joined the discus
sion and ended by talking all at the same time, which
cr ea te d an uproar that made me dizzy the first time that I
at te nd ed these debates, I asked why the b e y was confronted
b y so m a n y obstacles in his decisions, and w h a t w e r e the
motive s for these loud d i s c u s s i o n s . Unable to answer me
categorically, they told me that this was their w a y of rea
soning among th em s el v es ," There are exceptions. According
to the Lettres e d i f i a n t e s , the Illinois were exceptionally
g i f t e d in the art of conversation. "They understand jokes
very well; they do not k n o w what it is to quarrel and to
lose their temper while talking.. They never interrupt you
in conversation. The men, we are told, lead a perfe ctl y
idle life; they talk w h i l e smoking a pipe, and that is all
The w o m e n work, but they do not miss the o p p o rt un it y to
c h a t t e r ."
a matter of courtesy that one accepts to practice at first
only as a favor to a superior; it is practiced wi t h regard
to ever ybo dy only once the habit has been developed, This
habit., therefore, could become prevalent in a c o un tr y except
after long previous d i s c i p l i n e . This is the reason, I
believe, for conceding that the progress in the art of con
versation such as we know it has its origin in ob li ga to ry
conversations, not optional ones,
E'rom this point of view, agricultural life, wh ic h
alone has made possible the establishment of str on gl y gov-
ered cities and states, should be considered as a factor to
the progress of conversation, even though, by the greater
dispersion of individuals, the monotony of their tasks, and
the re st ri cti on of their leisure, it has contributed to turn
them into rather taciturn people. Industrial life, on the
other hand, by bringing them together in the workshops and
cities, has stimulated their inclination to talk.
There has been a great deal of talk about a certain
law of rec apitulation according to which the phases through
which the mind of the child passes in its gradual d e v e l o p
ment, are pro bably in some vague way, the compressed rep et i
tion of the evolution of primitive societies, If there is
some truth in this view, the study of conversation among
children could help us guess what conversation was like
in the e a r l i e s t ages o f man. Long before they speak in d i a
logues, chi ld re n start a sk i n g q u e s t i o n s . This i n t e r r og a ti o n,
to w h i c h they subject t heir p a r e n t s a n d o t h e r adults, is for
t h e m the f i rs t unilateral f o rm of talk. La te r, th ey n a r r a t e
and l i s t e n to tales, or they a l t e r n a t e l y n a r r a t e and listen.
Fi na ll y, they make re marks, they e x p r e s s g e n e r a l observa
tions, w h ic h are the e m b r y o s of d i s c o u r s e ; and, when dis
course in t u r n b e c o m e s mutual, we have discussion, a nd then
conversation. Indeed the c h i l d is c r e d u l o u s long b ef o r e he
l earns to c o n t r a d i c t . He p a s s e s through a phase of c o n t r a
diction just, as p r e v i o u s l y he w e n t through a phase of inter
rogation ,
But, asking questions, n ar r at in g , discoursing, dis
cu ss in g, all this is the intellectual exercise of the c h il d
The exercise of the w i l l c o me s first.
The child is c o m m a n d e d and c o m m a n d s l ong b e f o r e he
is ta ugh t and teaches, The use of .imperative co me s b e f o r e
that of the indicative. The c h i l d f ig ht s b e f o r e he d i s
c us s e s or e v e n argues, He feels the a n t a g o n i s m of the
desires of others before he feels that of the j u d g m en t s of
the o t he rs , He can feel the a n t a g o n i s m of t h e s e desires,
and then of b e l i e f s , o n l y a f ter he has experienced their
contagion. His d o c i l i t y and c r e d u l i t y are t h e n e c e s s a r y
and p r i o r condition for his s p i r i t of d i s o b e d i e n c e and
contradiction. The child is, th er ef o re , one w h o d i s c u s s e s
and t a lk s b e c a u s e he is, above all, an imitator,
If b a s e d on t h e s e r e m a r k s w e conjectured what the
past of conversation in the h u m a n r a c e s must h a v e b ee n, we
would first in fe r that, despite its very remote pre-hi s to ri c
antiquity, t a l k i n g c o u l d not b e traced back to the very ori
gins o f m a n k in d , It m u s t h a v e b e e n p r e c e d e d not only by a
long p e r i o d of s i l e n t im it at io n , but. a l s o l at e r on, by a
stage in w h i c h p e o p l e w e r e f o n d of n a r r a t i n g or listening
to n a r r a t i o n , and not of t a l k in g . This is the s t a g e cf epic
poetry. T he G r e ek s could well have be en the m o s t talkative
race of all, it is no less tr u e tha t in H o m e r ' s time they
talked little except to ask o n e another q u e s t i o n s . All
their conversations were useful ones. The Homeric heroes
all like to tell stori es , but converse v e r y ljibtie.'*' Or
r ath e r, m th ei r c o n v e r s a t i o n s they m e r e l y t ak e t ur n s tell
ing s t o r ie s , "In the first light of dawn," says M e n e l a u s
in the O dy ss ey , "Telemachus and I will exchange lon g talks
and w e will mutually entertain e a c h o ther," Exchanging
lo n g talks, was w ha t w a s considered conversation in that
period„
^Les h er o s h o m e r i q u e s sont tres conteurs mais tres

p eu c a u s e u r s ,
286
The only apparently idle conversations, though in them
selves utilitarian, were those of lovers. Hector, hesitating
to go to Achilles to propose conditions of peace, ends by
saying;
I will not go at all to this man, he would have no

compas sio n for me . . . . It is not the time to talk
with him about the oak and the rock, just as young
men and young wom e n do wh e n they talk to one another.
It is better to fight.
Young men and young women, therefore, were already flirting,
and their flirtations consisted of talking "of the oak and
the rock," that is, apparently, of popular superstitions.
It is only after becoming civilized, at the time of Plato,
that the Greeks enjoyed as a pastime the dialogue under the
poplar trees along the Ilissus River. Differing from the
ancient epic poems, as well as from the chansons de g e s t e 1
in wh i c h conversations are so sparse, modern novels, start
ing w i t h those of Madame de Scudery, are distinguished by
the ever-increasing abundance of dialogues.
In order to understand well the historical t ra ns fo r
mations of conversation, it is essential to analyze its
causes more closely. It has linguistic causes: a rich,
harmonious language predisposes to chatting. It has
religious causes: its course changes depending on whet he r
Epic or heroic poems of the Middle Ages.
287
or not national religion limits to some extent freedom of
con versation and forbids, under the threat of more or less
severe penalties, flirting, slander-mongering, and " li cen ti
ousness of s p i r i t " ; opposes the progress of the sciences
and popular e d u c a t i o n ; it imposes the rule of silence on
certain groups, such as Chri sti an monks or Pythagorian
brotherhoods, and on whether or not it makes fashionable
this or that topic of theological discussion, incarnation,
*1
grace, or the immaculate conception. it has political
causes- in a democracy conversation is nourished w it h
subjects that the tribune or electoral life furnish it; in
an absolute monarchy, with literary criticism or p s y c h o l o g
ical observations, for wa nt of more important topics made
dangerous b y the law of " l e s e - m a j e s t e ." It has its economic
Passing through the South of Spain, Dumont Durville

[sic! notes what follows: "Bullfights and disputes on the
immaculate conception, disputes that originated in the
monasteries of the provinces, occupy the minds to the
exclusion of everything else." At present, he wo u l d find
eve rybody deep in politics, the sole subject of c o n v e r s a
tion in Spain and in all the Spanish republics of South
America.
"''Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842), a F re nc h navigator

who made a notable voyage of di scovery to the antarctic.
A true scholar, he combined to his professional training
a k n o wl ed ge of b ot an y and entom ol og y and was proficient in
several languages.
causes of which I have al r e a d y mentioned the m o s t important-
leisu re , t he s a t i s f a c t i o n o f m o r e u r g e n t needs , I n a word,
there is not a s i n g l e a s p e c t of social activity which could
n ot b e intimately connected w i t h conversation an d w h i c h
w o u l d not be a f f e c t e d b y c h a n g e s in it., I mention o n l y as
a reminder the i n f l u e n c e that certain peculiarities in c u s
toms of les s interest m a y have on it. The tone an d r a t e of
s p e e d of c o n v e r s a t i o n s a re influenced by body posture while
t a l k i ng . Conversations when o ne is s e a t e d are the m o s t
t h ou g ht f ul , and mo s t substantial. They a r e also the mo s t
common among us, b u t n ot in the court of L o u i s XIV, whe re ,
since the p r i v i l e g e of s i t t i n g on a s to ol w as granted only
O n e of the big o b s t a c l e s to the e s t a b l i s h m e n t of

c o n s u m e r C o o p e r a t i v e S o c i e t i e s , w h i c h are so a d v a n t a g e o u s
to the c on su me r, is, a c c o r d i n g to an e x c e l l e n t o b s e r ve r ,
"th e h a b i t of g o s s i p i n g t ha t p r e v a i l s in the. s t o re s.
It is t h e r e that p e o p l e meet, t h e r e that t h e y e x c h a n g e the
n ews of the n e i g h b o r h o o d a n d all the p e t t y g o s s i p w h i c h is
so d e a r to women, a nd w h i c h a t t a c h e s t h e m to the s h c p o w n e r s ,
It is e v e n this t e n d e n c y in w o m e n that c a u s e s c e r t a i n
s o c i e t i e s to d e c i d e to s e l l ( ex ce pt ion al ly ) Jco _the p u b l i c
(and n ot o n l y to t h e i r members), b e c a u s e then the s h o p no
l o n g e r h a s a s p e c i a l look, a n d w o m e n h a v e the f e e l i n g of
g o i n g to an o r d i n a r y s t o r e " W e c an see b y this h o w
s t r o n g a nd i r r e s i s t i b l e the c u r r e n t of c o n v e r s a t i o n is once
it h as b e e n lau nch ed . W e h a v e a n o t h e r p r o o f of this in the
p r o v e n d i f f i c u l t y of k e e p i n g a secret, w h e n we k n o w the
s e c r e t is l i k e l y to i n t e r e s t the p e r s o n to w h o m w e a r e t a l k
ing, e v e n w h e n w e k n o w t h a t it is in our i n t e r e s t to s a y
n o t h i ng . Th is d i f f i c u l t y , so g r e a t at times, c a n s e r v e to
m e a s u r e the force o f the s y m p a t h e t i c i n c li n at io n , of the
n e e d for m e n t a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n w i t h our f e l l o w - m e n .
to duchesses, others talked standing up. The ancients,
talking from their tr i c l in ia ,1 par ti cu la ry appreciated c o n
versation while lying down, which was not the least d e l i g h t
ful if we judge from the characteristic slowness, the drawn
out and fluid c har m of the written dialogues they have left
us. But, the strolling conversations of the peripateticians
are typical of a more vivid, more animated movement of the
mind. It is certain that speech whiie standing, b y its
greater solemnity, differs profo un dly from speech while
seated which is more casual and brief,, As for speech while
lying down or while strolling, I am not familiar with ma n y
examples, Anoth er observation. Very often, and the more so
the closer one is to p rimitive life, men and women, especi
ally women, talk with one another only while doing something
else. This may be either by engaging in some easy task, as
peasants do who, during their evening gatherings, shell
vegetables, while the women spin, sew, or knit; or by eating
or d rinking in a cafe, etc, To sit facing one another for
the sole purpose of talking is a refinement of civilization
Let us not confuse it with what Dumont d' Urville

says about the Islands of Hawaii, "To the number of strange
customs of the area," he says, "we must add the manner in
w hic h con versation is carried out, with people lying prone
on straw mats ,"
’''Three couches arranged around a table.
It is clear that the task we are engaged in while talking
influences the manner in which we talk. Anot her kind of
influence; morning conversations always differ somewhat from
afternoon or evening conversations. In Rome, where at the
time of the Empire, visiting was done in the morning, noth
ing like our tea time chats was possible. We leave these
*1
trivialities.
First of all, we should consider the time that can
be devoted to talking, the number and k in d of persons with
whom we can talk, and the number- and nature of topics about
which we can talk. The time available for conversation
increases with the leisure that wealth grants by means of
improvements in production. The number of people with whom
we can talk increases pro por ti on at el y as the original mul
tiplicity of languages decreases, and as their territory
In his book, F r a nc a is d 1au~] ourd 'hui , which seems to

have been p ur po se ly wr it ten to serve as a decisive touch
stone for his general ideas, Mr. Demolins explains through
the influence of the olive or chestnut tree, the taste of
the people of the South er n France for conversation and
their inclination to hyperbole.
■Êdmond Demolins was an exponent of progressive edu

cation in France,
grows, The number of conversation subjects increases when
the sciences advance and expand, w he n information of all
kinds is multiplied and accelerated. Finally, through the
change of customs in a democratic direction, it is not only
the number of possible speakers that increases, it is also
their quality that becomes varied. The different strata
of society engage more easily in conversation; and through
migr ati on from the country to the cities, through the urbani
zat.ion of the rural areas themselves, through the raising of
the average level of general education, the nature of convex
sation becomes comple tel y different and new topics are su b
stituted to the old. In brief, speaking the same language,
having knowledge of the same things and ideas, and having
leisure are the nece ssa ry conditions for conversation.,
Therefore, everything that unifies languages and enriches
them, everything that unifies sytems of education and
instruction by making them more complicated, everything
that increases leisure by making wo rk shorter and more
It is also extended, clearly, with the size and tne

