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EMMANUEL, Artemis, 1923- GABRIEL TARDE’S L TOPINION ET LA FOULE: A RE-EVALUATION OF ITS RELEVANCE TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF PUBLIC OPINION.

The American University, Ph.D., 1969 Sociology, general University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan

(C)Copyright by

Artemis Emmanuel

1969

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. GABRIEL TARDE'S L'OPINION ET LA FOULE; A RE~EVALUATION*OF ITS RELEVANCE TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF PUBLIC OPINION

by

Artemis Emmanuel

Submitted to the

Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences

of the American University

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

of

Doctor of Philosophy

in

Sociology

Dean of the College

AMERICAN uN.VLrto LIBRARY 1969 MA Y 22 1961: The American University Washington, , D..C. Washington, n. r

3 1 ^ 3

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE

This study has been conceived and designed in response

to current trends in sociology toward a creative re-examina­

tion of problems and perspectives formulated in earlier

times and different lieus, trends stimulated and accelerated

by 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 discussed in the first two chapters, I

have had the invaluable guidance and assistance of an advis­

ory committee composed of distinguished scholars, sociolo­

gists. and academic teachers. Dr. Austin Van der Slice, the

Chairman, an intent student of Gabriel Tarde's work, provided

generously important advice and sustained my confidence dur­

ing my .inquiry into Tarde1 s L ' Opinion et la Foule, 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 successive 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

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of her academic interests and research endeavors. Dr. Morris

Rosenberg has greatly helped me with his stimulating teaching

as well as with 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 would also like to express my sincere thanks and

appreciation to the prominent French scholars and sociolo­

gists, Professor Raymond Aron of the Ecole Pratique des

Hautes Etudes, Professor Jean Stoetzel and Professor Georges

Friedmann of the Centre d ‘Etudes Sociologiques, 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 ..

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE ...... iii

Chapter Page

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

Gabriel Tarde's L 'Opinion et la Foule: A Case of Convergence of Early Theory and Current Sociological Concerns

II. THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY ...... 8

The Analysis The Assessment

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

Tarde Seen through the Eyes of his Contemporaries The Provincial Magistrate Tarde's Intellectual Formation: "The Tour of the Sciences"; the Disciple of Cournot; His Own Master The "Individualist Sociologist," an International Figure Gabriel Tarde; "A Sociologist Ahead of his Time"

IV. THE FIELD OF PUBLIC OPINION: A MULTI­ DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE 55

The Pre-history of the Public Opinion Concept The Emergence of the Public Opinion Concept Early Theories of Public Opinion in the Context of Theories of the State Toward a Science of Public Opinion Toward an Inter-disciplinary Approach

v

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V. SOCIOLOGY AND THE STUDY OF PUBLIC OPINION . . 88

From "Crowd Psychology" to"Collective Behavior" Sociological Theorists of Public Opinion The Emergence of a Methodological Orientation Convergence of Theoretical and Methodolog­ ical Concerns

VI. GABRIEL TARDE ON PUBLIC OPINION ...... 122

Tarde's Broader Theoretical Framework Public Opinion a Central Concern of Tarde's Sociology Gabriel Tarde's L 'Opinion et la Foule: 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 Foule, a Work Rich in Significant Implications

VI.I. SOCIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS IN TARDE ' S APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF PUBLIC OPINION . . 154

Problems and Areas of Public Opinion Research Highlights Among Tarde's General Propos itions Concluding Remarks

APPENDIX ...... 163

Opinion and the Crowd by Gabriel Tarde in an English Translation from the French First Edition

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BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 358

Books by Gabriel Tarde Articles by Gabriel Tarde Translations of Tarde1s Works Reviews and Analyses of Tarde's Works Biographical and Critical References to Gabriel Tarde Selected References on Public Opinion Research and Theory

vii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION; THE PROBLEM

Gabriel Tarde's L 'Opinion et la Foule; A Case of Convergence 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 been systemat­

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 character­

ize contemporary sociology as a whole although there are

positive signs of efforts to overcome this tendency. As

a rule, there is little interest shown in other disci­

plines: concentrating on what is "current" research, sociolo­

gists give scanty attention to past work to the history of

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

ten in English.

William 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 history 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 with 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 Thought," The Handbook of Modern Sociology, 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 Quarterly, XXI (1957), 40-41.

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Everett C. Hughes also refers to both the lack of a

creative consideration of the work of past sociologists

and the reluctance to overcome the language barrier,

We tend rather to sketchy and stereotyped knowledge of sociologists of previous generations .... The matter of language is related to our knowledge of past work, for much of it is in other languages, and we Americans, the world's linguistically most crippled of all people who claim to be scholars, are completely dependent upon the accidents of translation for whatever is written in other languages ....

Still, there is in sociology today a slowly growing

concern about bringing back into focus the viable contribu­

tions of the leading men in its history. Much of what is

published in sociology at present is indicative of this pre­

occupation. The settling of the question of what is "clas­

sical theory" in sociology is of particular interest.. Indeed,

as Robert K. Merton points out in his essay "On the History

and Systematics of Sociological Theory," in sociology "the

historically recurring tension between erudition and original­

ity is a problem yet to be solved. ..." However, though

. . . the physicist qua physicist has no need to steep himself in Newton's Principia or the biologist qua biolo­ gist to read and re-read Darwin's Prig in of Species, the sociologist qua sociologist, rather than as historian of sociology, has ample reason to study the works of a Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel. . . .^

^Everett C. Hughes, " Tarde's Psycholoqie Economique: An Unknown Classic by a Forgotten Sociologist," The American Journal of Sociology, LXVI (1961), 555. n Robert K. Merton, On Theoretical Sociology, Five

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. It is in this spirit that Tarde's work is introduced.

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

national reputation at his time,'*' has been gradually fading

out of the consciousness of modern sociologists, both Ameri­

can and French. Though his major works were translated into

several languages almost immediately after their publication

in French, his work in its whole is relatively unknown at

2 present. Asked 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 Aron 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,

Essays, 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 work of Tarde. . . ." ("Lorsque le grand public veut prendre un apercu de ce que peut etre aujourd1hui.la sociologie, il se reporte le plus souvent a l’beuvre de Tarde. ... ") "Un sociologue individual- iste: Gabriel Tarde,” Revue de Paris, 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. who is known for his work both in public opinion and in

social psychology, thinks that it is right that the work 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 mentioned in current French

textbooks of sociology; however, he feels that a certain

"current in favor of Tarde'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 structuralism 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 Sociologiques, Paris, October 22., 1968 . 2 Letter to the author from Professor Georges Fried­ mann, of the Centre d'Etudes Sociologiques, ^aris, November 7, 1968.

Letter to the author from Professor Serge Moscovici, of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, October 28, 1968 .

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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 by re­ reading from our freshly gained perspective . . . . ^

Tarde's book, L ' Opinion 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 both 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 Tarde's work 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 Foule) is the public or rather' the publics .... Sociology is not reduced to the study of publics. But one must admit that society is increasingly divided

"^Robert K. Merton, _On the Shoulders of Giants (New York: The Free Press, 1965), p. 45.

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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 may take advantage of the work of its earlier theorists,

such as Gabriel Tarde.

Thus, we do not attempt the retrieval of Tarde'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 contemporary 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 Foule) 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 Sociology . . ■ , p. 37.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER II

THE NATURE AND THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The volume L 'Opinion et la Foule, like other works

of Tarde, contained material that had already appeared in

the form of articles in French reviews, it consists of

three essays; two of them, "Le Public et la Foule" and

"L'Opinion et la Conversation," were published in the Revue

de Paris in 1898 and in 1899 respectively;^ the third essay,

"Les Foules et les Sectes criminelles" had appeared in 1893

in the Revue des Deux Mondes and in the Melanges Sociologi-

ques (1895), a collection of Tarde's essays. It is the first

two essays that constitute Tarde1s 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

considered 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 Paris, V4 (1899), 287-306, 615-35; Gabriel Tarde "L'Opinion et la Conversation," JLa Revue de Paris, VI4 (1899) , 689-719 and VI5 (1900) , 91-116.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that should have been titled _Le Public et 1'Opinion."^

Indeed, in them Tarde invites us to engage with him

in a kind 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. We are thus induced to

participate in the study, sharing the insights and under­

standing that are developed in the process, but also making

at the same time discoveries of our own.

His method is oftendiscursive. Taking one road, his thinking hesitates, then it is resolved and all of a sudden it darts forth, to fall back after the volley. . . . Now it digresses, to return later to its original direction; now it passes swiftly over all the stages and then retraces its steps. It is like a series of sudden inspirations . . . .2

^Gabriel Tarde, "L 'Opinion et la Foule qui aurait du etre intitule Le Public et 1'Opinion." Les Archives d' Anthropologie Criminelle, XIX (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 retourne 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.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Bergson 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 wrote his ideas while he was a magistrate at Sarlat,

a provincial town in the Southwest of France. So, while the

community 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 with a well defined public. He was a "self-

made scholar, grown up in solitude and self-communion, far

removed from any contact with 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. Tarde," Political Science Quarterly, XII (1897) , 490.

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interrupted by the intervention of incidental ideas which are as general and as important as those whose sequence they interrupted . . . , ^

2 It is this widely recognized trait that explains the facil­

ity with which some hasten to dismiss Tarde'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 Tarde1s 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, " which 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 pouvoir, " Revue Litteraire et Politique— Revue Bleue, 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 Review, XXIV (1917) , 267 .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. be published for it gives the finished and precise form of

his sociology . - . .

However, it must be pointed out that Tarde's style

was not just the result of the circumstances described above.

It was also developed consciously and by 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

future, which 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'Interpsychologie," Archives d 1 Anthropologie Criminelle, ed. by 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 1 esprit de Tarde. " Bergson, _op, cit. , p. 40. 3 "... Every invention that actually appears is one possibility realized amid a thousand possibilities . . . which the parent invention carried within itself . . . ." Gabriel Tarde, The Laws of Imitation, trans. by Elsie C. Parsons (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1903), p. 40.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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, quantification is only telling part of

the story and that precision in these sciences is not neces­

sarily absolute:

If necessary, I would demonstrate that there is no less a qualitative element dissimulated under the physical quantities measured by scientific procedures, analogous in fact to and not less specious than statistics though of a more solid appearance.

■'"Gabriel Tarde, The Underground Man, trans. from Frag­ ment d 1histore future by Cloudesley Brereton and a Preface by H. G. Wells (London.- Duckworthy & Co., 1905), p. 16.

“Tarde, L 'Inter-psychologie," 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 scientifiques, 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.

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His plan for a sociology of conversation that he pro­

posed in the Preface of L 'Opinion et la Foule.and on which

he elaborated in greater detail in the second essay of the

book, as well as his article " L' Inter-psychologie" in which

he drew a kind of blue-print for sociology, indicates his

interest in experimental research through a method which in

the natural sciences was known as the "natural history

method" and which 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 pioneering work. So, "he developed, somewhat

provisionally, the theory of opinion and the public” with

the expectation that some young researcher would carry out

, 2 the task.

The Analys is

From the foregoing discussion it becomes clear that

Tarde's L 'Opinion et la Foule is not a work of purely specu­

lative sociology. Though his formulations are supported by

^Robert E. Park, "The Natural History of the News­ paper," American Journal of Sociology, XXIX (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 opinions, p. 12.