density of the population. People talk much less, other
things being equal, in the country than in the city; there
fore, migration from the cou nt ry to the cities favors co n
versation, and causes it to change, But, in the small
towns, where idlers abound and where everybody knows e v e r y
b od y else, is there not more talking than in the large ones?
No, for subjects of conver sat ion do not exist. In these
places conversation w or t h y of the name is m e re ly the echo
of conversation in the b i g cities.
productive with the a id of the f o r c e s of nat ur e, contributes
to the p r o g r e s s of c o n v e r s a t i o n .
This shows the tremendous influence t ha t the c h i e f
inventions of o ur c e n t u r y h a v e h a d o n it. Thanks to them,
t he p r e s s w as a b l e to f l oo d the w h o l e w o r l d a n d impregnate
it to the l ow es t p o p u l a r c l a s s es . The g reatest f orc es influ
e n c i n g m o d e r n c o n v e r s a t i o n are the b ook, and newspapers.
Before the d e l u g e of the l a t t e r nothing was more different-,
f r o m one. m a r k e t - t o w n to a n o t h e r and fro m one. c o u n t r y to
another, tha n the subject, the tone, t he p a c e o f c o n v e r s a
tion, nor more monotonous in e a c h of t h e m f r o m one p e r i o d of
time to a no t he r , A t p res ent , t he o p p o s i t e is true. T he
P r es s unifies and animates conversations, makes them uni
form in s p a c e and d i v e r s i f i e s them in time. E v e r y morni ng ,
the newspapers offer their p u b l i c the c o n v e r s a t i o n of the
day. W e c a n almo st a l w a y s b e sure, of the s u b j e c t of c o n
v e r s a t i o n a m on g m e n in a club, in a s m o k i n g room, or in a
w a i t i n g room. But, the s u b j e c t changes e v e r y d a y or e v e r y
w eek, except in cases, f o r t u n a t e l y v e r y rare, of n a t i o n a l
or i n t e r n a t i o n a l o b s e s s i o n w i t h a f i xe d s u b j e c t . Th i s g r o w
ing s i m i l a r i t y of s i m u l t a n e o u s conversations over an increas
ingly vaster geographic t e r r i t o r y is o ne of the most, i m p o r
tant characteristics of our times, for it go e s far in e x p i a t
ing the g r o w i n g p o w e r of P u b l i c O p i n i o n against t r a d i t i o n or
\50 293
against, reason itself. This di ssimilarity between successive
conversations also explains the instability of public opinion,
whic h serves as a counter-weight to its power.
Let us make a simple but important observation. It
is not through spontaneous talking that conversation has
developed. No, it was necessary for new occasions and new
sources of conversation to spring up from the partly a c c i
dental, par tly rational succession of geographical, physical,
and historical discoveries; of agricultural or industrial
inventions; of political or religious ideas; and of literary
or artistic works. it is these new developments which, hav
ing appear ed somewhere one after the other, having b e e n pop
ulariz ed in the elite groups before they spread further-,
have civilized and transformed the art of conversation by
creating contempt for certain archaic forms of conversation,
broad jokes, buffoonery, and ridiculous affectations. If,
therefore, b y the evolution of conversation we meant a con •
tinual, spontaneous unfolding, we wou ld be in error, This
obs er vation is applicable to all kinds of evolution; indeed
k
But, whether similar or varied, they also bear w i t
ness to tremendous progress, from the social point of view,
for, the fusion of classes and professions, the moral unit y
of the motherland, can be real only from the day when a
sustained conversation becomes possible among individuals
belo ng in g to the most different classes and professions..
We owe this blessing, in return for so many evils, to the
daily press.
observed closely, it seems to resolve itself in intermittent
insertions, successive and superimposed graftings, and new
seeds, In a small town, hypoth eti cal ly closed to the read
ing of newspapers and without easy communication w i t h the
outside, as in pre -Re vol uti cn ary times, however much one may
talk, conversation never rises of its own accord above the
level of gossip. Wit ho ut the Press, coun try gentl eme n could
well be talkative, they wo u l d almost never speak of anything
except hunting and genealogy, and the most voluble magistrates
wo u l d speak only of law or of "changes of jurisdiction" just
as German cavalry officers, according to Schopenhauer, talk
only of wom en and horses.
The wave-like propagation of Imitation, b y degrees
both assimilating and c i v i l i z i n g , of which conversation is
one of the most marvelous agents, easily explains the need
for the double tendency that the evolution of conversation
reveals to us at first glance, On the one hand, there is
the numerical progression of possible speakers and of
actuall y similar conversations; on the other, becau se of
this progression, the passing from narrow subjects, of
interest to only a small group, to increasingly loftier and
295
i52
more general subjects. But, if this double tendency is
everywh ere the same, it does not prevent the course that
the evolution of con versation takes from differing as greatly
from one nation to another, from one civilization to another, as
does the course of the Nile or of the Rhine from that of
the Ganges and of the Amazon. The points of departure axe
many, as we have seen, but the paths and the points of
Be fo re the eighteenth century, a salon like that of

d 'H o l b a c h was not conceivable. The salon of Mme de Ram-
bou il le t was a literary and precieux salon, without any
freedom of thought--where the little freedom that existed
was res tr i ct ed to conversations of love and flirtation (if
it existed alt £11) . But in the salon of d'Holbach, says
Morellet, one heard, "The freest, most instructive, most
ani mated co nv ersation that ever was. W h e n I say free, I
me a n in the subjects of philosophy, religion, and govern
ment, for other kinds of free jokes were ban ish ed from it."
It was q uit e the opposite in the sixteenth centu ry and the
Middle Ages: bro ad jokes marked the emancipation of conver
sation in the matter of sex relations and substituted for
all other freedoms. The salon of d'Holbach, like that of
Helv eti us and those of the last part of the eighteenth cen
tury, br oug ht together persons of all classes and all
nationalities, an eclecticism that wou ld not have been
pos sible previously, By the great d i ve rs ity in the origin
of the speakers, as well as by the extreme variety and free
dom in their subjects of conversation, these salons differed
a great deal from the gatherings of previous times,
"*"L'abbe And re Morellet (1727-1817), French scholar

and economist, collaborator of the E n c y c l o p e d i e ■ Mme de
Ram b o u i ll et (1588-1665) received at her home, the Hotel
de Rambouillet, on the Ru e Saint-'Thomas du Louvre, in Paris.,
F r o m 1620 until the Fronde in 1650 it was the meeting place
of the elegant people in the Parisian society; Paul-Henri
d'Ho lba ch (1723-1789), French philosopher; Claude-Arien
Helvetius (1715-1771), French writ er and philosopher.
arrival, if arrival there be, are no less diverse. We do
not find court jesters everywhere whose inept pleasantries
were so entertaining in the Middle-Ages, no Hotels de R a m
bouillet, the appear an ce of which resulted in making the
*1
Triboulet's unbearable. In France, it is certain that the
disappearance of these grinning, clumsy buf foons is the best
indication of the progress of conversation. The last jester'
was l'Angely, under Louis XIII. But in Rome, in Athens, in
the Far East, there was nothing like this.
Is it in flirtations, is it in d ip lo ma ti c n e go ti a
tions, is it in church or school discussions that the art
of co nv ersation has succeeded in becoming conscious of its
own existence? This depends on the country.. Itali an conver
sation fl ourished m a i n l y through diplomacy; Fr e n c h conversa
tion through flirtations at court; A t h e n i a n conve rs at io n
through sophistic debate; Roman conversation through debates
in the forum, and, under the Scipios, through the lessons
of Greek rh etoric teachers.. Is it surprising that, the ways
conversation flourished having been so different, the colors
*
One of them, Brusquet, thought it funny to pass for
a physician in the camp of Anne de M o n t m o r e n c y and naturally,
to send to their death [ad pat re s] all the patients under
his care, I ns te ad of hanging him, He nr y II b e s t o w e d on him
the position of Mas te r of the Post Office in Paris.,
‘'"Anne de M o n t m o r e n c y (1493-1567) , field marshal of

the French army.
and fragrances of the flower are so diverse? Mr. Lanson
considers the age of the Scipios as that when the Romans
learned to talk wi t h elegance and urbanity, In the dia
logues of Ci ce r o and Varro,^ he sees not only an imitation
of the style of Plato's dialogues, but "the idealized,
although living and faithful, image of the conversations of
Roman society," conversations, without charm reminiscent
of schools and not of the court.. W om en enter conversational

2
circles only later on, under the Severii or the Antonines,
whereas among us they have always occupied a prominent place,
because of the combine d influence of Ch ri st i a n i t y and chival
rous gallantry, As we have seen, without being indispensa
ble to all advances of conversation, the advent of women to
social life alone has the knack of leading it to the degree
of gracefulness and suppleness that lends a sovereign charm
to conve rs ati on in France.
Anoth er great general trend in the transformations
of con ve rsation can be mentioned. Through all the capricious
meanderings of its diverse currents, it tends to become less
^Varro (116-27 B.C..), a Latin poet, writer, and

scholar of immense learning, known for his treatise De re
r u s t i c a , on agriculture, which was written in Aristotelian
dialogue form,
2
Severius was the name of some the Roman Emperors
who reign ed after the Antonines, the seven Emperor's wh o
reigned from 96 to 192 A.D.
and less a contest and more and more an exchange of ideas,
The pleasure of arguing responds to a childish instinct,
that of kittens, or of any young animals, which like our
children take pleasure in make- be lie ve or minor f i g h t s „
But the amount of arguing in the dialogues of mature men
gr adually decreases. First of all there is a whole cate
gory of arguments, formerly countless, violent, and ani
mated, but wh i c h are now disappearing.. Fixed prices are
replacing h a g g l i n g „ Secondly, as information on everything
becomes more accurate, more reliable, more extensive, since
we obtain numerical facts on distances, the population of
cities and states, etc,, all the violent arguments caused
by the collective self-esteem on the point of knowing if a
certain corporation, church, or family surpassed another in
prestige or power, if the traffic of a certain port was
greater than that of another b y the number and sails of
its vessels, etc,, now become pointless, The even more vio
lent arguments, caused b y the conflict of individual pride
or b y mutual ignorance, cease or are weakened by more fre
quent contact and more complete kn o w l ed ge of others. Every
new piece of information dries up an old source of arguments,
How man y sources of this kind have been dried up since the
beginning of this century! By spreading, the custom of
travelling has contributed a great deal in making more
accurate the idea that various provinces and nations have
of one another, and in making impossible the return to q ua r
rels bo rn of ignorant patriotism, Finally, growing indiffer
ence in the ma tter of religion daily makes easier the o b s e r v
ance of the rule of courtesy that pr ohibits religious discus
sions, which, in the past, were the mo st formidable and most
passionate of all. Indifference in politics, as it spreads,
is also beg inning to produce a similar effect in that other
stormy field.
It is true that, if progress in obtaining clear-cut
and accurate information has solved old problems, it has
also posed new ones and caused new discussions, but these
are of a more impersonal and less harsh nature, and free of
any violence. Philosophical, literary, esthetic, and moral
discussions stimulate the adversaries witho ut hurting them.
Pa rli ame nta ry discussions seem to be the only ones--but this
m ay only seem so--to escape this law of progressive m e l l o w
ing. It might be said that, in our mod ern states, the fer
ment of discord tends to take refuge m them as its last
retreat,
It can therefore be claimed that the future belongs
to quiet, ca lm conversation, full of cou rt es y and grace..
As to decidin g whether the type of c o nv er sa ti on that will
ul timately prevail, will be amorous, philosophical, or
aesthetic, nothing allows us to do so. The evolution of con
versation will probably have m a n y paths, as it has had ma ny
origins and m an y different directions, despite a certain

'ir
unity in its general tendency.
IV
A ft e r this survey of the evolution of conversation,
let us deal, in a more leisurely fashion, with conversation

'k
cultivated as a special art and as an exquisite pleasure.
I need hardly note, so obvious does it appear to me,

that the evolution of co nve rsa tio n conforms to the laws of
imitation n ot ab ly to that of the imitation of the superior
by the inferior, who is r ec ogn iz ed as such and who considers
himself as such. We also see that our subject seems to con
firm the notion on which I have insisted several times, that
the capitals in democracies pl ay the role aristocracies
played b efo re them. For a long time new forms and the new
subjects of con versation emanated from the Court, the ar is
tocratic elite, imitated by the mansions in the large cities
and the chateaux, and then b y the homes of the bourgeoisie.
It is now from Paris, imitated b y the large cities, the
mid dle -s iz ed ones, the small ones, down to the tiniest v i l
lage, where are read the public newspapers, whether from
Paris or the telegraphic echo of news from Paris that the
tone and the subjects of the conversation of the day are
spread everywhere. We have the proof of this drift espe c
ially in the diffusion of the Paris accent to the heart of
Southe rn France, Abroad, as well as at home, the accent of
the capital spreads to the provinces; the opposite process
has never occurred, at least wh ere ver the capital is truly
recogn ize d as the capital. If the capital of France were
Bordeaux, all France wou ld now speak wit h the accent of
Gascony,
k -4r
"We need," writes Mile de Mon tpensier to Mme de

Motteville, all kinds of people so that we may speak of all
301
58
W h e n does it b l o s s o m forth this way? We have an almost c e r
tain indication of this in the blossoming of dramatic art,
especially of comedy, which, being c o mpl et ely in dialogue,
woul d be unable to attain first rank in literature and
take the place of epic narratives, full of action, before it
had found in real life models of con versation as brilliant
and as bea utiful as battles. This expains w h y epic poems
everywhere preced ed drama. Let us note that conversations
always reflect real life: The Eskimos and the Red Skin speak
only of hunting; soldiers talk of battles; gamblers of games
of chance; sailors of sea travels. One's habitual conduct is
reproduced in dreams at night, and during the day, in con
versations whic h are complex dreams m ut ua ll y inspired among
two or three participants. It is also reproduced in writ ten
literature, whic h is the registering of speech. But dramatic
art is something more, the r e p r o d u c t i o n , and not just the
cons er vat io n of speech. It is therefore, in some way a
reflec tio n of a reflection of real life.
A no the r even more visible sign of the reign of culti
vated speech is the habit of reserving in the homes of upper
class a room dedicated to conversation, a "parlor," The
kinds of things in conversation w h i c h , in your judgment and

m i n e , is the greatest pleasure of life and almos t the only
one to m y .1i k i n g ,
existence of a public parlor is no less significant.: among
Greeks, the gymnas ia included among their dependencies an
enclosure, covered or not, called the e x e d r a , where the
philosophers gathered and which served them as a club.. This
was much better than having an open-air salon, as is done
in our rural areas "under the elm in the park," It is pr ob
ably in imitation of the Greeks that the Roman patricians,
under the Empire, had in their rich homes, next to the
triclinia and the libraries, a gallery also called exedra
where they received the philosophers, poets, and distin
guished visitors.
The or igin of our modern salons is d i f f e r e n t , Can
they not. be traced back to the m o n a st er y parlors, even
though this met. an entirely different need, that of making

*
an exception to the monastic rule of silence; This seems
probable. Be that as it may. after its beginnings in the
Italian palaces of the fifteenth century, the salon spread
t.o the castles of the French Renaissance and to the mansions
of Paris, But its diffusion was slow in the homes of the
Let us note that the vow of silence, the r e n u n c i a

tion of all useless conversation, has always be en considered
the hardest act of mortification, the most rigorous and the
most often b r o k e n rule, that the imagination of the founders
of monasti c orders could have invested. This proves how
much the need to talk is general and irresistible,
k: k ^
Eve r y precieuse had her own salon kn o w n as a
r e d u i t , c a b i n e t , or a l c o v e ,
bourgeoisie up to our century w h e n there is not an apart
ment, however' small, that does not boast of having its
own salon, In the description that Mr, Delahante gives us
of the house that his gr ea t-great-grandfather had built at
Cr e c y in 1710, I observe that there was no special room for
receiving the visitors. Salon, dining-room, even bedroom,
one roo m served all these purposes. And, he was a man of
the bou rg eo is ie on the way to becomi ng rich. They often
ate in the kitchen. But, in that house which was considered
very com fo rt ab le at the time, there was a "room for resting,"
designed for solitude and not for receptions.
In France, the Hotel de Rambouillet, whose salon
opened at the dawn of the great century, close to 1600, was
not the cradle, but the first school of the art of con ve rs a
tion, It was thanks to the 800 precieuses that had received
their training there, whose names have been preserved, that
"a general enthusiasm for c o n v e r s a t i o n , " to use the e xp re s
sion of a contemporary, spread around. From France, then the
universal model, this passion was soon propagated abroad,
It has c e r tai nl y had a profound influence on the formation
or transf or mat io n of the French language. The precieuses,
*1
we are informed b y the Abbe de Pure, "take a solemn vow of
*Les mys teres des r u e l l e s , novel (16 56) .
"'"Abbe Michel de Pure (1634-1680), French teacher and

writer.
the purity of s t y l e , of eternal war to the pedants and the
p r o v i n c i a l .11 A c c or di ng to Somaise,^" "they sometimes use
new words wit ho ut realizing it, but make them pass wi th all
imaginable lightness and delicacy." According to Pure, qu es
tions of language and grammar arise all the time, at every
opportunity, in their conversations.. One of them condemns
the expression "I love the melon" because it prostitutes
the word "I love." Each of them has her day on which
appointments are made for the ]ousters of these tournaments
of conversation. This is the reason for the C a l e n d r i e r d es
2 ✓ 3
Ruelles. This cus tom was attributed to Mile de S c u de ry
who m all our countless mo d e r n women, who also ha ve their
day,- copy without realizing it.
For the precieuses and for all the great ladies who
copied them, co nve rsa tio n was so absorbing an art that they
were very cautious at their gatherings not to do any work
with their hands, despite the habits to the c o nt ra ry of the
women of the period. "I have in vain sought, in the
''"Somaise, French writer, author of a famous D i c t i o n -

naire des p r e c i e u s e s ; he was born in 1630.
2
The Calendar of the A l c o v e s ,
3
Mile de Scud ery (1607-1701) one of the most famous
of the P r e c i e u s e s , author of novels Grand Cyrus and Cleiia
305
i6 2
*1
writings of the times," says R oe de re r "the occupation
that the w o m e n of high society mixed with conversation.
I would have liked to see in their hands the needle, the
shuttle, the spindle, or the spool; I would like to see
these wom en embroider, or make tapestries." This is the
more surprising because later on, we will see even Mme de

2
Maintenon, faithful to the old customs, unwinding the yarn,
and counting the balls of wool whi le she chatted with
Louis XIV.
In a truly civilized society, it is not enough that
the most useful, most humble pieces of furniture be works
of art it is also necessary that even the slightest gestures
be such that their usefulness is, without affectation, co m
bined w i t h grace and beauty.. There must be "style" in ges-
* '*■3
tures just as there is "style" in furniture. In this
Memoir es pour servii: _a _1' histoire de la societe

polie en France (183 5).
M ore lle t says that in his adolescence, Turgot was

rejected b y his mother "who found him sullen because he did
not bo w gracefully;"
^Pierre-Louis Roederer (1754-1835), French statesman.

2
“Mme de Maintenon (1635-1719), was the wife of poet
Scarron; wi do wed in 1660 she bec ame the teacher of the c hi l
dren of Louis X I V and Mme de Montespan; later she marr ied in
secret the king, on wh om she had a great deal of influence.
3
Turgot (1727-1781), Fr ench economist and minist er of
Finance under Louis XIV.
306
63
respect cur aristocratic society of the seventeenth and the
eighteenth centuries distinguished itself. But, we should
not b e l i e v e that this tendency was exceptional. This same
need was felt in other ways in ev ery society. We still feel
it in the esthetic oases of our democracy. Would we not
say, on reading Taine, that the taste for refined co nv ers a
tion and for salon life was not only more intense among the
upper classes under the Ancien Reg im e but also more a u n i q u e .
typical trait of French society in this phase of its d ev el
opment?
Here lies the error in the views of this penetrating
mind, and it has not been without significance. For example,
he attri bu te d the taste for general ideas in pre-Revolution-
ary Fran ce to the life of the salon. However, it seems that
Tocquev il ie after having found the taste for general ideas
mere hi g h l y de veloped in the United States than in the
England of his day, despite the similarity of race and cus
toms, more co r r e c t l y ascribes this to the influence of the
e q ua li ta ri an regime. The pleasure of talking about general
ideas or on moral generalities was also appreciated in other
countries witho ut giving birth to the life of the salon.
Indeed, the salon is no more than an indication, as we have
said, one of many indications, and not the only possible s e t
ting for polite conversation, w hi ch was bo r n without it in
307
^64
Greece under Pericles, in Rome under Augustus, and in the
Italian cities in the Middle Ages. This need to talk devel
oped g y m na si um life in one place, forum life in another, or
monastic life, espec ia ll y convents wh e r e conversations were
probably animated and interesting at the time of Saint Louis
when the b ish op Eudes Rigaud, visited them and was scandal
ized. For us during this century, it is above all the life
of the cafe or the club that tends to develop, despite the
imitative, snobbish proliferation of the salons.
The wo rl dliness of the A nc ie n Regime arose from com
plex elements,- let us include, in addition to the pleasure
of conversation, that of copying the court or copies of the
court, that is, a hierarchical group of men and wom e n pre
sided over b y a person, the host or the hostess, to w h o m
everybody pays tribute, and who represents, in miniature,
the monarch. The art of behavior in such a society, is not
limited ex cl usively to the art of conversation, above all
it implies the easy, sure, delicate distribution of grada
tions of respect due to the diversity of merits and r a n k s ;
and in an emin en tl y hierarchical society the gratification
thereby of self-esteems is at least as much appreciated by
everybody as that derived from the ideas exchanged and
agreed with. Finally, the kind of hegemony, of royalty of
conversation, conceded to wo m e n in French salons, cannot
be explained without the ancient institution of chivalry,
the fragments of which have been picked up by the royal
courts.
The criticisms that in his book the An cien R e g i m e '*'
Taine makes of mundane life are not therefore directed at
conver sa ti on in general. It is not true that the latter
must be n e c es sa ril y "artificial and dry." A n d indeed this
is true of the most aristocratic salon life only up to a
point. Now, although the life of the salon ma y express
respect for the social hierarchy, just becau se it is pri
marily conducive to social harmony through the reciprocal
sparing of self-esteem, it necessarily happens that even as
it gives expression to distances of rank, it attenuates them.
Of it, as of friendship, it can be said pares aut facit aut
i nv en it , it is born but among equals or it equalizes; it is
born but among peers or it assimilates. Only, it equalizes
and assimilates in the long-run. However, it is beyond
doubt that equalit y of rights and rank is the only stable,
final eq ui l i b r i u m of self-esteem in prolonged contact.
Moreover, w e k n o w that it is only a conventional mask, a
transparent veil, covering up the profoun d inequality of
The first volume of his work Les Origines de la

France contemporaj.ne ■ it appeared in 187 6.
309
56
individual talents and merits and serves to enhance it.
This fiction of equali ty is the final blossom in g of socia
bility. In a royal court, in spite of all the barriers of
etiquette, the habit of living and talking wit h the king
establishes between his subjects and him an almost leveling
familiarity. "Sir," the marechal de Richelieu, w h o lived
through two previous reigns, said to Louis XVI, "under Louis
X I V we dared not say one word; under Louis XV, we spoke in
a whisper; under your Majesty, we speak normally." But
already, long before the distance between the courtiers and
the royal host had decreased, that separating his guests
had ' • gr ad ual ly disappeared, and the infinite degrees
of nobility had be g u n fusing together through regular attend
ance at the Court.
"Artificial?" Is it true the life of the salon— let
us add of the club, the cafe, etc. — is artificial? Does
not the ess entially sociable nature of man always and every
where push hi m toward these games in common, toward these
pleasure gatherings of various kinds? Are they not as
natural a condition to h i m as gregariousness is to sheep?
As to the loss of spon tan eit y’*' that life of the salon
~*~"Secheresse de c o e u r " : "dryness of heart."
is supposed to engender, it is brought about b y the exces
sive inequality that aristocratic respect, so long as it is
not attenuated, creates between parents and children, or
even bet we en friends. But, as we have just said, as soon
as this inequality decreases, because of the very nature of
the life of the salon, the expression of natural feelings
of tenderness and emotion is welcomed. Showing them may
even become a social affectation, as it was during the
entire second ha lf of the eighteenth century, by a "return
to nature" in which, quite the contrary, everything was not
artificial. The sole fact that life of the salon, in one
of its phases, whi ch is its final phase, and, one might say,
its climax, favored the diffusion of feelings and tender
effusions, proves that dryness of the heart is not an essen
tial trait of worldliness.
It is certain that throughout the An ci en Regime,
life of the salon was harmful to family life. However, the
same could be said about any absorbing occupation, whether
professional, esthetic, political, or religious. What
hurts family life, at the present time, is no longer life
of the salon, it is true, but life of the club or the cafe.
For the worker, it is the workshop; for the business man,
the courts of law; for the politician, electoral or p ar lia
me nt ary life. If the dream of the collectivists came true,
it would later on be ph al anstery life, and all the more so.
Neither can we include among the essential character
istics of wo rl dliness what Taine signals out as one of its
most typical and most marked traits, the repugnance of radi
cal innovation, the fear of anything original. Actually,
all intensive social life results in the launching of a
torrent of customs, opinions, and habits, whic h are diffi
cult to combat, and in which almost anything of average
originality is submerged. Only the strong and exceptional
innovations succeed, which then become the focus of a new
contagion which spreads their personal imprint substituted
or superimposed on the old brands. An example of this was
the wilderness of Rousseau, who bursting in the midst of
the unrestrained wo rld liness of his time, was able to re-cast
*1
it m his own image. C a n it also be said that a Diderot,
*
Morellet, among other contemporaries of Diderot,
strongly praises the latter's conversation. "It had great
power and great charm. His discussion was lively, inspired
by perfectly good faith, subtle without obscurity, varied in
form, shining w i t h imagination, fecund w i t h ideas, and stim
ulating to others. One wou ld abandon himself to it for
hours as if floating in a stream." These private, mundane
conversations of the second half of the last century, were
actually the hi dden fountainheads of the tremendous current
of the Revolution. This is a formidable ob jection to the
alleged intolerance of innovations of the salons.
^Diderot. (1713-1784), French philosopher and one of

the founders of the E n c y c l o p e d i e . His Corre sp on da nc e
addressed to various princes presents a vivid and true pic
ture of the intellectual movement of the eighteenth century.
a Voltatre, and so many others were able to make their per
sonality acceptable only by blunting it?
We could use the evolution of life of the salon to
see the evolution of conversation from a different, more
com prehensible perspective. We call a group of people
accustomed to meeting at a certain place to talk, a "society"
— an excellent expression for it means that the essentially
social relationship, the only one worthyof the name, is that
wh ic h involves exchange of ideas. in the lower strata of the
population, there are "societies," but they are as small as
they are numerous. In the most backward country areas, two
or three peasants develop the habit of getting together in
the evening at home or in taverns, and, even though they
work at the evening g a t h e r i n g s 1 and drink at the taverns
more than they talk they also talk. These are the begin
nings of the salons and the clubs. As we go higher on the
social ladder, we see the number of societies grow smaller,
but each one of them grows larger. The workers cafes are
divided into already larger groups of regular talkers or
debaters. Small tradesmen have a very closed salon, which
1V e i l l e e s .
is on a r e d u c e d scale, a c o p y of the g a t h e r i n g s of th e u p p e r
classes, The latter, in m o s t of the c i t i e s of m o d e r a t e
size a re divided, at most, into two or thr ee "societies,"
and, in s om e cases, a tendency that s e e m s to b e c o m e g e n e r a l
again, t h e y just f o r m o n e a nd the s a m e k i n d o f s o c i a l body,
"society." The s a m e t r e nd is observed, even in the largest
c it ies , and, m Paris, V i en na , London, everywhere, in s p i t e
of the p r o g r e s s of d e m o c r a c y , the c l a s s that is s t i ll
reputed to be the m o s t b r i l l i a n t , if not the h i g h es t , seek s
out those occasions in w h i c h its v e r y n u m e r o u s components
meet and join one a n o t h e r tc b e fu se d t o ge th er .
Thus, many exceptions aside, th e g e n e r a l r u l e is that
the size of "societies" grows in i nv e r s e r a t i o to the numer
ical i m p o r t a n c e of the c l a s s to w h i c h they belong. The
smaller the c la s s to w h i c h t h e i r m e m b e r s b el o n g , the l ar g e r
t h e y are. F r o m the p l e b i a n to the elite, the s o c i a l pyramid
tends to s h r i n k as s o c i e t i e s g r o w larger, T h is is e x p l a i n e d
by the s u p e r i o r q u a l i t y of leisure, knowledge, and s u b j e c t s
of c o n v e r s a t i o n as one c l i m b s the s o c i a l ladd er . This a l so
shows the c o n st a nt a s p i r a t i o n of s o c i a l p r o g r e s s to e x t e n d
as m u c h as p o s s i b l e the m e e t i n g of m i n d s and t he i r m u t u a l
acquaintance and p e n e t r a t i o n . For it is b y talking that
minds m e e t w i t h one another an d p e n e t r a t e one another.
Subjects of c o n v e r s a t i o n v a r y f r o m o ne social l ev e l
to another. What is the subject of conversation in the
small circles of peasants, during their evening gatherings?
A little more about the rain a n d f a i r w e a t h e r tha n a n y w h e r e
else, because this t opic not an id l e one here, is l i n k e d
with the hope s, as w e l l as the threats, o f t he n e x t crop.
Only during the e l e c t i o n periods, do t he y ta l k p ol i ti cs .
T h e y a re c o n c e r n e d about t he ir n e i g h b o r s , they estimate
t h ei r incomes, and they g o s s i p . This profes s io na l and per
sonal aspect of the c o n v e r s a t i o n is s t i l l w h a t predominates
in the c o n v e r s a t i o n s of w o r k e r s or s m a l l tr ad es m en , b ut
politics, considered fro m the p o i n t of v i e w of the n e w s
p a p e r of the d a y r e p l a c e s r a i n a nd fai r w e a t h e r as the b a s i c
s ub j ec t . Political meteorology is s u b s t i t u t e d for c e l e s t i a l
meteorology, something that c o n s t i t u t e s s o c i a l p r o g r e ss .
Businessmen and d oct or s, eve n though t h e y o c c a s i o n a l l y like
to talk a b o u t t h e i r b u si ne ss , o f t e n r id their minds of this
concern to v e n t u r e some considerations of a p h i l o s o p h i c a l
*1
or scientific order . Finally, w e m u s t r e a c h the m o s t
★
This was not always true, and the further back into
the past we go, the more we see people, even those of the
middle classes, preoccupied with their personal concerns,
in one of her letters to Mile de Robinan (1644), Mile de
S c u de ry gives an amusing description of a trip she took
b y coach and the conversation her fellow-travelers engaged
in, namely a young partisan (financier), a bad musician, a
bourgeoise lady from Rouen who had just lost a trial in
Paris, a w o ma n- gr oc er of the Rue Saint Antoine, and a
315
72
refined societies to see conversation based on one's pr o f e s
sion and current politics reduced to the mi ni mum and flow
instead on gen er al ideas, recipr oca lly suggested by readings,
travel, an extensive and solid basic education, and personal
w oma n-c ha ndl er of the Rue Michel-leComte, w h o wanted to see