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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 sociology and public opinion research in particu­

lar grew increasingly into an empirical science. Therefore,

we are bound to discover that some of Tarde1s generaliza­

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 been 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.

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Our task is first to consider both the theoretical

and the historical context of Tarde’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 expression

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 itself. 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 proposi­

tions stated in currently used terms and capable of being

empirically tested.

Given the character of Tarde's work, such a transfor­

mation involves the risk that interesting ideas and germinal

suggestions will be overlooked or omitted.. For this reason,

it has been thought necessary to present with this study 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, supra, p. 3.

^Gabriel Tarde, Penal Philosophy, translated by R. Howell from La Philosophie penale (1890) with an Intro­ duction by Robert H. Gault (Boston:1 Little Brown k Co., 1912).

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the present translation also constitutes an attempt to trans­

pose his writings into the current sociological terminology.^

The Assessment

The significance of Tarde'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 Tarde' s writings , some of the ideas are

tossed out; admire them for their originality 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 science."

"^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 appuyees, solides, et profondes-. la seulement discutez la verite ou l'erreur. ... " Bergson, loc. c it.. 3 Lazarsfeld, _ojo„ cit. , p. 40.

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In developing his theory of public opinion, Tarde

widened the area of his observations to touch on almost all

the phenomena of collective behavior. Both his conception

of sociology and his style of thinking led him to do so.

Indeed, he viewed sociology as the study of social processes.

At times he conceived 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 digressions, 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 primarily because, due to the versatile and

dynamic character of Tarde1s thought, it can be a source of

inspiration and guidance to successive generations of young

researchers.

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CHAPTER III

GABRIEL TARDE: THE "FORGOTTEN SOCIOLOGIST?"

In order to describe the historical and theoretical

context of Tarde's work, we begin with an attempt to see him

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 work

and personality 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 Philosophique, XVI (1906), 149-69; N. Vaschide, "La Psycho- logie de M. Tarde," Archives d 'Anthropologie Criminelle, XIX (1904), 661-74; E. Mahaim, "L'Economie politique de

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 Col­

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 Faculty to change the

chair of modern philosophy into a chair of sociology. The

Faculty hesitated and finally refused the request. However,

they nominated Tarde for the chair in modern philosophy and

appointed him to it in January, 1 9 0 0 In the same year,

the section of philosophy of the Academie des Sciences

morales et politiques had to replace three of its members.

On December 15, the Academie elected Tarde "on the first

ballot," as he proudly wrote to his colleague and friend

M. Tarde," Revue d 'Economie Politique, XXVII (1903), 25-26; G. Richard, "La Psychologie Economique de M. Tarde," Revue Philosophique, LIII (1902), 640-48 ; H. E. Barnes, "The Philosophy of the State in the Writings of Gabriel Tarde," Philosophical Review, XXVIII (1919), 248-79; Andre Geisert, Tarde et la Criminaiite, Paris, 1935. (A Thesis.)

■'‘Bergson, op., cit. , p. 23.

%

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 and 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, which 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 would serve for study and

research in the new field.

On the other hand, his election to membership in

"'"A. Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde 1843-1904," Archives d 'Anthropologie Criminelle, XIX (1904), 524.

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. L'Institut, a group name for the five Academies, among which

is the celebrated Academie Fran^aise, meant that he had

been invited to become one of the "immortals."'*'

Tarde’s double triumph is all the more remarkable for

he was indeed a "provincial" who 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 Ministry of Justice.

He had been appointed to the post by the Minister, Antonin

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, J^a Criminalite Comparee (1886) and La

Philosophie penale (1890), Actually, both of these works

"''L’Institut is constituted by: Academie Francaise; Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Letters; Academie des Beaux Arts; Academie des Sciences Politiques et Morales; Academie des Sciences.

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 23 :i5

were collections of essays that had appeared in various

reviews and in particular in the Revue Philosophique, to

which Tarde had started contributing articles in 1880,, and

in the Archives d 'Anthropologie Criminelle, de Criminologie,

et Psychologie Normalle et pathologique. The latter was

founded by Dr. Lacassagne in 1886, and Tarde became its

co-editor in charge of the section of sociology in 1893,

Several of these articles were written in an effort

to debate the theoretical positions of what was known as

the Italian School of criminology, represented mainly by

Lombroso, Garofalo and Ferri. In his articles, Tarde

rejected their positions which stressed the vital and bio­

logical factors in crime and called attention to the social

causes. These publications brought him international atten­

tion, since he was questioning 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 known not only in Italy but also in

Russia, Poland, the Scandinavian countries, where his writ-

2 ings had been reviewed and translated.

^A list of Tarde's contribution to this review is included in the Index of the first sixteen volumes, 1886- 1901, Archives d 'Anthropologie Criminelle . . ,, XVI (1901)688.

Daniel Essertier, Psychologie et Sociologie (Paris: Alcan, 1927), passim.

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Moreover, he had already participated in the inter­

national congresses of Criminal Anthropology and presented

reports which contributed to his international prominence.

In the Congress 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

Criminal Statistics for the Ministry of Justice, he edited

the annual reports on the state of criminality in France

and wrote the prefaces for twelve volumes of these reports,

2 which were considered a sort of "moral account of France."

Also, as a representative of the Office of Statistics he

participated in the Congresses of Statisticians that were

held in St, Petersburg and Copenhagen.

While his international fame as a theoretical crimin­

ologist was becoming well established at the time he moved

to Paris, some of his writings on questions of sociology

and philosophy were also attracting the attention of the

circles of scholars in Paris. Indeed, if his articles that

appeared in the Archives, especially until 1893, were pri­

marily dealing with criminology or social pathology, those

that were contributed to the Revue Philosophique, the Revue

‘'"Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde: 1843-1904," p. 525.

2 Ibid.. , p. 523.

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d 1Economie Politique, the Revue Politique et Litteraire

(Revue Bleue) , the Revue Scientifique, the Revue des Deux

Mondes, the Revue Internationale de Sociologie were on sub­

jects related to the fields of sociology and philosophy.

Actually, he had begun writing on philosophical questions

quite early. It is reported 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 phenomenes,

essai critique et theorique," to a publisher in Paris. How­

ever, a certain shyness and timidity to present himself as

a philosopher made him withdraw the manuscript with the pre­

text that he could not accept the conditions of the publisher

His first article to appear in the Revue Philosophlque, "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 imitation, published m i890, marks the

A. Espinas, "Notice sur la vie et les oeuvres de M Gabriel de Tarde," Seances et Travaux de 1 1Academie des Sciences morales et politiques, LXXIII (1910), 322

2 Gabriel Tarde, "La croyance et le desir; possibilite de leur mesure," Revue Philosophique, X (1880), 150-63, 264-70 3 ' Gabriel Tarde, Les Lois de 1'imitation, etude sociologique (Paris; F. Alcan, 1890).

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beginning of his more systematic sociological studies. This

was the work that for all time would associate Tarde's soci­

ology with 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 sociology

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 motto of

the day."'*' Tarde's work was internationally acclaimed:

2 William James called it "a work of genius." The Laws of

Imitation established Tarde's position as a sociologist in

a definitive way. When 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 many 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, loc. ci t.

2 Quoted by G. Tosti, Ibid. 3 Bergson, _op. cit. , p. 22.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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

. . . ^ wrote 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 which 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 by 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 Internationale de Sociologie (18 92) .. A look at their

titles shows that his interests centered on questions and

1Tosti, loc. cit.

2 Rene Worms (ed. ) , Annales de _1' Ins titut Interna­ tional de Sociologie, Vol. X (1904) ,

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phenomena that became the core of his theory of social logic.

After 1894, the pace of publication quickened. In

just one year, we observe the publication of three books:

Essais et Melanges sociologiques, Les Transformations du

droit, and La Logique sociale. Of these, the first was, as

the title indicates, a collection of articles and essays

most of which had appeared in the reviews mentioned 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 'Opinion et la Foule (1901), La Psychologie econom-

jque (1902) . In 1898, following the publication of L 'Opposi­

tion Universelle (1897), appeared the small volume Les Lois

sociales, in which Tarde presented a synthesis of the dia­

lectic "trilogy" of the theories of "imitation," of "social

logic," and of "opposition." This work was almost immedi­

ately translated and published in the United States as

Social Laws (1899), with a Preface by James M. Baldwin, in

which the author tried to present to the American public the

essence of Tarde's theory.

Les Transformations du pouvoir published in 1899

together with the Transformations du droit, L 'Opinion et la

Foule, and La Psychologie economique are all instances of

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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 particular articles in reviews and journals,

which 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. Many 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 out­

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

^E.g., G. Tarde, "L 'Inter-psychologie infantile," Archives d 'Anthropologie Criminelle, XXIV (1909), 161-72

2 Gabriel Tarde, "L1accident et le rationnel dans l'histoire d'apres Cournot," Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale, 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 by Tarde's son Alfred to Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde: 1843- 1904," p. 522.

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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 system 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 presented 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 suddenly 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, mon systeme d 'idees a pris corps. ... " G. Tarde, "Lettre a M. Duprat" quoted by Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde: 1843-1904," p. 676; and in Georges Moreau, "Necrologie de Gabriel Tarde," Revue Un i verselle, 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 brillent et s'enfuient?" Bergson, _op, cit. , p. 35.

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Alexis Bertrand observed that it is perhaps from

their delightful originality that Tarde's works, so differ­

ent and so numerous, derive their unity."*"

It is this independence which characterizes Tarde's

sociology, and as a result of which 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, which may help to explain why his work has not

always been fully understood.

From the time that Tarde came to Paris to serve at

the Ministry of Justice, he also became involved and very

active in several associations. We have already mentioned

his connection with 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 monadologiques de Gabriel Tarde," Archives d ’ Anthropologie Criminelle, XIX (1904), 624.

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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-known 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 University of

Brussels, which had just opened,^

He was delighted with teaching and with 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. Tarde,” Revue Philosophique, LX (1905), 125.

2 Bergson, _op, c i t, , p. 26,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. College de France, he gave the courses: "Intermental psychol­

ogy"; "Transformations of morality"; "Economic psychology";

"The philosophy of Cournot"; "Interpsychology." The course

he was planning to give in 1904-1905 was on "Conversation."

He had planned to present, in a more developed and expanded

form, what he had already discussed in the volume L 'Opinion

et JLa Foule„ But death surprised him before he was able to

fulfill the task. In preparing for it he had been gathering

data from historical and biographical "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 development 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 magistrate 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. cit. , p. 27. 2 Gabriel Tarde, "La Psychologie intermentale," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, IX (1901) , 1-13; Gabriel Tarde, La Psychologie economigue (Paris: F. Alcan, 1902).

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write an articled which was published posthumously, in an

issue of the Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale that was

dedicated to the memory of Cournot.

In retrospect, Tarde’s writings seem in a sense to

be the distilled product of his thought and experience, as

he went 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 magistrate to internationally

known criminologist and social theorist, to Parisian bureau­

crat, to professor and highly esteemed lecturer and "society"

figure, he would 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

disappointed by the fact that Tarde's generalizations are

Tarde, "L'accident et le rationel dans l'histoire d'apres Cournot," loc. cit. 2 " ... comme il a ecrit tout ce q u 1il a pense, il a beaucoup ecrit. ... " Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde: 1843- 1904," p. 522.

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not clearly supported by 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 vagueiy 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 were active years: lecturing and then teaching;

participating in the meetings, debates and symposia, and

congresses of various societies; preparing reports and

papers for presentation 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, loc. cit.