"the sea and the country," a young student returning from
Bourges to receive his diploma, a timid bourgeois, "a wit
from lower N o r m a n dy w ho told more jokes than the Abb o t of
Franquetot told w hen they we re fashionable, and who, wishing
to tease the company, gave more pretext for being teased
than all the others." All these people, w h e n they start
talking, speak about their person al or professional concerns.
The financier "always returns to the penny per p o u n d ." The
musician always wants to sing. The chandler thinks of her
store. "The young student speaks about w r i tt en law, customs,
and Cujas on every occasion." If they discussed be autiful
women, he said that "the Cujas had a beautiful daughter."
In brief, we clearly see that this dialogue was nothing
more than a stringing together of monologues. No general
subjects are introduced that appeal to all the participants
at the same time; there is no "general conversation" whatsc
ever. In our times, thanks to the newspapers, these general
subjects always exist among speakers of the most varied
classes or professions. Sometimes there are too ma ny of
them. Mile de Scudery calls this diverse assemblage of
travellers b a d c o m p a n y . In her time, indeed, in order to
enjoy the char m of general c o n v e r s a t i o n , of common interest
to all the speakers one had to live in a tight little clique
composed of people of the same class and the same education,
like the Hotel de Rambouillet. This explains the intense
charm of these intellectual sanctuaries. La Fontaine, also,
in his letters to his wife, tells us of the conversations
of his fellow coach travellers. We see that they w e r e quite
trivial except for an occasional animated argument bet we en
Catholics and Protestants about dogma.
•^Cujas was a famous Fr enc h jurist; the name Cujas

is used as the per sonification of a law scholar.
reflections.
As far as these groups are concerned, we noted that
the dai ly Press, ceases to b e the metronome and the most
ha bit ual guide to conversation, or, at least, its suggestive
a ction is less immediate, if not less profound. It nourishes
them d i r e c tl y only on those days w he n some se ns ational news
item, or a haunting question fills the newspapers. Ot h e r
wise, conversation is emancipated; it follows an unexpec ted
course, it unearths exotic subjects, and so turns the
"society" of the extra-refined people into a magic circle
that c o nt in ua ll y expands in space and in time, uniting all
the elites of the civilized nations and linking them to the
1 *2
"c ultured people" from the past of each one of them.
★ ^
Indeed, it is probable that if the precieuses of the
s ev en tee nth century could be re-born and, natu ral ly b e gi n to
talk again, their conversation w o ul d interest us. It would
c e r t a i n l y be of the greatest interest to our feminists in
their gatherings. Accor din g to the abbe de Pure, during
their meetings, "they examine questions such as wh i c h is
more important, science or poetry. They discuss w h e t he r
hi s t o r y should be preferred to the novel or the novel to
history. They ask what freedom wom en enjoy, and have the
right to enjoy, in society and in marriage. The freedom
adv oca ted on this occasion is closer to domination than to
independence. it seems, says the debater, that the susp i
cions of the husband give the wif e the right to err. One
precieuse praises Corneille, another prefers Benserade, a
more gallant poet and a courtier. A third one takes the
side of Chapelain. At the Scudery's they discuss Q u in au lt
It sometimes occurs that a precieuse weeps for a friend
and then suddenly begins a disco urs e on g r i e f . He claims
These "cultured people" of all times, perfect speci
men of consummate sociability, are recognized b y the inex
hau stible richness of their topics of conversation always
new, that they derive prim ari ly from a common, general edu
cation, the luminous crowning of a special, technical educa
tion. In this connection I do not want to settle, in a few
words, so serious and grave a prob le m as that of the reform
of classical studies; but I must observe that if we had paid
attention to the immense social importance of conversation,
we w o u l d not have failed to extract from it a rather solid
argument, at any event an argument w or th y of being examined,
favoring the retention of traditional culture to a great
extent.
W e wou ld have seen that the principal advantage of
the study of ancient languages and literatures is not only
the pre ser va ti on of the social k in sh ip of successive genera
tions, but the establishment, at every period of history, of
that the purpose of grief must be to revive the pleasure

that was enjoyed with the deceased. A n opponent rejects
this co nce pti on that she finds barbaric . . . ."
Honnetes gen s" : a concept that was first developed

in the Hotel de Rambouillet.
2
Corneille, Benserade, Chapelain, and Quinault were
all poets of the seventeenth century. Of them Pierre
Cor nei lle (1606-1684) is k n o w n as the founder of French
drama.
a close intellectual and spiritual link among all the seg
ments of the national elite, or even among the elites of all
nations, allowing all their members, regardless of their
profession, regardless of their class or country of origin,
to talk together with interest and pleasure.
Let us assume that the study of Latin and Latin authors,
as wel l as the study of philosophy and the history of phil
osophy were suddenly dropped in the French schools. Before
long, a d is ru pti on would be caused in the French mind; the
new generations would no longer belong to the same society
as their elders; and the various professional categories of
Frenchmen, physicians, engineers, lawyers, milita ry men,
and industrialists, trained only in view of their pr ofe s
sions, wou ld be social strangers. They would no longer have
co mmon interests, and, therefore, no common subjects of con
versation other than questions of health, the rain and fair
weather, or the politics of the day. The "soul of France"
wo u l d then be broken, not into two but into a hundred pieces.
I am well aware that to the eyes of the economists
of the old school, the advantage of having among cultured
people, a same vein of conversation to exploit, must be the
most unp roductive of futilities. For them, conversation is
a was te of time, and it is certain that, if all social life
must converge towards unlimited production, towards produ ct io n
for the sake of production, speech has no right to be tol
erated except as a means of exchange. But w o u l d a society
that carried out this ideal, in w h i c h case one wo ul d speak
to another only for transacting business, for buying, loan
ing, or for alliances, have anything really social? There
w o u l d be no more literature, no more art, no more of the
joy of conversation among friends even while eating. The
silent meals, a snack between two rapid trains, a busy,
silent life: if we reject this prospect, if we think of the
vital need we all have to better understand one another in
order to like and accept one another more, and if we agree
that the satisfaction of this pr of ou nd need is, after all,
the loftiest and the tastiest fruit of civilization, we will
recognize it as the supreme duty of governments to do nothing
that might obstruct the extension of relations among minds,
and to do everything they can to favor it.
VI
Havi ng discussed the types of conversation, its
transformations, and its causes, let us say a few words
about its effects, a subject we have ha r d l y touched on.
Lest we omit an important one let us list the effects,
according to the various important categories of social
relationships. From the linguistic point of view,
co nv er sat io n preserves and enriches languages, if indeed it
does not extend their territorial domain; it stimulates lit
erature, drama in particular. F r o m the religious point of
view, it is the most fruitful means of mi ssionary work; in
turn it spreads dogma and ske pt ic is m alternately. It is
not so mu c h b y preaching as b y co nv ersation that religions
are e st ab li she d or weakened. Fr o m the political point of
view, con versation is, even more than the press, the only
res tr ain t on governments, the un as sailable refuge of liberty;
it creates reputations and prestige, it dispenses glory,
and through it, power. It tends to equalize the speakers
b y as sim il a t in g them, and destroys hierarchies by dint of
expressing them. From the economic point of view, it creates
un if o r m judgments on the u t i l i t y of various goods; it creates
and specifies the idea of value; it establishes a scale and
sys te m of values. Thus, this superfluous banter, in the
eyes of utilitarian economists a simple waste of time is
ac tu a l ly the most indispensable economic agent. Without it,
there w o u l d be no public opinion; and without public opinion
no value, a fundamental notion of political economy, and in
fact, of several other social sciences.
Fr o m the moral point of view, it struggles c o n t i n u a l l y
and as a rule successfully, against egoism, against the tend
ency to pursue totally individualistic ends by opposing it
to this individualistic teleology. It oulines and creates
an ent ir el y social teleology, in favor of which it lends
c r ed ib il it y to salutary illusions or conventional lies by
means of praise and blame, pu r p o s e l y distributed and con
tagio usl y spread. It contributes, through the mutual pene
tration of minds and souls, to the creation and development
of a ps yc h o l o g y not pr ec is el y individual, but primarily
social and moral. From the aesthetic point of view, it
engenders politeness, first by unilateral flattery and
afterwards, b y mutualized flattery. It tends to reconcile
judgments of taste, and, in the long run, thus succeeds in
creating a poetic art, an esthetic code, obeyed unquestion
ably at all times and in all countries. Thus, it favors
co n s i d e r a b l y the spreading of civilization, of which cour
tesy and art are the pr ima ry conditions.
Mr, Giddings, in his Principles of S o c i o l o g y , has
an important word to say about conversation. According to
him, w h e n two men meet, the co nv ersation they engage in
only complements the action of looking at each other, b y
wh ic h they explore each other, trying to determine whether
they belong to the same social kind, the same social group,
"We cherish the illusion," he says, "that we converse
b ec aus e we care for the things we talk about, just as we
cherish that most delightful of all illusions, the belief
322
a9
in art for art's ake. The truth, however, is that all
expression, b y the dolt or b y the artist, and all communi
cation, from the casual talk of acquaintanceship to the
deepest intimacies of a perfect love, have their source in
the elemental passion to impress and to know one another,
and to define the consciousness of kind."''' That the initial
conversation of two strangers w h o meet for the first time
always has the character indicated by Giddings, is que st io n
able, although it may be true in m an y cases. But, it is
certain that the subsequent conversations of these persons,
once they have become acquainted, assume an entire ly differ
ent character. They tend to brin g them together, or to
strengthen their relationships if they already be long to
the same society. They later tend not only to define but
to bring about and to strengthen, to expand, and accentuate
the "consciouness of k i n d ," not only to define it. It is
not a matter of baring one's limits, but of continually
pushing them back.
Let us return to some of these general effects. Whe n
through the recurrence of insecurity, the collapse of bridges,
the falling into disuse of roads, learning, and social links
"''Franklin H. Giddings, The Principles of So ciology

(New York: Macm ill an and Co., 1896), p. 109.
323
i80
a civilized people falls back into barbarism, it becomes
r el at iv el y mute. There used to be a great deal of talk in
prose and in verse, through the oral and the writt en word;
there is now almost none. We can have an idea of h o w much
they liked to talk, at the end of the Roman Empire, b y read
ing various passages from M a c r o b i u s }" a contemprary of The o
dosius the Younger. In his Saturnalia (completely in dia
logue, as we know) one of the speakers says to the other:
"Treat your slave gently, allow him graciously to p ar ti ci
pate in conversation." He criticizes the habit evid ent ly
rare in his time, of those wh o did not permit their slave
to converse w i t h them while serving them at the table.
Elsewhere, one of his characters says,
Decius, all my life, nothing seemed better than to

em pl oy the leisure that I have left after p le ad in g to
talk in the company of educated men, such as y o u for
example. A well governed mind could not find a more
useful, more honest relaxation than a conve rs ati on in
wh ic h courtesy adorns the questions as well as the
answers.
This last sentence, it is true, heralds the approaching
b a r b ar is m unless this fondness for rather pompous, verbose
co nve rsation at which Horace would have poked fun, is
explained b y the oratorical habits of this lawyer.
The isolated peasant keeps silent; the barbarian, in
Latin author of the fifth century.
his stronghold, in his hole in the cliff, says not a word.
When, b y chance, he talks, it is to deliver a speech. Is
it not b y this very simple fact that the de co mposition of
Latin and the b ir th of the neo-Latin languages may be
explained? If the Gallo-Ro ma n city-states had continued to
exist and communicate among themselves as much after the
fall of the imperial throne as before it, Latin w ou ld have
remained in use throughout the territory of the Empire,
However, without this continued practice that such a rich
and complex language requires in order to remain in use
over an immense territory and under the most varied condi
tions, it was inevitable that most of the words, serving no
useful purpose, perish, and that the delicate feeling for
the nuances of declension and conjugation would be lost
among the farmers, shepherds, and barbarians condemned to
isolation b y the lack of well kept reads and well regu
lated relations. What happened then? When these usually
silent individuals had to communicate some idea, always
coarse, their tongue grown rusty, would fail to provide a
precise expression, and a vague expre ss io n fully satisfied
them. The shrinking of their vocabulary brought about the
si mp lification of their grammar; the Latin words, the Latin
sentence structures and inflections w ou ld be remembered only
in m u t il ate d and corrupt forms, to be unders to od these
people had to make a greater effort in ingenuity, the greater
the more the habit of speakin g cor rectly and easily was lost.
Therefore, man had almost return ed to the same state as in
the prehistoric times, w he n becau se he could not yet talk,
he was forced to invent speech w or d by word b y equally
ingenious attempts and b y mobili zi ng all his inventive
resources on meeting the urgent need for mental comm un ic a
tion. It is in this w a y that, in the period be tw e e n the
seventh and the tenth centu ry A.D., from a host of innova
tions devised by men, in their effort to communicate, the
Romance languages emerged. It is because of the absence of
frequent, varied conversations that Latin decayed and the
seed of the neo-Latin languages began to sprout. Later, by
the return of habitual conve rs at io n in social life, the
neo-Latin languages g r e w and flourished. Is this not true
of every de composition or birt h of a language?
If the falling into disuse of conversation decomposes
or debases cultivated languages, the resumption of social
relations and of the conversations that nec es sa ri ly accom
pany them is the first cause of the formation of new lan
guages, Thus, this act of creation is slow or rapid depend
ing on whether it occurs in a country with a scattered and
fragmented population or in a relatively densely populated
and very centralized region. This is the contrast that the
England of the Middle Ages presents when compared to the neo-
La ti n peoples. And, is it not this contrast wh ic h m a y serve
to explain why the Fre nc h dialects required so m a n y cent ur
ies to develop, and the dialect of Ile-de-France to impose
itself on all the French provinces, whereas the English
language was created and spread with a rapidity whi ch aston
ishes linguists? As Mr. Boutmy,'1' among other historians,
has point ed out, it is b ec aus e centralized power was estab
lish ed in Great Brita in far earlier than in our country, and,
becau se the natural imprisonment of the inhabitants on an
island, contributed to their more precocious homogeneity.
As early as the Middle Ages as si milatory imitation from
group to group functioned wi t h greater intensity there than
in France. Can we imagine the implication in terms of mul
tiplied conversations among individuals and among peoples of
different ranks, classes, or counties, of the gradual disap
pearance of many dialects or of just two different languages,
such as An gl o- Sa xo n and Romance, before one and the same lan
guage, which is created and developed as it spreads whose
very formation is due to its diffusion? In fact, the trait
of English life in the Mid dl e Ages is life in common of all
Êmile Bou tm y (1835-1906) , French historian, one of

the founders of the Ecole libre des sciences p o l i t i g u e s .
the classes in perpetual contact and exchange of models.
Let us add, in passing, that there, as everywhere, imitation
*1
was p r i m a r i l y propagated from above to below, from the
b r i ll ia n t courts in which conversation was already so rare,
rimid, or circumscribed wit hi n a narrow circle of gossip.
W h e r e Public Opinion is mobile, restless, where it goes from
one extreme to the other, it is because conversations are
frequent, audacious, and free. W h e r e Public Opini on is weak,
it is b e ca us e people speak calmly; where it is strong, it is
be ca u se people discuss things a great deal; where it is
violent, it is because peopl e be c om e emotional wh e n dis cu s
sing things; w he re it is exclusive, exacting, or tyrannical,
it is b eca use the speakers are victims of some collective
2
obses sio n like the " A f f a i r e " ; w he re it is liberal, it is
★
W e can see the a p p l i ca ti on of this law among the
savage themselves. In descri bin g the customs of the A c a d i an
savages C h a rl ev o ix (H is to ry of N e w Fran ce) writes: "Every
town had its saqamo (chief) independent of the others; but
all m a i n t a i ne d a kind of correspondence which closely united
the entire nation. They used a good part of the fair season
to visit one another and to hold councils where they dis
cus se d general matters." It is so that the habit of talking
regularly, periodically, and of pu rposely calling on one
another originated among tribal chiefs and contributed, b y
spreading, to the assimilation of the neighboring tribes.
1Francis Xavier de C h a r le vo ix (1682-1761) , French

Jesuit; a traveler, he ex pl or ed the St. Laurence and the
Mi s s i s s i p p i Rivers.
2
The "Dreyfus Affair."
because conversations are varied, free, and inspired b y gen
eral i d e a s .
This intimate bond betwe en public opinion and conver
sation is such that in certain cases it allows us to substi
tute what we k n o w of the former w h e n documents on the latter
are lacking- We have little information on the conversation
of ages past; but we have some on the question of the extent
to wh i c h public opinion exercised a decisive influence, here
or there, in this or that nation, in one or another class,
or on the decisions of political or judiciary power. We
k n o w for example that the governments of Athens, more than
those of Sparta, were governments of Public Opinion. Hence,
w e might ri ghtfully infer, if we w e r e not already informed,
that the Athenians were far more talkative than the Lace
daemonians. Under Louis XIV, the opinion of the court had
a great influence, much greater than it is generally believed,
on the decisions of the monarch, wh o unconsciously felt its
influence; the opinion of the city h ar dly counted, and that
of the provinces not at all. This means that there was a
great deal of talk about public affairs at court, little in
the cities, and even less in the rest of France. However,
at the time of the Revolution, these proportions are reversed,
b e c a u s e the example of the political conversation given from
above, g r a d ua ll y reached the heart of the provinces.
The ev o l ut io n of Power is, therefore, explained by
the evol uti on of Public Opinion, wh ic h in turn, is explained
b y the ev olution of conversation, wh ic h is further explained
b y a series of different sources: family teachings, the
schools, apprenticeship, preaching, political speeches, books
and newspapers. The daily press is fed news from all over
the world, originating from all that is unusual, exceptional,
i n v e n t i v e, or new. Newspapers are more or less interesting,
they are suggestive in one way or another, depending on the
nature and the color of the events that occur and that they
feature. A mo ng these novelties that feed the press, we must
first consider the feats of power, the series of political
facts.
This is so much so that, after all is said and done,
the very feats of power, br ok e n into tiny pieces b y the
Press, and dig es te d by conversation, contribute to a large
extent to the transformation of Power. However, it wo ul d be
pointless for power to act if its actions were not revealed
b y the press and commented upon b y conversation; it wo ul d
not evolve, it would remain unchanged, except for modifca-
tions, reinforcements, or weakenings, wh ic h would be caused
b y another kind of innovations, especi all y religious and
economic, from the moments they become generalized and po p u
lar. W he re Power remained very stable, w e can ge n e r a l l y be
★
certain that conversation was timid and very restricted.
Therefore, to return to Power its stability of times past,
of the pr imitive times, w h e n there was no c on ve rs at io n out
side the na rrow circle of the family, one wou ld have to
start b y establishing universal m u t e n e s s . In this hyp ot he
sis, the very universal suffrage itself would be powerless
to d e s tr oy anything. “
It is not so much p a r l i a m e n t a r y conversations and
discussions as private conversations and discussions that
must be considered in their po litical implications. This
is wh e r e power originates, wh i le in the Chambers of D e p u
ties and their corridors, power is w or n out and ofte n dis
credited. W h e n Parliamentary deliberations are not reflected
in w h a t is reported by the Press, they have almost no influ
ence on the political value of a m a n in power. W h a t happens
in those closed places is related only to the shifting of
★
At the time of Bacon, conversation was be g i n n i n g in
England, and to this subject he devoted a short passage in
his Essays on Ethics and P o l i t i c s , in which there are, not
general observations that w o u l d be of great interest, but
general a d v i c e , that interests us less. if we judge m a t
ters on the basis of the latter, English conversations far
more than on the continent, w h i c h w er e upset by religious
w a r s — w e r e probably ext re me ly timid. "In what concerns
joking," he says, "there are things that it must never
touch: for example, religion, state matters, great men,
individuals high in offices (high officials like hi ms e l f
. . .)." e t c .
power, not to all its force or its actual authority. The
cafes, clubs, salons, stores, and all the places wher e con
versation takes place, are the true factories of power. How
ever, it should not be forgotten that these factories could
not operate if the raw material w i t h wh i ch they work, the
habi ts* of do cil it y and credulity created b y family life,
and upbringing at home, did not exist. Power arises from
them in the same w a y that wealth comes out of plants and
factories, that science comes out of laboratories, museums,
and libraries, that faith comes out of Sunday Schools and
ma ter nal teachings, that mil it ar y force comes out of gun
foundries and training camps.
Imagine the citizens of France closed in prison cells,
left to their own thoughts, wi t h o u t any influence on one
another; and then imagine them going to vote. Well, they
woul d not be able to vote: As a matter of fact they, or most
of them at least, would have no w a y to decide between Peter
or Paul, one pr og ram or another. Or, if each had his own
preference, wha t a mess the election would be.
Certainly, if a statesman, a Mirabeau,^ or a Napoleon,
could be pe rso nal ly acquainted wi th all Frenchmen, he would
"'"Mirabeau (1749-1791) , the most prominent orator of

the French Revolution.
n ot n e e d c o n v e r s a t i o n to e s t a b l i s h his a u th or it y , and e v e n
if the F r e n c h w e r e silent, in t h e i r l a rg e m a j o r i t y the y
would still be f a s c i n a t e d b y him. But, as it c a n n o t b e so,
f r o m the m o m e n t tha t a S t a t e has expanded beyond the b o r d e r s
of a s m a l l town, it b e c o m e s necessary for p e o p l e to tal k
among themselves so that they will establish the p r e s t i g e
w hi c h must govern them. Actually, most of the time, one
obeys a m a n b e c a u s e he sees h i m b e i n g obeyed by o t h e r s .
Those who f i rs t obeyed this m a n had, or t ho ug h t the y had,
t h ei r r e a s o n s : they believed in him, b e c a u s e of his advanced
age, his illustrious birth, his physical s trength, his elo
qu en ce , or his genius for p r o t e c t i n g or leading them. How
ever, by their conversations, they c ommunicated this faith,
w hic h came spontaneously to them, to t ho se who, after them,
also had faith. It is b y t a lk i ng about a m an ' s actions that
we make him notorious, famous, illustrious, or g l o r i o u s ; and
o n c e he h as come to p o w e r t h r o u g h glory, it is the c o n v e r s a
tions about his campaign plans or hi s d e cre es , a bo u t his
battles or g o v e r n m e n t a l action, t ha t c a n c a u s e his power to
i n c r e a s e or d e c r e a s e .
In e c o n o m i c lif e e s p e c i a l l y , c o n v e r s a t i o n has a funda
mental importance tha t e c o n o m i s t s do not seem to h a v e recog
nized. Is it not c o n v e r s a t i o n , an exchange of i d e a s - - o r
rather a reciprocal or u n i l a t e r a l gift of ideas--a preamble
to t he e x c h a n g e of s e r v i ce s? it is a b o v e all b y speech, by
talking, that men of the sa me s o c i e t y c o m m u n i c a t e to one
another their needs, their d e s i r e s as consumers and as p r o
d uc e rs ? it is v e r y r ar e for a d e s i r e to b u y a n e w o b j e c t
to b e b o r n on seeing it w i t h o u t h a v i n g b e e n previously sug
gested by conversation? T h is o c c u r s w he n , for ex am pl e, a
navigator landing on an u n k n o w n island fi nd h i m s e l f s u r
r o u n d e d b y s a v a ge s, who without talking to him, since they
do not k n o w h is language any more than he knows t he i rs are
dazzled b y t he g l a s s trinkets he s h o w s them, and t h e y w a n t
to a c q u i r e t h e m in e x c h a n g e f o r f o o d or furs. With t he s e
exceptions, the i n f l u e n c e of c o n v e r s a t i o n is m o st important
for the b i r t h , e v e n m or e so for t he propagation, of needs.
W i t h o u t it, t h e r e w o u l d n e v e r b e a f i x e d a n d u n i f o r m price,
a condition basic to a n y d e v e l o p e d t r a d e a nd to p r o s p e r o u s
enough i n d u st r y.
The r e l a t i o n s h i p b e t w e e n c o n v e r s a t i o n and s o c i a l and
moral psychology is o bv i ou s in the F r e n c h s e v e n t e e n t h cen
tury, but it is no t o n l y t h e r e th at it ap pears. In o ne of
his sa tir es , H o r a c e p r a i s e s his l i fe at his c o u n t r y home.
There, h e o f t e n r e c e i v e d h is friends at the table.
E v e r y g ue st , l i b e r a t e d f r o m the la ws of e tiq ue tt e,
e m p t i e s , at will, l a r g e r or s m a l l e r cups. Conversa
tion b e g i n s b u t not a b o u t n e i g h b o r s , to s p e a k ill of
them, n o r a b o u t their p r o p e r t y o u t of envy, nor a b o u t
L e p o s ' t a l e n t in the a rt of d a n c i n g . Rather, w e t al k
334
II
about subjects w h i c h of greater interest to us and which

it is shameful to ignore: Is it virtue or riches that
make man happy? Should one's relations, depend on what
is useful or on what is honest? W h a t is the nature of
the good? In what does the supreme good consist? How
ever, in these serious conversations Cervi us pertinently
mixes some wife 's tale."
Evidently, the conve rs at io n that was fashion ab le among the
distinguished peo pl e of the century of Au gu st us resembled
those of the "cultured people" of our s e v e n t e e n t h centu ry in
an important aspect: they also revolved about moral generali
ties, w h e n they were not concerned with li te ra ry judgments.
Except that the ethics debated b y the co ntemporaries of
Horace, who w e r e epcurians with a touch of stoicism, is more
individual than social, for the disciples of b o t h Zeno and
Epicurus'1' paid parti cu la r attention to st re ng th en in g and
purifying the individual alone, considered apart from the
group. On the contrary, the questions raised b y the wordly
and moralistic Christ ia ns of the time of Louis X I V are
related p r i m a r i l y to social ethics.