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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 popularity 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 quickly 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 Magistrate"

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.

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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 January 29, 1904, and that was pub­

lished in the Revue Universelle :

. . . My life can be rapidly told: born 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 when Mr. Antonin Dubost, then Minister of Justice, whom I did not know, but who had heard about me, spontaneously offered to appoint me chief of the Bureau of Criminal Statistics at his Ministry, this was in January, 1894. I accepted 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 may be wondering about my prolonged immobility in the judicial career, it is that I entered it without any real inclination for it, almost by force. . . „ Besides, I was retained at Sarlat (until the death of my mother, in 1891) by family reasons, but also by a strong attachment to the native land .... There is close to Sarlat a shack in a rock facing a delightful view, where I have tasted the purest delight of troglo- dytic life. My best ideas were born there. I owe much to my mother who, widowed at the age of twenty-eight, devoted herself 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 Sarlat— I was already very much of a free-thinker— I was interrupted in the execu­ t i o n of this great project by an eye disease that has had the most profound--fatal? beneficial?— influence on my intellectual development.. From the age of nineteen to twenty-five I read very little and thought _a lot. My sight just allowed me to pursue my studies in law. Despite this serious obstacle, which made my youth rather sad, and almost dispirited, I picked up as well as I could the execution of my plan of adolescence. In fact, my principal ideas were formed a long time before 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

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criminalists. What else will I tell you? You know the list of my works. I have on purpose omitted from this list the publication of my Contes et Poemes (Calmann- Levy, 1879) because when this collection of some of the poems written 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 procureur 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 moment 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'acceptai et je fis bien. Six ans apres, en 1900, j'etais nomine professeur de philosophie moderne au College 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 troglodytique. Mesmeilleures idees sont nees la. Je dois beaucoup a ma mere qui, devenue 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 1 age 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 profonde influence— fatale? bienfaisante?-~sur mon developpement intellectuel. De dix- neuf a vingt-cinq ans, j'ai du tres peu lire, beaucoup reflechir. Mes forces visuelles me suffisaient tout juste a faire mon droit. Malgre ce grave d’cueil de ma jeunesse, qui en a ete tres attristee et presque 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

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The highlights and the turning points in Tarde's

background are all here: The family attachments, the crises

of adolescence, sparked by the experience with Jesuit instruc­

tion, the dreams that had to be tempered with wise and prag­

matic decisions, the compensations, the poetic ventures.

What Tarde omitted, by simple modesty, was to refer

to the high esteem that he was held both in his community

at Sarlat and by his professional colleagues and those in

the administrative circles that knew him as the magistrate.

Though, as he said in the letter, he had not entered his

career by inclination and had never developed very high

aspirations about it, he carried out his duties meticulously,

so that with 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 deliberately 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 publication 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 mecontent 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. ... " Quoted by Georges Moreau, "Necrologie de Gabriel Tarde," Revue Universelle, No. 112 (June 15, 1904), 333.

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his intellectual endeavors was bridged by the fact that the

former served as a field of observation for the latter.

Tarde's Intellectual Formation: "The Tour of the Sciences" ; The Disciple of Cournot, His Own Master

In Tarde’s intellectual formation, the central element

was his independent temperament.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 with a high academic record, and Espinas attributed

to Tarde's Jesuit secondary education both his broad intel­

lectual background 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 ....

^It is reflected in his poetry and in his diary; Lacassagne reported about Tarde's son Alfred finding "in a closet a dozen of bound note-books that form his diary kept between the ages of fifteen and eighteen while he was at the College . . Lacassagne, "Gabriel Tarde: 1843-1904," p. 522. 2 Tarde, Etudes penales et sociales, quoted in Bergson, op. cit ,, p . 11.

^ " 1 1 accepte ... 1 'intellectualisme des scholastiques, c'est a dire 1 'exclusion hors de la theorie de la pensee, de

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 would 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 would always refer to as

"my master Cournot"1' and considered as his intellectual

father.

Tarde's preoccupation with science led him to keep

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 1 est 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 Soc1 0 Iogie, IX (1901), 664.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 would have subjected him to:

. . . Tarde was in the pure sense of the term a 1 self- taught' scholar; he was sensitive only to very distant influences, Montaigne, Fenelon, 1 1 Imitation, that are never as strong as rhose coming from one's contemporar­ ies; of these, I do not think that a single one had a decisive effect on his mind; he did not like Comte very much, he criticized Darwin, and he distrusted 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 guided me; however I read his work avidly, and it is a passage 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'Imitation, lesquelles ne sont jamais aussi imperieuses que celles des contemporains; de ceux-ci ;je ne crois pas qu ' 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, beaucoup instruit, mais non dirige; je l'ai lu avec avidite, cependant, et je lui dois de m'avoir en un passage des Philosophes Fran^ais 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 France, LI (1904) , 100; 1'Imitation is the Imitation of

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The case of Taine illustrates very much the way in

which 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 himself his intellectual leaders and his

opponents. He opened his own path between the directions

that they followed.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 Sociologist," an International Figure

In 1897, Tosti was writing that by 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 (Imitatio Christi) , a Christian devotional book writ­ 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 Britannica, 1967 edition, s.v. "Imitation"; Les Philosophes franca is du XIXe s iecle, 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. cit. , p. 3 21.

2 . Tosti, loc. cit.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. herself, that usually ignored as long as she could French

scientific "novelties," hed paid attention to Tarde's ideas.

When, ten years before, Bougie 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 Tarde's sociology. H. G „ Wells in England

wrote the Preface for the English translation of Tarde's

Fragment _d' Histoire future, published posthumously, and in

it he commented on the originality 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 Tarde1s 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 1 Imitation. . , , ," Bougie, "Un Sociologue Individualiste: Gabriel Tarde," p. 294.

2 Jiri Kolaja, "Sociology m Romania," The American Sociologist, III, No. 3 (August, 1968), 241.

^Demetrius Gusti, "Gabriel Tarde: eine Skizze zur Wiederkehr seines Todestages," Jahrbuch fur Gesetzgebuns. Verwaltunq, XXX (1906), 973-88, 4 Tarde, The Underground Man.

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was better known among us. His own genius seemed in harmony

with American thought on all the great subjects that he had

so admirably discussed . . . 1 In retrospect it may be

seen that more Americans than French sociologists linked

their work with 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. Soli­ citous as I have been to give him due credit in the text, no wealth of excerpt and citation can reveal the full measure of my indebtedness to that profound and original thinker . . . .

Robert E. Park, who would become an important figure in

American sociology, shared Tarde1s interest in collective

behavior. He wrote his doctoral thesis on Masse und Publikum 3 (The Crowd and the Public) and in it made frequent refer­

ences to Tarde's ideas. Furthermore, in the book Introduc-

tJ--on 5-2 the Science of Sociology that he prepared with

Ernest W. Burgess, Tarde is among the most frequently men-

4 tioned sociologists. Other American sociologists to

^Lester F. Ward, "Letter of Condolence," Revue Inter­ nationale de Socioloqie, XII (1904), 6 54. 2 E. A. Ross, Social Psychology (New York:: Macmillan, 1908), p. viii. 3 Robert E. Park, Masse und Publikum (Bern:: Buchdruck- erei Lack and Grunau, 1904) . 4 Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess, Introduction

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recognize their theoretical kinship with Tarde were James M,

Baldwin and Charles H. Cooley, The first did so in his own

book. Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development,,

and in the Preface that he wrote for the volume of Social Laws.

The observation has even been made that there is a fundamental

2 agreement between Baldwin and ‘Tarde,, Cooley referred to

Tarde's theories to stress views that he developed in his

Social Organization,^ Similarly, F, H. biddings wrote the

Introduction for the Laws of Imi tat ion, and in his book,

4 Pr inci pies of Sociology, he dealt extensively with Tarde!s

theories„

Tarde’s works were also regularly reviewed by Amer ican,

to the Science o_f Sociology (Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1921); this observation, was made by Everett C. Hughes, op, c.i t , , p . 5 54 ,

flames M. Baldwin, Social and Ethical Interpretations in Menta.1 Development . A Sjrudy jl_p- Social Psychology (New York.: Macmillan Co,. 1897): "Preface" by .lames Mark Baldwin in Gabriel Tarde, Social Laws; An Offline of Sociology, trans, by Howard C. Warren (New York; Macmillan Co., 1899) .

^Maurice Roche-Agussol, Tarde e_t .1 ! economie psycholo- qique (Paris; M„ Riviere, 1926), p. 21,

^Charles H. Cooley, Social Orqanization (New York- Scribner's Sons, 1909).

4 Franklin H. Giddmgs, "Introduction" of Tarde ' s Laws of Imitation, pp. ii.i-vii; also Franklin H. Giddings, Principles of Sociology (New York.- Macmillan Co... 1913) .

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sociologists in the various journals; e.g., the Social Laws

was reviewed first by Albion W.'Small in the American Journal

1 . 2 °f. Sociology and then by Lester F. Ward m Science.

In 1906, M. M. Davis, Jr. wrote his doctoral disser­

tation at Columbia University with the title Gabriel Tarde;

An Essay _in Sociological Theory, and three years later he

would incorporate most of the work in another volume, 3 Psychological Interpretations of Society.

Thus, Tarde was acknowledged as a central figure in

sociology. His work 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 wrought out a social psychology but for the

initial stimulus . . . yielded by his incomparable Lois d'

A Imitation . . . ." said E. A. Ross.

^Albion W. Small, "Review of G. Tarde's Social Laws," American Journal of Sociology. IV (1898-99), 395-400. 9 Lester F. Ward, "Review of Social Laws," Science, XT (1900), 260-63.

^Michael M. Davis, Jr., Gabriel Tarde;- An Essay in Sociological Theory, A Ph.D. dissertation (New York; Colum­ bia University, 1906); Michael M. Davis, Jr., Psychological Interpretations of Society (New York; Longmans, Green, & Co., 1909). A Ross, loc. cit.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Though strongly questioning and opposing some of

Tarde1s fundamental assumptions, Durkheim recognized, in

an article that he wrote in 1915, that Tarde has an impor­

tant place in sociology; that if he fought Comtean sociology,

he nevertheless meant to do, and did indeed carry out a

sociologist's work,^

Gabriel Tarde- "A Sociologist Ahead _of _hi_s Time

In tracing Tarde1s impact on sociology we find that

it continued 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 with 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 Tarde’s psychological

" , si Tarde combattit la sociologie comtiste, il entendait cependant faire, et il fit, en effet, oeuvre de sociologue, ," Emile Durkheim, "La Sociologie,” La Science Frangaise (Vol. I: Pans- Mmistere de 1 ’lnstruc- tion publique et des Beaux-Arts, 1915), p. 46, 2 s The book of Charles Blondel, I nt rcduc t ion _a _la psychologie collective (Paris'. A, Collin, 1928), appears to be among the last to discuss Tarde1s theories,

^Hughes, _op, c .i t. , p. 558.