1 , /2
Mme de Lafa ye tt e writes to Mme de Sevigne that dur
ing an after-dinner gathering, her w h o l e co nv ersation with
^Mme de Laf ay et te (1634-1692), Fre nc h intellectual

and author of the novel _La Princesse de Cleves and of M e m o i r e s .
2
Mme de Sevigne (1626-1696), famous for the Letters
that she wrote to her daughter who lived in Provence; in them
she conveys aspects of her times that no precise documentary
evidence could convey.
335
l 92
Mme Scarron and Ab be Testu, and other guests revolved about
"people whose taste is above or below their intellect. We
attacked subtleties to the point that we no longer under
stood anything," she said. We would now ask, what can be
the interest of treating such vague subjects? But it would
be tantamount to forgetting that, at that time, in the aris
tocratic circles where sociabil ity reached its highest point,
nothing was more pert ine nt than to clarify, to make precise,
to untangle as much as possible the still unnamed social
psychology. In the seventeenth century, conversations among
cultured people never appeared to deal w it h individual psy
chology. A novel b y B o u r g e t 1 would have caused Mme de
Lafayette and La ro ch e f o u ca ul t to yawn. W h a t must have inter
ested them far more, was the study of inter-mental relation
ships, and they prac ti ce d a great deal of what is inter-

2
psychology without knowing it. Read La Bruyere, r e a d the
3
portraits t ha t B u s s y - R a b o t i n , or a n y o t h e r w r i t e r of his
^Paul Bourget (1852-1935), French novelist and liter

ary critic; his w o r k contributed to the de ve lopment of the
psychological novel.
2
Jean de La Bruy er e (1545-1996), Fr en ch writer, author
of Les C a r a c t e r e s , ou les moeurs de ce s i e c l e , a satirical
por tr ait ur e that w o n the admiration of ni neteenth century
intellectuals.
3
Roger de Bu ss y- R ab ot in (1618-1693), writer, cousin of
Mme de Sevigne, author of Histoire amoureuse des G a u l e s ,
whi c h is full of w i t t y gossip.
time, painted of figures of his time; it is never a question
of characterizing a man on the basis of his relations with
nature or w ith himself, but solely on his social relations
with other men, on whether his judgments about b e a u t y agreed
or disagreed w it h their own (t a s t e ) , on his ability to
please them b y telling a piquant anecdote or by writing a
witt y letter (w i t ) ,^ etc.
It is n a t u r a l that w h e n m e n s t a r t e d p s y c h o l o g i z i n g ,
t he y w o u l d r e s o r t to s o c i a l p s y c h o l o g y . It is a l s o u n d e r
standable tha t t h e y d i d so w i t h o u t k n o w i n g it, because they
could have a precise n o t i o n of it o n l y b y o p p o s i n g it to
individual psychology.
The latter was developed in the seventeenth cen tu ry
in only one of its original and important aspects, mysticism,
Also, it should be observed that the pleasurable or languid
states of the soul, so v i v i d l y d e s c r i b e d in the L e t t e r s of
2
Fenelon and m a n y mystics of the times, are fe l t b y t h e m to
b e a s i l e n t a nd internal conversation with t he d i v i n e
speake r, w i t h t he ineffable comforter hidden in the soul.
1
A matter of taste: gout, . . . of wit: esprit.
✓2
Fenelon, A r c hb i sh op of Cambrai (1651-1715), was the
tutor of the due de Bourgogne; he wrote the famous T e l e m a q u e ,
an intellectual gui debook for the education of succeeding
generations. in his Letters addressed to king Louis X I V and
various princes, he analyzed and discussed the political sit
uation in his times.
To te l l t he truth, under the A n c i e n R e g i m e , mystic life, is
fashioned somewhat in the i m a g e of the "wor ld ." G o d pays
visits to t h e soul; He s pe ak s to it; it a n s w e r s Him. Is not
Grace the joy and strength given b y a b el oved v o ic e tha t
speaks inside you and comforts you? T h e p e r i o d of d r o u g h t
a nd listlessness of w h i c h t he " s p i r i t u a l " p e o p l e c om pl ai n,
are the intervals, at times v e r y long, between the v is its
and c o n v e r s a t i o n s of the i n n e f f a b l e g u e st .
Another s p e c i a l i z e d b r a n c h o f s o c i a l p sy c ho l o g y ,
intimately attached to i n d i v i d u a l p s y c h o l o g y , is s e x u a l p s y
ch ol og y , to w h i c h dramatists and novelists have given par
ticular a t t en ti o n and which plays in c o n v e r s a t i o n s a more
pervasive role the m o r e c i v i l i z e d t h e y are. It is n ot w i t h
out s o m e link w i t h mystic psychology.
Conversation is the m o t h e r of courtesy. This is true
e v e n w h e n c o u r t e s y c o n s is ts of not t a l k i n g . To a provincial
arriving in P a r i s n o t hi n g s e e m s stranger, more un nat ur al ,
t h a n to s ee the buses full of p e o p l e w h o carefully abstain
from speaking to o n e another. Silence a mo n g s t r a n g e r s w h o
meet one another n a t u r a l l y s e em s impolite just as s i l e n c e
among acquaintances is a s i g n of m i s u n d e r s t a n d i n g . Every
w e l l - b r e d p e a s a n t m ak e s it h is duty to " k e e p comp an y" with
his fellow-travellers. Actually, it is not that the n e e d
for c o n v e r s a t i o n is s t r o n g e r in s m a l l to wn s or farms than
338
in the l a rg e towns.. On the c o nt ra ry , it s e e m s to g r o w in
direct ratio with the p o p u l a t i o n d e n s i t y a n d the d e g r e e of
civilization. But, it is p r e c i s e l y b e c a u s e o f its intensity
in the l a r g e cities th at it b e c a m e n e c e s s a r y to s e t u p dams
against the d a n g e r of d r o w n i n g in the flood of inquisitive
words.
One m u s t r e a c h a h i g h d e g r e e of a f f e c t i o n a t e intimacy
to feel e n t i t l e d to r e m a i n silent for a l o ng time, w h e n one
is w i t h a friend. Because speech is the o n l y s o c i a l link
among f r ien ds w h o are not v e r y close, a m o n g c a s u a l a c q u a i n t
ances who meet in a s alon, w h e n this sole link is b ro k en , a
great danger a p p ea r s, the d a n g e r of s e e i n g e x p o s e d the
deceitfulness of courtesies the t o t al a b s e n c e of a n y g e n u i n e
a t t ac h me nt , despite al l the e x t e r i o r m a r k s of friendship.
When this icy silence ap pe a rs , it is as d i s m a y i n g as the
sundering o f v e i ls of c h a s t i t y a nd so e v e r y e f f o r t is m a de
to a vo id it. Everything th at com es to m i n d is thrown into
th e fire of a d y i n g conversation, the m o s t cherished secrets,
what it w o u l d be m o r e to o n e ' s interest not to m e n t i o n , just
as, when there is a shipwreck, the m o s t p r e c i o u s b u n d l e s
are t hr ow n o v e r b o a r d in t r y i n g to d e l a y the si nk in g .
Silence in the mid dle of salon conversation is like the
sinking of the boat in mid-ocean.
Both c o mpliments and insult s are b o r n of c o n v e r s a t i o n .
B y conversing men realized that their high opinion of them
selves was not s h a r e d b y o t h e r s a n d v ic e -v e r s a .
One's i l l u s i o n of h i s own importance could b e scoffed
at, a n d h a r s h l y fought, by insulting the a d v e r s a r y , if he
happens to b e an equal; but experience taught tha t c o n f l i c t s
caused by t he s e o u t b u r s t s of frankness s h o u l d be a v o i d e d .
However, w h e r e a su p er i or , or a m a s t e r was concerned, it
was w i s e to f l a t t e r this illusion. Hence, the c o m p l i m e n t s ,
which by gradually attenuating and mu tualizing themselves,
and b y b ec om in g generalized in th is reciprocal form, became
the b a s i s of ur b an i ty . Th e y always begin b y be in g s el f is h ,
and they become unselfish only in the long run. I wonder
if w h a t the H i n d u s have said about the o m n i p o t e n c e of P r a y e r
is n o t explained by the i n t o x i c a t i n g power of p r a i s e on sim
ple soul s. Prayer is, above all, the u l t i m a t e p r a i s e . The
nature of compliments is c h a n g i n g . I n China, to p a y someone
a compliment th e y tell h i m t h a t he looks old, in F r a n c e w e
s a y t ha t he is g e t t i n g y o u n g e r . In the M i d d l e Ages, it w a s
the m o s t r e f i n e d p r a i s e to te l l a y o u n g cleric, seeking holi
ness through mortifications, to t e l l h i m that h e looked
thin and emaciated. Is there a perceptible direction in
the e v o l u t i o n of c o m p l i m e n t s as w e l l as in that o f insults?
By comparing the i n v e c t i v e s of H o m e r ' s heroes to t h o s e of
slanderous press, one m i g h t say that the v o c a b u l a r y of
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^97
i n s u l t s h as b e e n e n r i c h e d r a t h e r than transformed. T o all
the p h y s i c a l d ef ec t s, diseases, and d e f o r m i t i e s tha t o n c e
were imputed to o n e ' s en em ie s , were simply added the v i ce s
of c i v i l i z a t i o n , s u c h as r e f i n e d d e p r a v a t i o n s and intellec
t u al abnormalities that are a l s o a t t r i b u t e d to t h e m a n d
lavished upon them. But, these public insults the p r e s s
like its p r a i s e s , are something special, something very
different from the i n s ul t s and p r a i s e s m a d e in p r i v a t e r e l a
tions, and must have r e t a i n e d some of t h e i r p r i m i t i v e exag
geration. E v e r y t h i n g d i r e c t e d at the p ub li c , that uncouth
figure, must also b e in loud, coarse colors: wall po st er s ,
electoral programs, press polemics. It is n o n e t h e l e s s true
th at c o m p a r e d to the p o l e m i c s among scholars of the s i x
t e e n t h c e n t u ry , t h o s e of o u r m os t violent newspapers, deposi
t o ri e s of i ns ul t s, are gr ea t ly attenuated. As to p r i v a t e
insults, their toning down was e ve n m o r e rapi d; they have
passed f r o m H o m e r i c b r u t a l i t y to the m o s t discreet irony,
instead of h a r p i n g on p h y s i c a l defects, t he y more a nd m o r e
emphasize t he intellectual deficiencies or m o r a l indiscre
tions. This double progress is c e r t a i n l y irreversible.
These same tw o t r a i t s a re n o t i c e a b l e in the e v o l u t i o n
of p ra i se , a n d w i t h an e q u a l s e m b l a n c e of irreversibility.
Certainly, n o k in d, no g r e a t m a n o f o ur d a y w o u l d accept
the e x t r a v a g a n t p r a i s e s th a t the P h a r a o h s made t he i r p r i e s t s
341
>8
h ea p on t h e m or that P i n d a r p o u r e d o n t he c r o w n e d h e a d s of
athletes. The tone of the d e d i c a t i o n s in the b o o k s two
centuries a g o s t i l l m a k e us s mil e. If we compare private
conversations and discussions to those in the past, in t he
eighteenth, seventeenth, or s i x t e e n t h c en tu ri es , of w h i c h
we have s am p l e s , we quickly observe a decrease in the p r o p o r
t i o n of d i r e c t compliments or frank insults; these h e a v y
coins we r e divided and subd iv i de d into v e r y s m a ll and fine
change. O n the o th er hand, the n ature of t he s e m o r e veiled
compliments h as changed no less than that of the d i s g u i s e d
civilities. At first it w a s the p h y s i c a l s t r e n g t h of the
deity (see the B o o k of J o b ) , t ha t w a s g i v e n s p e c i a l p ra is e,
then its w i s d o m and i n t e l l i g e n c e , and finally its k i n d n e s s .
There is n o t u r n i n g b a ck . In the s a m e w a y it was fi rs t the
power of kings that wa s praised, t h e n th eir t al en t a n d o r g a n
izing g en i us , and finally their con ce rn for the p e o p l e . To
w h o m was a ll the l y r i c i s m of p o e t flatterers a dd re s se d, at
the h e i g h t o f G re e k civilization? To athletes more t ha n to
artists. I n o u r days, the opposite is true, and, despite
the infatuation for the w i n n e r s of bi c yc le ra ces or football,
there is no d a n g e r that this order might be reversed. We
can however n o t e that c o m p l i m e n t s addressed to w o m e n h a v e
evolved in an a l m o s t o p p o s i t e direction. Women were praised
first for t h e ir virtues, their s e n s e o f order, a nd t h e i r
342
^99
e c o no m y; they were praised for t h e i r t a l e n t s as w e a v e r s ,
a nd t h e n as m u s i c i a n s , before they w e r e praised, at least
publicly, fo r their physical beauty. Now, when t h e y are
pr ai s ed , it is m o r e for b e i n g b e a u t i f u l than for b e i n g v i r
tu ous or e v e n w i t t y , but the p r a i s e of t h e i r b e a u t y has
undergone a small evolution of its o w n that f al ls in the
general trend; after having b ee n pra is e d f or t h e ir forms
more than for their gracefulness, t h e y a re n o w p r a i s e d m o r e
for t h e i r g r a c e f u l n e s s than for t he i r forms.
Consider t wo pe rsons, m e n or w o me n , w h o are p a y i n g a
courtesy call on e a c h o t he r a nd w h o a r e c o n v e r s i n g . They
carefully avoid these subjects on w h i c h t h e y w o u l d r un the
r i s k of h a v i n g d i v i d e d opini ons ; or, if t h e y c a n n o t escape
the n e c e s s i t y to t o u c h on them, they h id e their opposed
opinions as m u c h as p os s i b l e . Frequently, t h e y e ve n go so
far, as to p a r t i a l l y s a c r i f i c e t h e ir i de as in o r d e r to agree.
Therefore, p o l i t e c o n v e r s a t i o n ca n b e considered a contin
ual a n d universal exercise of sociability, as w e l l as a u n a n i
mous and c ontagious e ff o r t to m a k e m i n d s a nd h e a r t s agree
and e r a s e or m i t i g a t e their d i s c o r d a n c e s . The s pe a k e r s are
moved b y an evident good will to tune w i t h one another in
everything, and, in fact, they u n c o n s c i o u s l y suggest strongly
to on e another concordant feelings and ideas. T h is s u g g e s
tion, however, is n o t al wa ys p e r f e c t l y r e c i p r o c a l .
343
MOO
Ordinarily, one speaker has a stronger effect on the other,
or others, wh o s e power of suggestion is reduced to almost
nothing. At any rate, it is certain that the usages of cour
tesy observed in conversations during visits pl ow deeply
enough into the gr ound wh e r e social unanimity must bloo m
and they are the indispensable preparation for it.

*
Con ve r s a t io n was the cradle of literary criticism.
In the s e v e n t e e n t h c e n t ur y , as is e v i d e n t in t he c o r r e s p o n d
ence, a lo n g c o n v e r s a t i o n in wr it i ng , that B u s s y - R a b u t i n h a d
w i t h his k i n d c o u s i n / the c o n v e r s a t i o n s of p o l i t e society
dealt to a g r e a t extent with the c o m p a r a t i v e m e r i t of b o o k s
a n d autho rs . In de e d, t h e y e x c h a n g e d a nd d i s c u s s e d judgments
on the l a t e s t tragedies of R aci ne , a f a b l e of L a f o n t a i n e , a
2
l e t te r o f B o i l e a u , or a J a n s e n i s t work. If we examine
these c onversations c l o s e l y w e s ee that they always tended
to concur, after discussion, on a same w a y of s e e i n g things.
★
T h i s is a n o t a b l e effect, p a r t i c u l a r l y if w e t h i n k
a b o u t the i m p o r t a n c e that l i t e r a r y c r i t i c i s m ha s a c h i e v e d
in m o d e r n times, w h e n it j ud ges e ve r yt h i n g , e v e n in d o m a i n s
s u c h as p h i l o s o p h i c a l c r i t i c i s m , p ol i ti cs , a n d s o c i a l ideas.
■^Mme de S e v i gn e .
2
Prominent poets and writers: Pierre R ac ine (1633-
1699) for his drama; Jean La Fontaine (1621-1695) for his
fables, N. B o i le au (1636-1711) as a literary critic;
Jansenist, a c om mu ni ty of theologians of w h o m Blaise Pascal
(1623-1662) was the best known.
344
,01
It was always so whatever the dominant subject of the conver
sations ma y have been. This was especially true wherever,
in certain circles, there was much discussion of literature;
wi th o u t realizing it they w o rk ed on the collective pre pa ra
tion of a poetic art, of a literary code accepted b y all and
capable of providing ready-made judgments always agreeing
w i t h one another, on all kinds of creations of the mind.
Thus, w he n we see an author somewhere formulate an aesthetic
rule of this kind, be it Aristotle, Horace, or Boileau, we
can assume that he has been preceded by a long period of -
conversation, b y an intense social life. We can therefore
be certa in that in Athens and the rest of Greece they talked
a great deal before Ar is tot le and at his time, beg inning at
the time of the Sophists. We can also be sure that they
talked a great deal in Rome from the time of the Scipios,
and in Paris, from the time of the Precieuses and before
the P r e c i e u s e s . The Restoration"'" period also had its roman
tic poetics that was no less despotic for being anonymous.
In our day, there is not yet one that has imposed itself,
but its elements are in the process of being prepared. We
must observe that as the field of conversation, of literary
as well as political and social conversation, has g r e at ly
extended because of the increase in the number of speakers,
the elab ora tio n of a code, in its incubation stage, will be
345
.1 0 2
longer than in previous times, for the simple reason that,
the larger the vat the mor e prolongued the fermentation time.
By discussion as well as by the exchange of ideas, by compe
tition and conflict as wel l as b y labor, w e all collaborate
always toward a higher harm ony of thoughts, words, and
actions; toward a stable equilibrium of judgments wh i c h are
formulated into literary, artistic, scientific, philosophical,
and religious doctrines; or toward a stable eq ui librium of
actions in the form of laws and moral principles. Indeed,
social logic operates in all the discourses and in all the
actions of men and unavoidably reaches its goals.
VII
Far behind conversation, and far be l o w it, lies cor
res pon den ce as a factor of public opinion. But, the latter
subject, whi ch is linked to the former b y the closest ties
will not take much of our time, An exchange of letters is
a con versation at a distance, a conversation continued des
pite absence. Consequently, the causes that favor conversa
tion— the increase in leisure, unification of language, dif
fusion of common knowledge, equalization of ranks, etc.--
also contribute to making correspondence more intensive but
on condition that these causes concur with the more special
causes on which it depends. These are: ease of travel that
346
03
makes cases of absence more frequent, the spread of the art
of writing, and the good operation of the postal service.
W e might at first believe that by making correspond
ence more frequent, travel should make conve rs at io n rarer.
But, the obvious truth is that the countries where people
travel most are the ones where people both talk most and
writ e most. Thus, it is that the development of railroads
instead of impeding the progress of coach-building, has stim
ulated it. If the nomadic habits of our contemporaries all
too often interrupt "these sweet twitterings at dusk" lenes
sub noctern s u s u r r i , which as Horace said, "were repeated at
the usual hour," betw een old friends, betwe en those living
in the same city, they also allow an ever-increasing number
of strangers to meet and to talk, in meetings which are
more instructive if not just as delightful. Cu riosity has
won much more than intimacy has lost and, however sensitive
I may be to this loss, I resign myself to it b y thinking
that it is only transitory. Can we not formulate the princi
ple— very convenient for shedding light on our subject--that
correspondence, conversation, and travelling are closely
related to one another so that, if we should discover among
a certain people, at a certain moment, the progression of
one of these three factors, for example travelling, we would
be right to infer in the progression of the other two, and
347
104
vice-versa? The times w h e n people were the most inclined
to writin g letters (I mean before the recent advent of journ
alism, which has somewhat change d things in this respect,
as we wil l see) are also those whe n people travelled most
and talked most. Such was the pe ri o d of Pliny the Younger.'*'
So also was our sixteenth century. "The sixteenth century,"
says a Historian, "is p r i m a r i l y a century of letter-writers,
The number of political letters of kings, ministers, captains,
and ambassadors, preserved among the manuscripts of the
Bib li o t h e q ue Nationale, is incalculable. There is also

*
religious and private correspondence. in comparison to the
other W e s t e r n nations of Europe, in Spain little is written.
Everywh er e and always, the fire of conversation burnt, and
the need to correspond was felt b y the most travelled social
*
At that time, the entire hierarchy of formulas of
c o u r t e s y and the ritual of letter-writing appeared. A sup
erior is addressed as S i r e , an equal as S i r . One begins
w i t h "I recommend myself to your good grace," w h e n writing
to an important person. Th e y end by "praying that the Lord
grant you perfect health and long life." Rank is ma r k e d by
the words preceding the signature: "Your good servant, your
obedient servant, your humble servant" (Decrue de S t o u t z ) .
Let us add that in the si xteenth century letters like conver
sations, of which they giv e us an exact image, are lacking
in reserve and taste; they are most indiscreet, indecent,
and indelicate. The following c e nt ur y will spread the feel
ing for n u a n c e s .
"'"Pliny the Younger (62-c. 120 A.D.) Roman writer,

author of L e t t e r s , whose interest lies in the po rtrayal of
manners of his time.
348
105
strata of the nation: in Greece, b y the orators and the
Sophists, b y the peddlers of w i s d o m living in the midst of
a seafaring and unstable people; in Rome, b y the aristocracy,
so read ily mobile and tourist; in the Middle Ages, by those
in the ranks of the University and the Church, where pr eac h
ing monks, bishops, legates, abbots, and even abbesses
(especially abbesses) moved about so easily and travelled so
far, in comparison to the rest of the population. The first
postal services were a university and church privilege, or
rather, to trace them further back, a royal privilege at
first.
Of this important institution I will say little except
to note that its development conforms to the law of the p r o p
agation of examples from above to b e l o w . First kings and
popes, then princes and prelates, had their personal co ur
iers, be for e the simple lords, then their vassals, then in
turn all the social classes of the nation, to the very lowest
all yield ed to the temptation to correspond. When, b y his
decree of June 19, 1494, Louis XI organized the Postal Serv
ice, the couriers carried only the letters of the monarch,
but "from the specially royal service that it was," says
Monsieu r du Camp, "this service soon became administrative,
under the express reservation that the letters had been read
and did not contain anything pre ju di ci al to the royal
authority." Louis XI was well aware of the powerful effect
349
.)6
that p r i v a t e correspondence could have on e m e r g i n g p u b l i c
opinion. Under Richelieu, a regular tariff was i m p o s e d on
letters for the first time (1627) that demonstrates their
*1
numerical increase then. " We m a y e a s i l y r e a l i z e the e x t r a
ordinary development of this service in e i g h t e e n t h century
France by comparing the p r i c e of successive postal conces
sions." It increased f r o m two a n d a h a l f m i l l i o n in 1770,
to ten m i ll i on in 1777; it w a s therefore quadrupled, P o st a l
statistics n o w p e r m i t us to c a l c u l a t e the r a p i d a n d c o n t i n u a l
•
a*
increase in the n u m b e r of l e t t e r s in t h e v a r i o u s States,
and to m e a s u r e in this w a y the u neven, but un i ve rs a ll y con
tinual increase of the g e n e r a l need wh i c h t h e y meet. Very
H o w e v e r , the p r i v a t e l e t t e r s (for, b ef or e , in t a l k
ing a b o u t the s i x t e e n t h ce nt ur y , it w a s a q u e s t i o n of c o r r e s
p o n d e n c e h a v i n g p o l i t i c a l interest) m u s t h a v e r e m a i n e d
r a t h e r l i m i t e d u n ti l the m i d d l e of the s e v e n t e e n t h century,
j u d g i n g b y a p a s s a g e in the M e m o i r e s of M i l e de M o n t p e n s i e r ,
q uot ed b y Roederer. She says a b o u t the P r i n c e s s e de p a r -
t h e n i e (Mme de S a b l e ) : "It is in h e r t i m e th a t w r i t i n g was
practiced. P re v io u s l y , o n l y m a r r i a g e c o n t r a c t s u s e d to be
w r i t t e n ; _of l e t te r s n o t h i n g w a s e v e r s p o k e n . . .
•k rk
F o r example, in France, f r o m 1830 to 1892, the n u m
b e r o f l e t t e r s i n c r e a s e d r e g u l a r l y f r o m y e a r to y e a r (except
in 1848 a n d in 1870), f r o m 63 m i l l i o n l e t t e r s to 773 m i l li o n.
F r o m 1858 to 1892, the n u m b e r o f t e l e g r a m s r o s e fr o m 32 to
463 m i l l i o n in r o u n d e d figu re s.
■^Mlle de M o n t p e n s i e r (1627-1693) s i s t e r of the dukes

of Guise , took p a r t in the F r o n d e ; M m e de S a b l e (1599-1678),
o ne o f t he m o s t famous P r e c i e u s e s , w h o s e s a l o n c o m p e t e d w i t h
the H o t e l de R a m b o u i l l e t .
350
l10 7
conveniently, t he s e statistics i n f o r m us of the d i f f e r e n t
degrees of s o c i a b i l i t y a nd of its p r o g r e s s .
But, these same statistics are also a good example
of the fact that there a r e a l wa ys q u a l i t i e s hidden under the
social quantities that, g e n e r a l l y s pe a ki n g, statistics

■k
measure approximately. In de ed , nothing is m o r e e x t e r n a l l y
u n i f o r m than letters in a s i n g l e c ou nt ry, a n d at a g i v e n
p e r i o d of time, a nd it s ee m s that the c o n d i t i o n of h o m o g e n e
ous u ni t s for s t a t i s t i c a l calculations c o u l d not b e b e t t e r
fulfilled. Letters have a p p r o x i m a t e l y the s a m e format, con
cerning the e n v e l o p e a n d e nc l os ur e , and the w r i t t e n a d d r e s s .
They now b e a r identical s t a mp s . Criminal and civil statis
tics a re far f r o m d e a l i n g w i t h n u m e r i c a l u ni t s as similar as
this. But, the m o m e n t the le tt er s are u n s e a le d , how charac
teri st ic , profound, a n d s u b s t a n t i a l a re the d i f f e r e n c e s
among them, despite the u n i f o r m i t y o f the c e r e m o n i a l opening
and closing formulas! T o a d d t he se totally heterogeneous
things would not l e a d us far. We may count the n u m b e r of
letters but w e do n ot e v e n k n o w their length. However, it
w o u l d be interesting to k n o w at l ea st w h e t h e r as they
•k
I f this w e r e the plac e, I w o u l d s h o w that t h e r e is
no les s a q u a l i t a t i v e e l e m e n t h i d d e n u n d e r the p h y s i c a l q u a n
t i t ie s m e a s u r e d t h r o u g h the s c i e n t i f i c p r o c e d u r e s , a n a l o g o u s
a c t u a l l y to s t a t i s t i c s a n d n ot less s p e c i o u s a l t h o u g h a p p e a r
ing m o r e r e l i a b l e .
351
.08
increase in number they are not shorter, and less spontane
ous, something that seems likely. And, if statistics of
*1
conve rs at io n existed, whi ch w o u l d be quite legitimate,
we wou ld like to be similarly informed about their length,
whi c h in our b u s y century, could we ll be in inverse ratio
to their frequency. The cities wher e it rains most, where
the most wate r falls from the sky (may I be forgiven this
comparison) are often those wher e it rains less often. It
w o u l d be partic ul ar ly interesting to k no w of the intimate
transformations in the content of letters as well as of con
versations, and statistics are of no help here.
In this respect, there is no doubt that the advent
of J o u r n a l i s m has decisively favored transformations in
letter-writing. The Press that has stirred up and nourished
co nv ersation w it h so many stimulants and new food, has, on
the contrary deprived correspondence of many of its sources
exploiting them for its own benefit. Evidently, if in
March, 1958, there were in France daily gazettes as informed
k
It woul d be possible if each one of us regularly
kept an intimate diary similar to that of the Goncourt's,
Up to now, what is recorded, in the matter of conversations,
is only the number of sessions of Congress or scholarly
Societies, and statistics on these show a constant progres-
s ion.
'^'Edmond de Goncourt (1822-1896) and Jules de Goncourt

(1830-1870) French writers who achieved distinction as art
critics, historians, novelists, and diarists.
352
109
a n d as r e g u l a r l y s h i p p e d to the p r o v i n c e s , as o ur p r e s e n t
newspapers Olivier Patru, w h o was so busy , would n ot ha ve
taken the trouble to w r i t e to his f r i e n d d' Ablaincourt [sic] ^
a long l e t t e r g i v i n g h i m so m a n y d e t a i l s - - t h a t t o d a y one
would find in a n y n e w s p a p e r — on the v i s i t of C h r i s t i n e of
Sweden to the A c a d e m i e F i a n ^ a . s e. An important but unnoticed
service that newspapers p e r f o r m t o d a y is to r e l i e v e us o f the
*2
task of w r i t i n g our friends all k i n d s of interesting news
on the e v e n t s of t h e day, which filled the letters of past
centuries,
Can it b e said that b y r e l i e v i n g and ridding private
conversations of this b u r d e n of c h r o n i c l e s , the Press has
helped letter-writing fi nd its v o cati on , which is n a r r o w but
p r of ou nd , p u r e l y p s y c h o l o g i c a l , an d intimate? I am afraid,
*
J ou rnalists very early b ecame aware of their useful
ness in this r e s p e c t . Re na u do t, at the h e a d of the m i s c e l
l a n y c o l u m n of h i s G a z e t t e , in 1631, s p e a k s of t h e " re l ie f
that t h e y (the G a z e t t e s ) b r i n g th os e w h o w r i t e t he i r friends,
to w h o m t h e y w e r e p r e v i o u s l y ob li ga t ed , in o r d e r to s a t i s f y
t he i r c u r i o s i t y , to d e s c r i b e l a b o r i o u s l y the news, f r e q u e n t l y
p u r e l y i m a g i n a r y , a n d b a s e d on the u n c e r t a i n t y o f s im pl e
hear-say." T h i s r e l i e f was st ill no m o r e t h a n p a r t i a l in
this peri od , as c a n b e s e e n from the l e t t e r o f P a t r u c i t e d
above.
"''Olivier de Patru (1604-1681), French lawyer, friend

of Boileau. Perrot d' Ablancourt (1606-1664), French writer
and author of translations.
^ T h e o p h r a s t e R e n a u d o t (1586-1653) , F r e n c h p hys ic i an ,
h i s t o r i a n of t he king, f ou n de r of the G a z e t t e de F r a n c e in
1631.
353
lI I O
it m i g h t b e a n i l l u s i o n to th in k so. The increasingly urban
character of o u r c i v i l i z a t i o n has r e s u l t e d in a c o n t i n u a l
increase in the number of our fri en ds and acquaintances
while the d e g r e e o f i n t i m a c y in t hes e r e l a t i o n s h i p is
decreasing. What we have to s a y or w r i t e is a d d r e s s e d less
f r e q u e n t l y to s i n g l e in di v id u al s, and more f r e q u e n t l y to
increasingly l a r g e r g r o up s. T h e o ne w e r e a l l y talk to, we