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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, sociology went through the dual phase of its consoli­

dation into a scientific discipline, and "institutionaliza­

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 character 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 Terry N, Clark, "Gabriel Tarde," International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York: Macmillan Free Press, 1963),XV( p. 509,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. concerned to communicate with their colleagues m the other

schools of the country than with those overseas. Though

"nationalization" marks more strongly American sociology,

it was observable in Europe also, where 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 sciences/

At the Conference organized by the Societe de Sociolo­

gie de Paris at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes soc.iales de

Paris, in December, 1903, Tarde took the position that the

preliminary 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 specialization 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 Sciences), a series of reports and discussions at the Conference of the Societe de Sociologie de Paris, in December, 1903, Revue Internationale de Sociologie, XII (1904), p, 83,

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„ „ „ Mr. Durkheim 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 ,

What 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 actually 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 1 autre posterieure a la convergence, Pour la pre­ miere, le progres consiste a tendre vers 1 :unification; et pour la seconde le progres consiste dans une differentia­ tion toujours croissante. ," Gabriel Tarde, "La sociolo­ gie et les sciences sociales," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, XII (1904) , 85.

2 Ibid,

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life phenomena.'*'

. „ . It is to this relation that sociology must attach itself in the same way as astronomy attaches itself to the relation of two attracting and attracted masses; in it we must find the hey to the social mystery, the for­ mula for a few simple laws, universally, which can be disentangled in the midst of the apparent chaos of human 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 Durkheim those who

sided with 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 systematically .in each one of

them, they set out to collect data, apart from any theoret­

ical considerations, save the assumptions implicit in the

Durkheimian definition of social reality.

^Tarde, The Laws of Imitation, Chapter 1, pass 1m „

2 Tarde, Soci al Laws , p. 39,

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Should we consider this development of sociology as

the evidence that Tarde's conception of sociology was non-

scientific? As it has been pointed out at times, Durkheim

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 historian wrote then, they both

"seek and find some original fact or facts which may be termed

the ultimate social phenomenon."^ However, Durkheim stayed

longer on the stage, and as a Professor at the Sorbonne, he

exercised greater influence on colleagues and students, who

4 eventually 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 Tarde-Durkheim 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 University Press, 1909) , p. 13 3, 3 J . T . Merz, A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century, Vol. IV (4 vols; New York: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1904-12), p. 567. 4 Paul Fauconnet, "The Durkheim School in France," Sociological Review, XIX (1927) , 15-20.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. progress that sociology has achieved, there are those who

point to the "enormous waste" that a kind of obsession with

the accumulating of facts has produced, or to the "trivial­

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 buried and forgotten. The

baiden of demonstrating their contemporary relevance rests

upon our analysis of his work.

"*"E g., Allan Mazur, "The Littlest Science," The Amer­ ican Sociologist, III, No. 3 (August, 1968), 195.

2 * " ... pour formuler des lois il n'est pas necessaire que les sciences soient definitivement formees. ... Il doit y avoir une idee directrice en recherche. ... ," Tarde, "La Sociologie et les Sciences sociales," p. 86.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER IV

THE FIELD OF PUBLIC OPINION: A MULTI­

DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE

'Vox Populi may be Vox Dei, but very little attention shows that there has never been agreement as to what Vox means or as to what Populus means,1 Coined many years ago by Henri Maine (as quoted by A.. Laurence Lowell) that epigram wittily suggests the confusion still beclouding the concept of pub­ lic opinion .... The claim that public opinion supports one side has considerable potency, and the question of 'who' constitutes the public represents, therefore, more than a scholastic exercise in con­ cept clarification. Not surprisingly, political theorists, statesmen, and assorted pundits have dis­ 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 characteris­

tic phases in the development of the concept of public

opinion. Beginning with an overview of the field of

^Lee Benson, "An Approach to the Scientific Study of Past Public Opinion," Public Opinion Quarterly, XXX (1967), 522.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. public opinion study from a multi-disciplinary perspective,

we gradually narrow our observations to concentrate on the

sociological approach.

The Pre-history of the Public Opinion Concept

In tracing the course of public opinion conceptualiza­

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 con­

cept of public opinion and that American 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 history of

1 ______

^Paul A, Palmer, "The Concept of Public Opinion in Political Theory," in Essays in History and Political Theory in Honor of Charles Howard Mcllwain (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936), p, 230.

2 Hans Speier, "Historical Development of Public Opinion," American Journal of Sociology, LV (1950), 3^7.

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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.

Although the term public opinion was not used in

antiquity, reference was made to the judgment of the major­

ity, of the many ("hoi polloi"). 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 government decisions, were clearly identified

by the Greek historian Thucydides in his classic History of

^E . g , Clyde L. King, "Public Opinion as Viewed by Eminent Political Theorists," in University of Pennsylvania Fb®? Public Lectures (Philadelphia, 1916).

^William 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 with zealous attempts to find a meaningful and acceptable definition, and illustrates his point by presenting ten different defini­ tions: Public Opinion: Nature, Formation, and Role (Prince­ ton. New Jersey; D. Van Nostrand Co., 1965), pp. 14-15.

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the Peloponnesian War. 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 Republic,

implies: Indeed, Plato thought of the common man as sitting

in his cave, with his back 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

opinion only.i 3 \ 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 Republic, 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, Politics, 2 vols. trans. into English with an introduction and analyses by B. Jowett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1885), Book III, Chapter 11.

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hardly 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 them 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 view 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 Dei" considered to be of

medieval origin, was first formally used in the letters of

Ibid., 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 pre­ cisely the contrary; and though they exaggerate the vices of the crowd, they might find better support than Aristotle in the behavior 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.

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the monk and teacher Alcuin to Charlemagne.'*' It was there­

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 pre­ vails for some time, and this rule is gentle and voluntary: that based on force prevails forever., Thus, opinion is like the gueen of the world while force is its tyrant. . , .

~*~Ibid. , "Concepts of Public Opinion,” American Politi­ cal Science Review, XXVII (1933), p. 380.

2 Palmer, op, cit. , p. 231 3 Cited by Speier, op. pit., p. 377.

4 "L1empire 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 tyran," Blaise Pascal, Pensees de Pascal. Notes de Charles Louanier (Paris: Bibliotheque Charpentier, 1854), p. 174.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Pascal's concern with public opinion was in connection with

his broader preoccupation with the art of persuasion,,'*’

Emergence of the Public Opinion Concept

The term "public opinion" is, as a rule, traced to

Rousseau (1712-78) and Necker (1732-1804). Rousseau’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 by 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 Pascal’s theory of persuasion see P. Topiiss, "Pascal's Theory of Persuasion and Ancient Rhetoric," L ’Esprit Createur, II (1962), 79-83. 2 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Le Contrat Social (Paris: Librairie de la Bibliotheque Nationale, 1878), Book II, Chap. 22..

^Speier, op. cit., p. 378.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. administration, meant by public opinion the opinion of the

bourgeoisie, that is of the dissatisfied, the systematic

thinkers, and the innovators, of those who can affect the

stability 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 considered it in connection with the private, not

the public or government, sphere. The law of opinion is the

"consent of private men who have not authority enough to 3 make a law."

in Sir William Temple's Essay Upon the Original and 4 Nature of Government (1672), also considered one of the

early discussions of public opinion, it is political author­

ity that is traced to the prevailing opinion as to the wisdom,

1Jean-Louis Soulavie, Memoires historiques et politiques du regne de Louis XVI, Vol. IV (6 vols„, Paris, 1801), cited by Palmer, "The Concept of Public Opinion in Political Theory," p, 237,

2 John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), ed, by A. C. Fraser (Oxford, 1894). 3 Ibid., Book II, Chap. xxviii, sec, 12, cited by Speier, loc . cit„

4 William Temple. The Works of Slr William Temple, A New Edition (London, 1814)„

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goodness, and valor inhering in the rulers.'*' Opinion, in

this case, is viewed as the true basis of government*

The development of an increasingly articulated concept

of public opinion seems to have occurred primarily 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 bourgeoisie together with

an increased secularization of life. Thus, there was gradu­

ally made a clearer distinction and formulation of the public

sphere.

Whereas the Greeks clearly distinguished between 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 Court.^ It is only as this order

"'’Wilhelm Bauer, "Public Opinion," Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 1934, XII, 669.

2 •• Jurgen Habermas, Strukturwandel der Offentlichkeit : Untersuchungen zu einer Katefone der buergerlichen Gesellschaft (Berlin: Luchterhand, 1962); Synoptic trans­ lation by Gillian 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..

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 participation 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 partici­

pate in the government and how; what are the social pre­

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 Opinion 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 Opinion, p, 50,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. integral part of his democratic theory of the stated One

of the earliest theorists to deal systematically with public

opinion, Bentham viewed it as an instrument of social criti­

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 polit­

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 con­

servative doctrines.^

^Palmer, pp. cit . , p. 245. 2 Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, in The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Vol. I, ed. by John Browning (Edinburgh, 1838-43). 3 "... Bentham 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 opinion,' though he preferred to use ’popular sanction' Wilson, A Theory of Public Opinion, p. 248. 4 Friedrich Ancillon, Vermittlung der Extreme in den Meinungen (Berlin, 1828).

^Palmer, op. cit., p. 248.

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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 majority rule upon the struc­

ture and the dynamics of American society. His observations,

made with an eye on the socio-cultural dimensions, have not

yet been fully explored. He is known, of course, for having

pointed 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 citi­

zens become more equal and more alike, they are less inclined

to be guided by and to follow blindly 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 con­ 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 Amerique, Paris, 1835. New York: New American Library, 1956), pp. 112 ff.

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democratic state. His work, The American Commonwealth (1888),

represents an attempt to analyze government by public opinion.

Unlike de Tocqueville, he did not distrust the sovereignty of

public opinion. Yet, he discerneid and pointed out some of

the differences 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 discover­ ing and hastening to obey it. . „ .

In the same vein, he made a distinction between opinion and

"real" opinion, and between opinion that is mere sentiment

2 and opinion that is thought.

German 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 Hegel’s generaliza-

13,0 ns.3

''‘Ja m e s Bryce, The American Commonwea 1 th, 1899, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan Co., 1899), II, 254. 2 Wilson, A Theory of Public Opinion, p. 212,

^ Ibid. , p . Ill.

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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 know how to despise public opinion in some of its manifestations will never bring anything great into being.^

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 Bonaparte, he

^G. W. F. Hegel, Grundlimen der Philosophie des Rechts, Vol. Ill of Werke (Berlin, 1833), sec. 318,

2 This work was published first in 1852 in the first number of Die Revolution, a monthly published in New York by Joseph Wedemeyer; Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, trans, by Daniel De Leon (New York: Inter­ national Publishing Co., 1898).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. expressed the view 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 pre­

dominantly the opinion of the large middle class, an expres­

sion of the Zeitg eist.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 pub­

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 Opinion, p. 229. 2 J. K. Bluntschli, in his article on public opinion in his Staatsworterbuch (1862), VII, cited by Speier, op. cit., p , 386. 3 Franz von Holtzendorff, Wesen und Wert der Offentlichen Meinung (Jena, 1846). 4 Wilson, A Theory of Public Opinion, p. 77.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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

classes,^

Thus, it is political theorists of the nineteenth and

early twentieth century that began to give the concept its

2 modern formulation. They were concerned primarily with the

relationship of public opinion to the procedures of demo­

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 dis­

cussion of the public opinion phenomena in the framework of

the political life in England. Though the British Constitu­

tional theory and practice accounts for much of the modern

^Holtzendorff, op. cit., pp. 58 ff.

2 Bernard Berelson and Morris Janowitz (eds.), "Theory of Public Opinion," Reader in Public Opinion and Communica­ tion (New York: The Free Press, 1966), p. 6 .

^A. V. Dicey, The Relations Between Law and Public Opinion in England During the Nineteenth Century (London: Macmillan Co., 1914).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 government and the government to say "no" to the com­

mon judgment of the citizens.^

Dicey was concerned with tracing the effect of domi­

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 Univer­

sity, wrote what is considered the "first major American

book" on the topic of public opinion,^ Public Opinion and

4 Popular Government, In it he tried to clarify the question

of what "true" opinion is, and what accounts for the dis­

tinctions between private issues and public issues under

various circumstances.

^Wilson, A Theory of Publie Opinion, pp, 60-61. 2 Paul F. Lazarsfeld, "Public Opinion and the Classi­ cal Tradition," Public Opinion Quarterly , XXI (19t/), 46-47.

^Ibid., 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 5-1880,^ can also be considered an interest­

ing contribution, on account of both the purpose and the

approach of the study. Through the detailed study of par­

ticular events, e.g., the rumors of atrocities in the

Turkish War, he tried to analyze the relationship of opinion

to government policy and to trace changes of public opinion.

Wilhelm 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 half of democratic consolidation, has robbed the term of much of its initial incisiveness. Invoked with little discrimination by the astute politician 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 directrices, 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.

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self-contained theories developed in other disciplines and

primarily to the work of the prominent journalist and writer

with whose name the term public opinion is very closely

linked in modern times. Walter Lippmann's work. Public

Opinion, 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 been at the expense of an­

other comprehensive and thorough treatise on public opinion

by the German sociologist, Ferdinand Tonnies,^ which was

published in the same year as Lippmann's work, but has not been

translated in English,

Moreover, the works of Lippmann, and W, Bauer,^ illus­

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

characterized H. D, Lasswells Propaganda Technique in the

WorId War (1927) and A. Laurence Lowell's Pub lie Opinion m

Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New York: Macmillan Co., 1922). 2 Ferdinand Tonnies, Kritik der Offentlichen Meinung (Berlin: J. Springer, 1922), 3 Wilhelm Bauer, Die o f fentliche Meinung und lhre geschichtlichen Grundlagen (Tubingen, 1914); Die o f fentliche Meinung in der Weltgeschichte (Potsdam: Athenaion, 1930)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 74 . V-20

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 citi­

zen.. 1,1 More recently, the view was expressed that what

Lippmann did was „ . to brilliantly dissect the theoreti­

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 been 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 Dewey•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 move­

ment away from the principle of territorial organization

Palmer, op, cit. , p., 25 2,

^Bernard C. Cohen, “The Press, the Public, and Foreign Policy," Reader in Public Opinion and Communication, e d . by Bernard Berelson and Morris Janowitz (second edition; New York: The Free Press, 1966), p, 134.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 organiza­

tion control opinion,.

Technological, economic, social, and political develop­

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 con­

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 quanti­

fication ,

Toward a Science of Public Opinion

In 1937 the Public Opinion Quarterly was founded to

serve public opinion research. In 1947 it bedame the organ

"'"John Dewey, The Public and its Problems (New York: H. Holt & Co,, 1927), ppt 215-16,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 "collage," 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 func­ 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 become technical and quanti­ tative, atheoretical, segmentalized, and particu­ larized, specialized and institutionalized. 1 modernized: 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 Quarterly, XX (1956), 493-94.

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission 77 J^23

subjects and report findings. Twenty 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 believe 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 Quarterly, 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 Quar-

terly. Floyd Allport, after having surveyed what he called

"futile character1 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 Opinion," The State of the Social Sciences, ed . by Leonard D. White (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1955), p 304.

2 Harwood Childs, in trying to discover trends m pub­ lic opinion study and research did a content classification of studies from the Pub lie Opinion Quarterly. from its incep­ tion in 1937 to 1965, op., pit.... Chap,, III, "Public Opinion Study and Research," pp. 49-50.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. :v-24 78

determining the phenomena 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 his­

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 believe 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 operationalism." The

^Floyd Allport, "Towards A Science of Public Opinion," Public Opinion Quarterly, I (1937), 13

^Benson, pp. c1 1 , p . 558.

"^Herbert Blumer, "Public Opinion and Public Opinion Polling," Public Opinion and Propaganda, ed. by Daniel Katz et al, (New York: Dryden Press, 1954), p. 595.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. successful application of the method of sample survey and its

respective techniques of interviewing, questionnaire con­

struction, scaling, and survey analysis, accounts for the

priority that was given to the concern with the quantitative

measurement of opinion distribution, which gave the field

"the characteristic flavor" it now has.^ Polling became the

typical preoccupation 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 frightening--extent, 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

opinion polling actually deals with public opinion. He

aimed primarily at the tendency in polling to regard the

findings resulting from an operation, or use of an instru­

ment, as constituting the object of study instead of being

some contributory addition to knowledge of the object of

study.^

^Berelson, "The Study of Public Opinion," p. 309

2 Ibid, 3 Blumer, "Public Opinion and Public Opinion Polling," p. 595,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. :V -2 6 80

Polling, however, is here to stay, despite Blumer:s

"jeremiads."^ Moreover, as Lee Benson pointed out: "Poll­

sters have become so ubiquitous, man-on-the-street interviews

so common place that the concept of 'public opinion' has lost

its original■ • meaning. , . "„2

Still, all hope is not lost. Berelson sees m criti­

cism the sign of growth Moreover, every science goes

through successive phases; he distinguishes seven--they are:

(1 ) the identifying of problems. (2 ) the development cf

broad theoretical speculations, (3) the intensified collec­

tion of empirical data, (4) the development of adequate

methods and techniques for measurement and quantification.

(5) the institutional recognition of the field, (6 ) the com­

munication 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, how­ ever, made the following remark in the direction of the pollsters: "I do not know whether our membership Committee [of the American 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 him from our Associa­ tion, few of us will deny that there is something to what he says." Op., cit. , p, 497, 2 Benson, op. c i t p.- 523, 3 Berelson, "The Study of Public Opinion," pp 305-15

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 defi­

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 material 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 particularly m the first

number cf the twenty-first volume (195 7) of the Pub11 c

Opinion Quarterly, 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, William Albig, m his article "Two Decades cf

Opinion Study: 1936-1956" observed that "the capacity for

insightful generalization has atrophied,” that there are

^Ibid,, p . 315.

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 democracy."^

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 dis­

couraged by them:

Instead of being irritated by the problem of fitting everything into a master-scheme, 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 range1 .. ..

Accordingly, he indicated the areas such as structural,

group membership, and reference group determinants of

opinion, in which the empirically collected data lent them­

selves readily to theoretical treatment, and these such as

index construction "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 Quarterly, XXI (1957), 14-15

^Herbert Hyman, "Toward a Theory cf Public Opinion," Public Opinion Quarterly, XXI (1957), 55.

^Ibid , , p 5 9.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Paul F.. Lazarsfeld's article is an even more concrete

proposition on how public opinion research could achieve its

"seventh phase," that is, through a direct confrontation

with the classics The clash between 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 dis­

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 by bending Berelson s phases

"into a loop to see how they mesh with the later ones "

A modern work on public opinion that shows concern

with conceptualization is Jurgen Habermas book,

2 Strukturwandel der Offentlichkeit (1962)

He sees the solution of the problem of conceptual

ambiguity in defining and delineating the respective concepts

Lazarsfeld, "Public Opinion and the Classical Tradi­ 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 text,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 difficulty 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

Habermas’ work.^ Freund finds that the merit of this work

is in Habermas’ 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 with particular social structures such as the

family, clubs, business, and the conceptions philosophers

. . puisqu'il faut des concepts qui, comme tels, sont anhistoriques, 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 bien de degrader les concepts en les relativisant a leur tour. ... ," Julien Freund, "Le Concept de Public et 1'Opinion," Archives Europeennes de Sociologie, V (1964), 271.

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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 cate­

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 transforma­ tions de la notion du public dans differents pays, eri particulier 1'Angleterre, la France, et 1 Allemagne. tantot ses rapports avec les structures sociales particulieres ccmme la famille, les clubs, les entrepnses, 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 Strukturwande1 der Oeffentlichkeit." American Sociological Review, XXIX (1963). 128 .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 bodies of data to develop

a powerful general theory of public opinion, heavy, although

certainly not exclusive, reliance will have to be placed

upon historical studies , . .

Toward an Inter-disciplinary Approach

The difficulties encountered m trying to survey the

field cf public 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 scien­

tific disciplines which have contributed a great deal to Cur

^Benson, op, cit,, p. 5J2

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knowledge about it. In this latter sense, it is a multi­

disciplinary 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 pros­

pect that can be achieved when the scientific study of

public opinion is transformed from a multi-disciplinary to

an inter-disciplmary field to which sociology would provide

broad theoretical orientations and conceptual frameworks

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER V

SOCIOLOGY AND THE STUDY OF PUBLIC OPINION

As Bernard Berelson noted there has been 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

French 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 with 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

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. From "Crowd Psychology" to "Collective Behavior"

"I cannot , grant to a vigorous writer. Dr. Le Bon.

that our time is the era of the crowds.' It is the era of

the public or of the publics, something that is quite differ­

ent" wrote Tarde m the very first pages of his book, L 1 Opin­

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 mind, a social consciousness. a we

existing outside and above the individual minds. Social

psychology, he pointed out, should be the study of the rela­

tionships of minds, of the unilateral and the reciprocal

influence of one mind on another ^ Tarde'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 ecnvain, Le Dr. Le Bon, que notre age soit, -1 ere des foules.' II est here du public ou des publics, ce qui est bien differ­ ent ... , " Tarde, L Opinion et _la Foule (Pans: F . Alcan, 1901), p, 11.

2 Tarde, "Avant Propos," L 'Opinion et la Foule, p p , v-vi.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Viewed in retrospect, they both had an enduring effect on

the development of sociology,

Tarde1s retort to Le Bon did not reflect the sociologi­

cal thinking of the time, in which there was no great concern

with the distinction between the public and the crowd. Actu­

ally, Tarde's book 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 classi­

fied within this category. That Tarde himself had not

altogether escaped the influence of the vogue of "crowd

psychology" is betrayed by the choice of the title that he

made, that is. Opinion and the Crowd. 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 Opinion.

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 Crowd":

E.g., m L 'Annee Sociologigue. ed , by 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 Morbosa (1901) by P. Rossi, L 1Annee Sociologigue, XI (1901), pp 160-61 2 C f , supra , p • 14•

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 91

Not only is the crowd attractive and fascinating to the observer, but its very name exerts an extraor­ dinary effect on the modern reader, and so many authors are much too inclined to designate by this ambiguous term all kinds of human 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 pathological effects; because

of it, they have continually attracted the attention of the

students of social phenomena 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 appear­ 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 have come from Tame. . ,

^Tarde, Li Opinion et la Foule, p , 1

^Leon Bramson, The Political Context of Sociology (New Jersey; Princeton University Press, 1961). p 513

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On the other hand, Graham 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 neces­ 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 both 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 borrowed 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 been guided by

, 2 him.

Among the contemporaries who reviewed or discussed

Tarde'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 Tame.

^Graham Wallas, The Great Society (New York: Macmillan Co., 1914), p. 137,

2 C f , supra, p. 42,

^Espinas, "Notice sur la vie ..." pp. 309-422, passim; Mazel, "A Propos de M. Gabriel Tarde," pp. 89-102, passim..