•#
really write to, a little more eve ry day , is the P ub li c,
T h er e f o r e , it is n o t surprising that p r i n t e d a n n o u n c e m e n t s ,
notices and advej'tisements in n e w s p a p e r s , are increasing far
more rapidly t h a n o ur p r i v a t e letters. We m a y perhaps even
be permitted to b e l i e v e that am on g the latter, the c a s u a l
l e t t er s and the conversational letters, that must naturally
be distinguished from business letters, will continue
★
T he n e e d to a d d r e s s the P u b l i c is q u i t e r e c en t . Even
the k i n g s of the A n c i e n R e g i m e n e v e r a d d r e s s e d t h e m s e l v e s
to the pub li c: t h e y a d d r e s s e d t h e m s e l v e s to s o c i a l bod ie s,
P a r l i a me n t, or the cle rg y, n e v e r to the n a t i o n as a w ho le ;
and e v e n less to p r i v a t e in di v id ua l s.
**
A n n o u n c e m e n t s of bi rths, m a r r i a g e s , a nd d e a t h s h a v e
f r ee d p r i v a t e c o r r e s p o n d e n c e of one of its m o s t f r e q u e n t s ub
jects in the past. W e see, for example, in a v o l u m e of the
c o r r e s p o n d e n c e of V o l t a i r e , a s e r i e s of l e t t e r s w i t h i n g e n u
ous a nd e l a b o r a t e v a r i a t i o n s of s ty l e a n n o u n c i n g to f r i e n d s
of M m e de C h a t e l e t , the a r r i v a l of the c h i l d she h a d just
g i v e n b i r t h to.
^Mme de Chatel et (1706-1749), a French intellectual

known for her friendship with Voltaire.
354
111
dimi nis hi ng in number as well as in length, judging b y the
e x t r a o r di na r y degree of simplification and abbreviation w h i c h
the love-letters themselves have reached in the "personal

*
correspondence" of certain newspapers. The utilitarian
laconism of telegrams and telephone conversations which are
infringing upon the domain of correspondence, is rubbing off
on the style of the most intimate l e t t e r s , Invaded so by
the press on one side, by the telegraph and the telephone on
the other, and nibbled at both ends, if correspondence con
tinues to exist and even shows illusory signs of prospering,
according to post office statistics this can be ascribed
only to the increase in business letters.
The casual, personal, long letter was killed by the
newspaper, and this is explicable, since the latter is its
superior equivalent, or rather its extension and amplifica
tion, its universal radiation. Newspapers do not have the
same origins as books. The Books proceeded from discou r s e ,
from mo nologues and, primarily, from poems, and songs, The
W ha t in letters of all kinds is becoming briefer

and more simplified is un questionably their formality, It
is enough to compare the "devotedly yours" of the present
time to the closing formulas of the sixteenth and the seven
teenth centuries. The transformation of the ritual of con
versation in the same way is no longer in doubt but, as it
has left no durable traces, it is easier to study this
advance or this decline in the co rr es pondence of the past
and the present.
355
112
origin of books is lyrical and religious. However, the ori
gin of newspapers is secular and casual. T he y proceed from
private letters, whi ch in turn proceed from conversation.
So newspapers b e ga n b y being private letters wh ic h were
addressed to individuals, and of w h i c h a number of copies

k
were made. "Before the existence of a printed, public
journalism, more or less tolerated more or less utilized by
goverments for a long time there was in Europe a hand-written
often clandestine journalism" which per si st ed until the
eighteenth cent ury through the letters of Grim m or the mem-
oires of B a c h a u m o n t ,
Saint Paul's Epistles or the letters of Missionaries
are really newspapers. If Saint Paul had at his disposal
any Religious W e e k l y , it is articles that he would have
written.
In short, newspapers are public letters, public con
versation, which, proceeding from private letters and pri
vate conversation, be com e their major governing factor and
their most abundant source of nourishment, uni fo rm for all
J o u r n a l i s m , by Eugene Dubief. Ha che tte 1892.
^Frederic- Mel chi or Grimm (1723-1807), famous writer

and critic, who has left a Cor res pondance of the greatest
interest; Louis P. De Bachaumont (1690-1771), French writer
whose Memoires secrets ore still important, reference work.
356
ai3
peoples throughout the entire world, profoundly changing for
all people from one day to the next. They began as me rel y
a pro longed echo of conversations and correspondence, but
they ended by being the almost unique source of these. T he y
live on correspondences, now more than ever, partic ula rly on
correspondence in its most concentrated and modern form, the
telegram. Of a private tleegram, addressed to the editor,
the newspaper makes sensational news of the utmost timeliness,
which will instantly move the crowds in all the big cities
of a continent. Of these scattered crowds, intimately in
touch over long distances, through the consciousness it
creates in them of their simultaneity, of their interaction
born of its own action, it makes a single, immense, abstract,
and sovereign crowd that it will christen Public Opinion,
In this w a y it has completed the centuries old task begun by
conversation and carried on by correspondence, but which
still remained in the state of a vague and incoherent sketch,
the task of the fusion of personal opinions into local public
opinions, and of these into national public opinion and into
world public opinion, the grandiose unification of the Public
Mind. I say of the public Mind, I do not say, it is true,
of national, traditional Minds, whic h remain b a s i ca ll y dis
tinct under the double invasion of that more serious rational
internationalism of which the public mind is very often
357
U14
nothing but the repercussion and popular echo. After all,
this is an enormous power, which can only go on increasing.
For, the need to agree with the public of which we are part,
to think and to act in the direction of public opinion,
becomes the stronger and the more irresistible, the more
imposing public opinion is, and the more often this need
itself has been satisfied. Therefore, we must not be sur
prised to see our contemporaries bend so easily in the pass
ing wind of public opinion, not necessa ri ly conclude that
characters have bee n weakened, Wh e n the poplars and oaks
are felled by the storm, it is not that they became weaker,
but that the w i n d became stronger.
B I BL IO GRA PH Y
1-1 359
BI BL IO G R A PH Y
Books b y Gabriel Tarde
Tarde, Gabriel. _La Cr i mi na li te c o m p a r e e . Paris: F. Alcan,

1886.
________ . Essais et melanges socioloqiques. Lyon: A. Storck,

1895.
________ . Etudes de psychologie s o c i a l e . Paris: V. Giard

et E, Briere I 1898.
________ . Etudes penales et s o c i a l e s . Lyon: A. Storck,

1892 .
________ . Fragment d ’h is to ir e f u t u r e . Paris: V. Giar d et

E. Briere, 1896.
________ . Introd uc tio n et pages choisies par ses fils.

Preface de H. Bergson. Paris: L. Michaud, 1904.
________ . _La Logique s o c i a l e . Paris: F. Alcan, 1895.
________ . Les Lois de 1 ' i m i t a t i o n , etude s o c i o l o q i q u e .

Paris: F. Alcan, 1890.
________ . Les Lois s o c i a l e s , esquisse d 'une s o c i o l o q i e .

________ . L 'Opinion et la F o u l e . Paris: F. Alcan, 1901.
________ . L 'O p po sit io n u n i v e r s e l l e , essai d 1une theorie des

c o n t r a i r e s . Paris: F. Alcan, 1897.
________ . _La Philosophie penale. Lyon: A. Storck, 18 90.
________ . La Psychologie e c o n o m i q u e . Paris: F. Alcan, 1902.
________ . Les Trans formations du d r o i t , etude s o c i o l o q i q u e .

________ . Les Transfo rm at io ns du p o u v o i r . P a r i s : F . Alcan,

1899.
3-2 360
Articles b y Gabriel Tarde
Tarde, Gabriel. " L 1accident et le rationnel dans l'histoire

d ’apres Cournot," Revue de Metaphysique et de M o r l a e ,
XII (1905) , 319-47 .
________ . " L 1Ac tio n des faits future," Revue de Metaphys ique
et de M o r a l e , VIII (1901), 119-37.
________ . "L'Action in te r - me nt al e, " Archives d 'A n t h ro po lo gi e

C r i m i n e l l e , XVI (1901), 168-95.
________ . "L'art et la l o g i q u e , " Revue P h i l o s o p h i q u e , XXXI

(1891) , 123- 47. 288-312.
________ . "Augustin C o u r n o t , " Annales de 1'Institut I n t er na

tional de S o c i o l o g i e , IX (1902), 8 7 f f .
________ . "L'Avenir l a t i n , " Revue Politique et L i t t e r a i r e ,

Rev ue Bleue 5e s. I (1904), 789-801.
________ . "Biologie et sociologie, reponse au Dr. Bianchi,"

A r c h i v e s , VIII (1893), 7.
________ . "Les classes sociales" (Notes et D i s c u s s i o n s ) ,

Revue Internationale de S o ci ol og ie , XI (1903), 125ff>
________ . "Les crimes des foules," A r c h i v e s , VII (1892),

353-86.
________ . "La Crimin alite et le probleme economique,"

A r c h i v e s , XVI (1901), 565-75.
________ . "Criminalite et sante sociale," Revue Philo so

p h i q u e , XXXI X (1895), 148-62.
________ . "La croyance et le desir: possiblite de leur

m e s u r e , " Revue P h i l o s o p h i q u e , X (1880), 150-63,
264-70.
________ . "Darwinisme social et darwinisme naturel,"

Revu e P h i l o s o p h i q u e , XVII (1884), 607-37.
________ . "Les deux sens de la valeur," Revue d'Economie

P o l i t i q u e , X XI X (1888), 526-40, 561-76.
3-3 361
Tarde, Gabriel. "La Dialect iq ue sociale," Revue Philosoph

i q u e , XXVI (1888), 20-43, 148-65.
______ . "Du Chantage," Archives, XV (1900), 644-53.
"L'esprit de groupe," A r c h i v e s , X V (1900), 5-27.
"Fragment d'histoire future," A r c h i v e s , XIX

(1904), 565-621.
"Fragment d'histoire future," Revue Internationale

de S oc io l o g i e , IV (1896), 603-54.
"La g r a p ho l o gi e," Revue Ph il os op hi qu e, XLIV

(1897), 337-63.
"L'heredite des professions," Revue Internationale

de S o c io l o g i e , VIII (1900), 50-59, 117-24, 196-207.
"L'idee de l'organisme social," A r c h i v e s , XI

’(1896) , 418-28.
"L'idee de 1'o p p o s i t i o n , " Revue P h i l o s o p h i q u e ,

XXXVIII (1897), 1-18, 160-75.
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6 9 -1 8 ,4 7 2

EM M ANUEL, Artemis, 1923-

The American University, Ph.D., 1969

Fac ult y of the College of Arts and Sciences

of the Ameri ca n University

Dean of the College

This study has been conceived and designed in response

to current trends in sociology toward a creative r e- ex am in a­

tion of problems and perspectives formulated in earlier

times and different lieus, trends stimulated and accelerated

b y a broader need for the continuous extending and deepening

of the scope of sociological inquiry.

In carrying out this study, the specific purpose and

approach of which are d iscussed in the first two chapters, I

have had the invaluable guidance and assistance of an ad v i s ­

ory committee composed of distinguished scholars, sociolo­

gists. and academic teachers. Dr. A us ti n Van der Slice, the

Chairman, an intent student of Gabriel T a r d e 's work, provided

generously important advice and sustained my confidence d u r ­

ing my .inquiry into T a r d e 1s L 'Opinion et la F o u l e , this

largely unknown text of the "forgotten sociologist."

Dr. Gillian L. Gollin received enthusiastically the idea of

this study, and she contributed liberally helpful direction

throughout the successi ve stages of this work and especially

in the effort to deal with the intricate question of the

convergence of "classical" theory and empirical studies in

public opinion research, a question which is at the center

Rosenberg has g re atl y helped me with his stimulating teaching

as well as w ith his instructive suggestions and enlightened

judgment. Dr. Robert T. Bower, Director of the Bureau of

SocxaJ Research, well-known for his contributions to the

field of public opinion study, by his interest in my work

and by accepting to be a member of the dissertation committee,

has given me special encouragement. I am deeply indebted

and immensely grateful to all.

I woul d also like to express my sincere thanks and

appreciation to the prominent French scholars and s o c i o l o ­

gists, Professor Raymond Aron of the Ecole Pratique des

Hautes Etudes, Professor Jean Stoetzel and Professor Georges

Friedmann of the Centre d ‘Etudes S o c i o l o g i q u e s , and Professor

Serge Moscovici by the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes,

who in answering promptly to my inquiry about Gabriel Tarde

reinforced me in my aspiration to deal with and present his

I. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM ............... 1

Gabriel T a r d e 's L 'Opinion et la F o u l e :

II. THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE S TU DY . . . . . . 8

III. GABRIEL TARDE: THE "FORGOTTEN SOCIOLOGIST". . 19

Tarde Seen t hrough the Eyes of his

IV. THE FIELD OF PUBLIC OPINION: A MULTI­

The Pre -h is to ry of the Public Opinion

V. SOC IO LO GY AND THE STUDY OF PUBLIC OPINION . . 88

F r o m "Crowd Psychology" to"Collective

VI. GABRIEL TARDE ON PUBLIC OPIN ION .............. 122

T a r d e 's Broader Theoretical Fr amework

VI.I. SOCIOLOGICAL I MPLICATIONS IN TARDE 'S

Problems and Areas of Public Opinion

Opinion and the Crow d by Gabriel Tarde

BIBLI OGR APH Y ..................................... 358

Books b y Gabriel Tarde

INTRODUCTION; THE PROBLEM

Gabriel T a r d e 's L 'Opinion et la F o u l e ;

The purpose of this study is to present and to

analyze a sociological theory of public opinion. The field

to current trends in sociology toward a creative r e- ex am in a

have had the invaluable guidance and assistance of an ad v i s

ory committee composed of distinguished scholars, sociolo

generously important advice and sustained my confidence d u r

appreciation to the prominent French scholars and s o c i o l o

IV. THE FIELD OF PUBLIC OPINION: A MULTI

derived from sociological studies have not yet b e e n s y s t e m a t

A certain degree of parochialism seems to c h a ra ct er

a rule, there is little interest shown in other d i s c i

plines: concentrating on what is "current" research, sociol o

the discipline; finally, little is read of what is not writ

concern about bringing ba ck into focus the viable c o n t r i b u

pub lished in soc iology at present is indicative of this p r e

occupation. The settling of the questio n of what is " c l a s

hi st or ic al ly recurring tension between erudition and o r i g i n a l

Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) a French sociologist with an inter

out of the consciousness of modern sociologists, both Ameri

Raymond A r o n said that "for various reasons that the soci

■'"Celestin Bougie was writing in 1905, "When the gen