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. -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 psycholo­ gists such as Le Bon attempted, Tarde reserved for the public a higher place in the temple of rationality than was reserved for the crowd,

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

opinion 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 con­

cern m sociology, and the merit of Tarde s work is to have

‘'’Wilson, A Theory cf Public Opinion, 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,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. r-7 94

been "prophetic" rather than "pioneering"v

It is easy to recognize in Tarde the prophet of the present-day study of public opinion; for in social study today, as in Tarde'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 by 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 behavior is used to label this area of social interest , „ , . ^

In both the Encyclopedia o_f _the Social Sciences (19 34;

and the Inter national Encyclopedia of _the Social .Sciences

(1968) collective behavior and public opinion are treated ir.

separatearticles; but, while the articles on "Collective

"'"Wilson, A Theory of Public Opinion, p 131,

2 Herbert Blamer, "The Field of Collective Behavior." in Principles of Sociology, e d , by A, M, Lee (second edition, revised; New York; Barnes and Noble, Inc,, 1962), p, 16 7,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 95 Behavior" were written 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 work by

historian Wilhelm Bauer and in the recent publication by

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 soci­

ology, a diffusion that was considerably facilitated by

the institutionalization of sociology in the United States,

and by the fact that among the academic teachers of soci­

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 behavior by 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 Sciences, 1930, III, 631-33 ; Kurt Lang and Gladys Engel Lang, "Collective Behavior," International Ency- ci_opedia of the Social Sciences, 1968, II, 556-65;- W. Bauer, "Public Opinion." Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences , 1934, XII. 669-74; Phillips Davison, "Public Opinion," International Bncyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 1968, XIII, 188-203.

^Bxamson, op., cit. . p. 8 6 .

^ I bp d. , p , 5 7.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. American 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

pressure to legitimize their discipline in academic circles

defined its subject matter in terms of the trivial and

neglected 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 phenomena that did not fit readily into the frames

of reference 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 circumstances, sociologists tended to 2 become 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," Ameri- can Journal of Sociology, Index to volumes I-LII (1895-1947), 276-77 „

2 Bramson, op_„ cit, , p. 90.,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. -10 97

undergone steady change as the understanding of normal social

processes has progressed, and each such change has required

a re-assessment of the boundaries of collective behavior,"^

Thus, as sociological research increasingly confirmed

the complexity of normal social structures and social

processes, there was less inclination to distinguish the

phenomena 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

degree 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 pro­

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 having 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 William James, he went to Berlin in 1899,.

"'‘Ralph H. Turner, "Collective Behavior," in Handbook of Modern Sociology, ed. by Robert E. L. Faris (Chicago: Rand McNally Co., 1964), p. 382,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. '-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 him there, and m

the next year he presented his doctoral dissertation, Masse

und Publikum ("The Crowd and the Public").

It was reviewed in the same year in L 1Annee Soci-

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 pub­

lic. The works of Scipio Sighele, J. Mark Baldwin, and

2 G. Le Bon are among the most frequently cited. Park dis­

cussed in particular what distinguishes the public from the

crowd, in some respects agreeing with 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 Economique," American Journal of Sociology (1961), LXVI, 553,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 99 7-12

individual opinions are distinct even when they fuse to give

rise to public opinion. Finally, he indicated that in the

public, a practical 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 public 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 MacGill Hughes,"- in his

young years, Park had planned with Franklin 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 measur­

able phenomenon.

In 1921, in the Introduction to the Science of Soci­

ology that he prepared with E. W. Burgess, he attempted the

first definition 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 MacGill Hughes, "Robert E. Park, " International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (1968), XI, 417.

2 Park and Burgess, op. pit., p. 865.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. contributed the article "Collective Behavior" to the Ency­

clopedia of the Social Sciences (1930).

A long time had elapsed between the writing of the

doctoral dissertation under the direct influence of European

sociology and that of the article in the Encyclopedia, when

Park was already a major figure at the Department of Soci­

ology of the University of Chicago, then the center of

sociological activity in the United States. Though Masse

und Publikum did not become widely known, Park's interest in

the crowd phenomena and those of social contagion had not

become displaced by 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 diffusion of the concept in the

training of sociologists who were his colleagues and stu­

dents at the University of Chicago. On the other, he inte­

grated, and to some extent consolidated into a field of

study, concerns and conceptions about these phenomena that

until then had been 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 conception to one that viewed these phenomena

as having a constructive potential for social change, and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. collective behavior came to be viewed as the seedbed, the

breeding-ground of new institutions.^"

Thus, Park's work in this respect may be seen as

having contributed the most to the transplanting of the

earlier "crowd psychology" from the old world and to the

creation of a field with a broader scope and a closer

2 affiliation with sociology.

The direction that Park gave to the study of col­

lective behavior 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 phase marked by the proliferation of the publics, a more

intellectualized type of grouping. In his article, "Collec­

tive Behavior," however, Park pointed out the difficulties

in the study of this kind of grouping; he said,

. . . most amorphous is that form of collective behavior which manifests itself through the expres­ sions of 'public opinion.' ihe public is an entity which has never been clearly defined ....

Bramson, pp. cit., p. 62. 2 This affiliation is now clearly accepted: "Collec­ tive behavior, although strictly sociological in its approach, supplies a link to the interests of political scientists and historians who have long been concerned with revolutions and mass movements . . . ," M. Janowitz, "Introduction to Collec­ tive Behavior and Conflict: Converging Theoretical Perspec­ tives," a Symposium, The Sociological Quarterly, V (1964), 114. 3 Park, "Collective Behavior," p. 632.

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 0 2 '-15

As sociology moved toward empirical research and

increasing specialization and differentiation, its scope

contracted since not all the social phenomena could be sub­

jected to the research and verification methods and tech­

niques initially developed. Park's impetus to the study of

collective behavior phenomena was gradually exhausted as

his "natural history" approach to the study of social

processes came to be considered insufficient, and as the

empirically more adequate structural analysis approaches

gained ground."*"

Indeed, as sociologists engaged in research they

became increasingly aware of the difficulty inherent in

"observing and recording complex aspects of social reality,

which envelop the observer and resist simplified coding and 2 data-reduction techniques. ..." So, the field of collec­

tive behavior lost some of its earlier dynamism. As Herbert

Blumer said, although much has been added to our knowledge

of separate topics within the last two decades, no signifi­

cant contribution has been 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 behavior in specific insti­ 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.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7-16 103

behavior. But M. Janowitz is even more specific:

The theoretical relevance of the collective behavior framework has been problematic 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 theo­ retical disputations about the nature of collective behavior appeared to divert creative energies. As a specialized orientation, collective behavior became 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 col­

lective behavior phenomena or not. Apparently, the settling

of such a question depended on thlT criteria 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 problem," that

is the problem of deciding whether the events subsumed under

collective behavior constitute a generically different type

of social behavior, and of determining what is the opposite 3 or the absence of collective behavior. The sociologists,

Herbert Blumer, "Collective Behavior," in Review of Sociology, ed. by J. P. Gittler (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1957), p. 127.

2 Janowitz, "Introduction to Collective Behavior and Conflict," p. 113.

^Ibid. , pp. 115-16., ^

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H. Blumer, Neil Smelser, and Ralph H. Turner, addressed them­

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 observa­

tions we distinguish one made recently by Harwood Childs:

In fact, since the latter part of the nineteenth century the study of public opinion has been 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 Quarterly, V (1964), pp. 117-132. 2 Childs, ojo. cit. , p. 31.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 105 r-18

theory of public 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 public opinion will

become indispensable and it will compensate for the deficien­

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 connec­

tion with his "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

thinking is freed from superstition and convention as well

as from subjective influence. Opinions based 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 positive, ou traite de Sociologie instituant la religion de 1 1humanite (4 volumes, fourth edition; Paris: 1912),'I, 139-150. 2 Lester F. Ward, Dynamic Sociology (2 volumes, second edition, 1897; New York: D. Appleton, 1883), Vol, II, Chap. XII,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. It is, however, in the writings of the sociologists

who constituted 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 Tarde: 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 primitive nucleus out of

which the various agencies of social control have developed."

This is so because "common opinion--class, group, or public

opinion— is usually the resultant of many individual contri­

butions, the residue left after the offerings of each have

3 been winnowed in the minds of the rest."

The conception of public opinion as an agency of

social control has induced sociologists to search for its

implications and eventually to study the phenomena of

propaganda.

In the same year that Shepard was discussing Ross;

views on public opinion, R. Maunier was reviewing, in the

1Walter J. Shepard, "Public Opinion," American Journal of Sociology, XV (1909), 32-60. 2 E. A. Ross, Principles of Sociology (New York: The Century Co., 1920), p. 429.,

^Ibid., p . 283.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. \j-2Q 107

Revue Internationale de Sociologie.C. H. Cooley's Social

Organization (1909), and was giving special emphasis on the

author's conception of public opinion,"'' According to Cooley,

public opinion is a manifestation of collective conscious­

ness that emerges out of the converging action of the exter­

nal means of mental communication. Complex and concrete, it

is not just the sum of individual judgments.. Indeed, Cooley

gave public opinion a social dimension:

„ . . We may view 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 public consciousness, or to use a more familiar term, public opinion, in the broad sense of a group state of mind which is more or less dis­ tinctly aware of itself . . „ The more intimate the communication of a group the more complete, the more thoroughly knit together into^a living whole is its public consciousness, , - .

The group may be the family, a local group, or a

class. Actually, institutions are simply a more'established

phase of the process of public opinion,,

Cooley's broad conception of public opinion is very

much in the same line with that of Ross and opposed tc that

"'"R. Maunier, Review of Social Organization, Revue Internationale de Sociologie, XVI (1909), 544-46, 2 Charles H. Cooley, Social Organization (New York: Schocken Books, 1962; first published by Scribner's Sons in 1909), p. 10,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 108 '-2 1

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 psychological

approach„

Ferdinand Tonnies, the well-known German sociologist,

was very much part of the international circle of sociolo­

gists who, coming from many countries in Europe and from the

United States, gathered at the annual congresses of the

Institut International de Sociologie„^ At the first congress

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 partly the instrument of the society and partly the instrument of the state, A press governed by a body of scientists, as

The proceedings of these annual congresses were pub­ lished by the Institut and constituted the volumes of the Annales edited by Rene Worms; the Revue Internationale de Sociologie was the journal of the Institut.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 him to write a German book on public

"La science c'est la Republique des savants en tant qu’elle est mdependante 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 une•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 mdependante qu'une cour supreme— voila la presse scientifique dont ll n :y a que peu de prodromes encore , .. ," Ferdinand Tonnies. "Considerations sur l'histoire moderne," Annales de 1'Institut International de Sociologie, 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 , passim,.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. -2 3 1 1 0

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 begin 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 con­

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 knew that our scientific assumptions, par­ ticularly the sociological ones, are rather different: Herr Haering himself expressed the view that a German bock on public opinion would have to be structured differently." ibid., p. v (passage translated by Dr, Gillian L. Gollin); also cited by Paul A. Palmer m "Ferdinand Tonnies Theory of Public Opinion," Pub11 c Opinion Quarterly. II (1938), p. 584,

2 • . Tonnies, Kritik der Offentlichen Meinunq, p 6 , quoted by Gillian L. Gollm and Albert E, Gollm, "Tonnies on Public Opinion," draft chapter for a forthcoming book 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.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. matter. Thus, public opinion may be solid, fluid, or ephem­

eral, depending on the degree of its unanimity.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 propositions to

test in empirical research,1 To understand Simmel's views

on public opinion one must take into account his differentia

tion between forms of the intrinsic and extrinsic relations

of the individual to his 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. Custom 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 control­

ling mechanism that a particular group applies; it is then

1Tonnies, Kritik der Offentlichen Meinung, pp 13 7, 246-49, 258-63, cited by Gollin and Gollm, p p , cit, , pp. 19-21. 2 Albert J, Reiss, Jr.., "Review of The Sociology of Georg Simmel (translated and edited by Kurt H- Wolff)," Public Opinion Quarterly, XIV (1950-51), 789, 3 The Sociology of Georg Simmel, trans, and ed, by Kurt H. Wolff (Glencoe: Free Press, 1950), p. 101

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission more typical of small groups rather than of larger collec­

tivities ,

The Emergence of _a Methodological Orientation

The next generation of sociologists to deal with pub­

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 parochialism 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 socio­

logical journals and the subjects treated at the sessions of

the annual meetings of the sociological associations. 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 dis­

ciplines like psychology or economics, and the antireduc­

tionist premise came to be generally taken for granted.'*' The

^Catton, Jr,, "The Development of Sociological Thought," p, 922,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 sum­

marizing the crude data thus gathered,^

This fragmentation of sociological study, with its

concomitant antireductionism, was not conducive to the stimu­

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 been 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

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 114 -27

concepts and propositions. Sociologists have pro­ 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 practi­ 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 been 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 orga­

nized narrowly within a separate distinctive field of public

opinion research, but should be broadly 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 bibliography than in the 1930

3 one.

Bernard Berelson, "Democratic Theory and Public Opinion," in Reader in Public Opinion and Communication, ed. by Berelson and Janowitz (New York: The Free Press, 1966), p. 489.

2 Harry Alpert, "Public Opinion Research as Science,” Public Opinion Quarterly, XX (1956), 498. 3 Berelson, "The Study of Public Opinion," p. 303.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Herbert Blumer1s quest for the functional analysis of

public opinion was a quest for the sociological study of pub­

lic opinion, the absence of which he very strongly deplored:

Admittedly, we do not know a great deal about public 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 painfully clear that the students of current public opinion polling ignore them, either wittingly or unwittingly, in their whole research procedure ....

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 Denver), the Office

of Public Opinion Research (Hadley Cantril, Princeton Uni- 2 versity) , and others in this country and abroad. However,

this phase of sociology was not as entirely marked by indif­

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 Review, XII (1947), 314.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and ephemeral basis, there were some positive contributions,

more particularly in the development 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

phenomena under this term as instances of behaviors of human

individuals.^

The social psychological approach to the study of

public opinion in this period followed two main directions

Depending on whether public opinion was primarily seen as

social control or as a manifestation of attitudes, the study

centered on the theme of propaganda or social change

The consideration of attitudes as an important vari­

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. 3 0 7 , 2 Alfred McClung Lee, op_. cit. , p. 312. 3 Floyd H. Allport, "Toward a Science of Public Opinion p . 12 .

^Gordon W. Allport, "Attitudes," Handbook of Social Psychology, ed. by C. M. Murchison (Worcester, Massachusetts: Clark University Press, 1935), pp. 798-844.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission himself later, the concept of attitude became the most dis­

tinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary American

social psychology; psychologists and sociologists could find

in it a meeting-point for discussion 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 organi­

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

manipulation of public opinion, account for an increased

sociological interest in propaganda. In the propaganda

studies one can detect the lingering of the earlier concep­

tions of public opinion as a phase of social control. The

^Gordon W. Allport, "The Historical Background of Modern Social Psychology," Handbook of Social Psychology. ed. by G. Lindzey (2 volumes; Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., 1954), I, 43. 2 Daniel Katz, "The Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes," Reader in Public Opinion, ed by Bernard Berelson and Morris Janowitz (New York: The Free Press, 1966), p. 51.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. theme of propaganda 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 Methodological Concerns

What is also true of this period is that the concern

with quantification promoted the refinement of methods and

techniques. Despite a "narrow operationalism,"^ better

methods made sociologists gain confidence, and they became

more and more inclined to examine various phases of the

phenomenon 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 public 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. cit. , p. 38.

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 119 Reader in Public Opinion and Communication admit, in present­

ing the 1966 edition, that they are not much wiser in this

respect than they were in 1950, when the presented 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 opin­

ion, which is the latest to appear, distinguished four par­

tially overlapping categories in the study of public opinion

phenomena. They are the quantitative study of opinion dis­

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 modern 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 consisting of individuals from different

^Berelson and Janowitz, "Introduction," Reader in _ P Opinion and Communication, 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 Communication, pp.. 43-50; L, Wirth, "Consensus and Mass Communication," American Sociological Review, XIII (1948), 1~14.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 2 0 backgrounds, uprooted, isolated, anonymous, and detached over

whom the mass media are all-powerful was subjected to criti­

cism by researchers and theorists beginning around 1940.^ 2 The People1s Choice (1948) represents an effort to question

some of the conceptions in the theories of mass society. The

empirical findings of the study indicated that the small

group intervenes between the mass media 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 clari­

fication of concepts was felt with increasing urgency.

Biamer's appeal for an effort to isolate public opinion as

a generic, object of study or concept was given greater atten­

tion with the passing of time.

Part of the sociological literature on public opinion

in. recent times reflects clearly this preoccupation with

concept building The already mentioned articles by Blumer,

Hyman. Beielson, and Lazarsfeld are the more forceful expres­

sions of this preoccupation. Meanwhile, the work that is

Bramson, pp.. cit. , p. 100.

^Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet, The People's Choice: How the Voter Makes up His Mind in a Presidential Campaign (second edition; New York; Columbia University Press, 1948).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. done by 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 clarification and building. An earlxer attempt

at conceptualization 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 concep­

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."

how old theories that may have been dismissed as either

incorrect or obsolete could become useful as heuristic tools,

suggesting perspectives and hypotheses, providing a basis

for comparison and the clarification of concepts, indicating

areas of observation and empirical research.

It is in this spirit that we attempt the presentation

and analysis of Gabriel Tarde '• s views on public opinion.

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER VI

G. TARDE ON PUBLIC OPINION

Published at a time marked by 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 been observed that L 'Opinion is among

Tarde's works one that was more directly inspired by his

experience of life in Paris;

. . . the intensive life of the capital gave him 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 1 Opinion.)

^Rene Worms, "Revue, L 'Opinion et la Foule," Revue Internationale de Socioloqie, 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

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 123 in other words, to the study of typically modern urban phe­

nomena .

Most reviewers^ agree that L 1 Opinion 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 study of Social Psychology more interesting and

more pregnant with significance for contemporary life than

2 the delightful book fL'Opinion] of Tarde's . . . ."

Tarde's Broader Theoretical Framework

It is essential that we understand the basic assump­

tions underlying Tarde's sociology before we discuss his

la conversation et de la Presse, ... ," Amedee Matagrin, "La Psychologie sociale de G. Tarde," Revue Politique et Litteraire, Revue Bleue, 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 'Annee Sociologique, V (1900-01), 160-66; Henri Mazel in Mercure de France, XLI (1902), 196-98; Francois Paulhan in Revue Philosophique, LIII (1903), 201-07; and Rene Worms in Revue Internationale de Sociologie, IX (1901), 856-57.

2 M. M. Davis, Jr., Gabriel Tarde, p. 85.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. theory of public opinion, In the early critiques of Tarde's

work, the expression "social cosmology" was sometimes applied

to them. A. Matagrin 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 coordi­

nated heterogeneity nor the organicist thesis. For Tarde

the individual was the factor not the function of the col­

lectivity .

Essentially, Tarde rejected the idea of a unified

substance that becomes 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„

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 been

increasingly comparing organisms to mechanisms, thus

demolishing the barriers separating the living from the

non-living world. We might then follow Cournot who thought

that in becoming civilized, human societies gradually pass

from a barbarian 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 physics and mechanics,^

depuis la theorie cellulaire, les organismes sont devenus au contraire, des societes d 'une nature a part . , . . ,” G. Tarde, "Monadologie et Sociologie," in Essais et Melanges Sociologiques (Lyon: A. Storck, 1895), p. 338.

^Ibid. , p. 339, ^ Ibid, p. 340,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In objecting to Spencer's conception of evolution,

Tarde invites us to see the diversity which characterizes

provincial customs, clothes, accents, and physical appear­

ance, and which is gradually replaced by modern leveling,

by a growing uniformity in weights and measures, in language,

and even in the topics of conversation.'1'

We find an echo of Tarde's argument against the organ-

ismic conception 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 pointed out how a double misconception exists in

the way in which the opposition between Tonnies'

Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft is used. Contrary to what

this typology implies, rural societies are neither simple

nor homogeneous; similarly, industrial societies do not

preclude primary relations.^

Ibid., p. 3 54; Tarde's conception was further elab­ orated by his son, Guillaume de Tarde, who at the meeting of the Societe de Sociologie de Paris in March, 1911, read a paper which was published with the title "L'evolution sociale d'apres G. Tarde," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, XIX (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.

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 127

Percy S.. Cohen, most recently, in referring to con­

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

entities," a tendency that made him overlook essential facts,

such as the complexity of practices and beliefs m primitive

2 societies, in his explanations of social cohesiveness,

Public Opinion, a Central Concern of Tarde:s Sociology

In the article. "L :Inter-psychologie," that first

appeared in 1903 m the Bulletin of the Institut General de

Psychologie. and was then published posthumously in the

3 Archives d ' Anthropologie Cnminelle, 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 Ibid. , p.. 229, 3 G. Tarde, "L Inter-psychologie," Archives d !Anthro- pologie Cnminelle, XIX (1904), 537-64,

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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 terms— inter-psychology• . . .^

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 gather­

ing of people; (3) that of a gathering on an .individual;

(4 ) that of an individual on a public, a scattered crowd;

1 Ibid., 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 intermentale, inter-cerebrale, et que j 'appellerais volontiers plus brievement--malgre mon horreur des mots hybrides--!1mter-psychologie ... ," ibid., p. 539,

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(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 con­

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 branch 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 nationality or his­

torical period., He believed that a joint historical and com­

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 'Opinion he tried to sketch the history of conversation, to determine its causes, its variations, and its effects, ibid., 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 morality 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 elements- Et il y aurait a montrer que les deux propositions n'ont rien d 'incontestable ... “), ibid., p. 559-

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deserve a great deal of attention on account of the increas­

ing importance that publics assume as a result of the

development of the media of communication and especially of

the press.^

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 communica­

tion of emotions, desires, or minds, that can be understood

when the factors and conditions, both 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 precision that inter-psychology, . . . must use . . . . First, it can borrow from the latter [intra­ psychology] some of its own .... But also, inter­ psychology has its own instrument, very delicate it is true: statistics, a kind of social psycho- physics. I can only indicate its place here. . . „

^Ibid., p . 560.

2 Ibid., p . 564.

^"Si le temps ne me faisait defaut, je devrais, avant de finie, dire quelques mots des instruments de mesure et de precision 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 psycho-physique sociale. Je ne puis qu'indiquer sa place ici ... ," loc. cit.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. It is pertinent to mention here that Emile Durkheim

reacted strongly to Tarde's conception of Interpsychology

in a review of the article in the Annee sociologique, that

appeared after Tarde's death. He treated it of arbitrary

and confused implying an unacceptable reductionism since it

fuses under the same rubric facts belonging to two clearly

distinct orders. He also questioned Tarde's view that

simple inter-individual actions can explain the genesis and

mentality of the crowd.'*’

Gabriel Tarde1s L 1 Opinion et la Foule

It is an almost impossible task to try to give a pre­

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 which is due to the fact that in the book he put

together, without any alteration, the articles that were

previously published in the Revue de Paris. In this plan

the public and the crowd are discussed first, then public

opinion and conversation. Instead, we will discuss Tarde's

conception of public opinion before we deal with the public

and conversation.

^Emile Durkheim, "Compte-rendu, ' L' Inter-psychologie, ' " Annee Sociologique, IX (1905-1906), 132-35.

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Public opinion is in Tarde's view the most typical

social process because it involves the action— unilateral

or reciprocal— 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 many social phenomena that may not

seem to be closely related.

Public Opinion: 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 'Opinion, p. 6 8 .

2 Ibid., p . 64.

^Ibid.

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values that internalized through socialization are agents

of human behavior. Tarde's conception of tradition appear

to agree to some extent with Durkheim1s notion of "collective

representations."

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 evaluation of an event or issue in terms of the

existing norms, or over the interpretation of the norms, and

in this way custom is confirmed and strengthened.

Reason, on the other hand, consists of independent,

relatively rational judgments, although they may be irra-

tional, of a thinking 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 deduction from sacred texts and doctrines.

When public opinion sides with reason it favors the

diffusion of innovation, the rule of fashion over that of

custom, and may lead to the destruction of institutions.

By making these distinctions, Tarde reconciled the

dual conception of public opinion as either social control

'*'Ibid.

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or social change. In itself, public opinion is neither one.

Social control is exercised through the fact that public

opinion expresses, and by doing so re-affirms and re-validates

existing social norms and values. It does not initiate social

change, but 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 cur­

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 cir­

cumstances, either tradition or reason are at stake.

Public opinion can thus be 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 con­

servative, in the name of the status quo.

The Development of Public Opinion

"Throughout history, and in even the most barbaric

times, there existed a public opinion, but it differed pro­

foundly from the one we know."'*' After this introduction,

1 Tbid,, p . 69.

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Tarde proceeded, with 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 conversa­

tions, was spread and established as a common idea, was

still linked to its originator, who being known by the rest

of the community had no chance to abuse anyone. If such a

society was organized into a state, public opinion played

an important role in government. Like the chorus in the

Greek drama it weighed strongly "against tradition itself

at times, but chiefly against individual reason."1

Interestingly enough, the modern media of communica­

tion and especially the press favor a similarly important

role on the part of public opinion in modern times.

In the intervening times, however, marked by fragmen­

tation characteristic of feudalism, local public opinion had

no chance to be diffused into national public opinion. In

the feudal states, in every city and in every market town,

"... the currents of ideas, or rather the whirlwinds of

ideas that turned round and round, were as different from

1Ibid., p . 70.

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place to place, as they were alien and indifferent to one

another . . . ." ^

It is the printed word that provided the link, first

the book and then the press. The latter, in particular,

contributed 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 quality if not of intelligence." It also

contributed to suppress the conditions of fragmentation and

separation that justified the existence of the absolute

ruler, who, in the absence of the press, constituted a kind

of locus where all the particular concerns were reflected

and where what was common and general among them would in

some way come up. Indeed, "only in his person did they

3 interpenetrate."

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 world-wide scope to whatever is local,

which . . . would formerly have remained unknown beyond a 4 certain limited radius."

-*-Ibid.

^Ibid., P- 71.

3 Ibid., P- 72.

4 Ibid., p. 73.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. However, it is in conjunction with the elementary

form of interaction, conversation, that the press has pro­

duced this effect on public spirit. In a two-way process,

the press which began by giving expression to localized,

even private opinions ended by fashioning opinion as it

imposed on private conversations their daily 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 tongues."^

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 parliamentary

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 by

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 kind of general ideas. Such was the group of the

Encyclopedists of the Enlightenment whose deified conception

^Ibid., p . 76.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of humaneness dominated thinking circles all over Europe.

The Crowd and the Public: The Two Poles of Social Evolution

Tarde's study of the public is primarily the construc­

tion and clarification of the concept of the public. Consid­

ering it both as a counterpart and an extention of the crowd,

his study consists of an analysis and comparison 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 distinction by his wish

to correct a double misconception, namely the consideration

of all kinds 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 born and develop the currents of opinion,

the great social movements, but rather in collectivities of

physically separated individuals whose 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 crowd in motion.") Ibid., p. 28.

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mental, that is, in the publics. Their bond develops out

of their being simultaneously possessed by a certain convic­

tion or passion, and out of their awareness of sharing at

the same time an idea or a wish with a large number of other

men} The public is according to Tarde "a scattered crowd,

in which 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 primary 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. Actually publics are generated by these concrete

groupings, to which they become a kind of surrounding atmos­

phere, something that may be clearly observed when 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 Ibid. , p . 3 .

^Ibid., p. vi.

3 Ibid., p . 2 2 .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. printing. But, Tarde believed, once it has appeared, it

becomes a social form toward which all the groups in society,

whatever their nature, tend, transforming themselves into

diverse publics first, and ultimately into the public, an

all-psychological group, consisting of mental states in

perpetual mutation.'*'

The public is thus in Tarde's view an all-important

type of social phenomenon to study. To do so means to inves­

tigate questions such as its origin and genesis; its varie­

ties; its relationships with its leaders, with the crowd,

with social organizations, with the state; its manner of 2 expression, and its ability for good or evil.

The Emergence and Development of the Public

Tarde considered Protestantism as one of the earlier

manifestations of the public, relating it with the wide cir­

culation of the Bible that the invention of printing made

3 possible. However, in France it is only 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 which he called "a sociological fantasy," and in which he presented man, relieved of mater­ ial insecurities, engaging in pure and spontaneous social relationships. 3 . L Opinion, p. 7.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Louis XIV that a genuine public appeared, a small localized

elite of cultured people living in Paris who read their

monthly gazette and especially a small number of books,^

In the eighteenth century, fragmented, specialized philo­

sophical, literary, scientific publics appeared first, then

a political public emerged which 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, which had inspired so many

studies at his time, trying to demonstrate that these crowds

present no particular significance since they were in no

way any different from those of previous civil wars:

There is nothing more monotonous than these age old manifestations of their activity. But, what charac­ terized 1789 and what the past had never seen, is the proliferation of newspapers that were so avidly read

Still, the publics remained largely localized until

the combination of the railroad and the telegraph with

^Ibid., p . 8 .

2 Ibid. 3 Ibid., p. 9.

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printing gave rise to modern press, which 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 proceeded to dis­

tinguish the variations of the public in a simultaneous com­

parison with those of the crowd. Considered with respect to

sex, age, physical conditions, social origin, the crowds

show consistently greater variability than do the publics.

Discussing the similarities and differences between 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 mater­

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 . . . ." Ibid., p. 11. 2 Ibid., p. 30.

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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 believing 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 never­

theless more tenacious and lasting in this respect.

Religious crowds and esthetic crowds are those that

are moved by 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 presumptious. They differ

from the crowds in that the proportion 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

expectancy to action. Tarde actually identified four types

in this range applying to both crowds and publics: the

^Ibid., p . 33. 2 Ibid., p. 37.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. expectant, the attentive, the manifesting or expressive,

and the acting.'*’

Again, Tarde'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, what can be seen prevents us from thinking about what cannot be seen. This is probably the reason for the strict attitude that sociologists usually take with regard to crowds.^

Tarde wondered how 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 only the victims but also very often the agents of 3 abuse. And, because in their case action is more

1Ibid., p . 38.

2Ibid., p. 47.

3Ibid., p. 49.

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deliberate and calculated, the abuses or even crimes they

commit, although not as visible as those committed by the

crowds, may be very serious with profound and long-lasting

effects. Publics are active in exercising pressure over

governments and leading them to take decisions which are

obviously unreasonable and unwise or to pass laws which are

prejudicial 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 both reflects it

and stimulates it further by indicating to it a certain direc­

tion. With its response the public stimulates further the

journalist, or even compels him, to pursue more intensively

the line of action he originally may have just suggested.

The "power of opinion" that is set into moticn by these

leaders, once aroused, may sweep them along altogether unex- 2 pected 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 would not tolerate.

Tarde remarked that there seems to be greater modesty in

~*~Ibid. , p. 58 . 2 Ibid., p . 47.

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1 the crowds than there is in some publics.

Still, publics represent social progress from fragmen­

tary, constricted, and differentiated forms of human associa­

tion to extensible, interpenetrating ones. However, this

social progress is not a blind deterministic process that

collectivities automatically undergo, but one that relies

on the thought, independent and strong, of the individual

and especially of the intellectual. Thus, Tarde closes his

essay on the public and the crowd with a brief note on the

role of the intellectual in modern democracies, in which it

becomes increasingly difficult to escape the obsession of

2 fascinating agitation.

Conversation, _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 conversation that must be acknowledged as the continuous

and universal factor.

Tarde engaged in a long description and analysis of

conversation that he viewed as the elementary form of human

interaction, and as such worthy of being studied systematic­

ally.

1 2 Ibid., p , 58. Ibid., p. 61.

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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 Tarde's awareness of its infinite implications.

What he tried to do was "to sketch as briefly as possible,

the psychology or rather the sociology 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 with social developments and

cultural transformations in language, norms, art, and liter­

ature. By applying the quantitative approach, it would

moreover be possible to distinguish between what is variable 2 and what 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.

2Ibid., 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 who 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, where they become established as articles of faith." Ibid., p. 83.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. conversation as the social phenomenon that best demonstrates

the process of wave-like 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 Tarde'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 who 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.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and religion. They 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 conversation-exchange or

mutual exchange of information; he also distinguished obli­

gatory or ceremonial conversation and optional or spontane­

ous conversation. The trend is for conversation to develop

from unilateral ceremonial conversation and arguing implying

social inequality toward spontaneous free dialogue reflect-

2 m g equality and unity.

Discussing the salon movement of the Precieuses in

France under Louis XIV, Tarde tried to demonstrate how by 3 cultivating the art of talking for the sake of talking,

these Parisian women favored the diffusion of sensitivity

and of feelings and contributed to the reduction of social

inequality in their society and eventually in the entire

nation.

There is an essential interplay between conversation

^Ibid., p . 86.

2Ibid., p. 108.

^Tarde even pointed out that "for the Precieuses . . . conversation was so absorbing an art that they were very cautious at their gatherings not to do any work with their hands despite the hbits to the contrary of the women of the period." Ibid., p. 114.

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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.. Tarde' s central proposition

was that communication and social interaction, especially

when they are of the conversation-exchange type, create the

conditions for what we would now call "consensus" and the

emergence of a code of standards in every one of these

areas:

By discussion as well as by the exchange of ideas, by competition and conflict as well as by work, we all collaborate always toward a higher harmony of thoughts, words and actions; toward a stable equilibrium of judgments which are formulated into literary, artistic, scientific, philosophical, and religious doctrines; or toward a stable equilibrium of actions in the form of laws and moral principles . . . .^

Conversation is most closely linked with public opin­

ion. As they vary together, it is possible to make infer­

ences about either one from what is known about the other.

The evolution of power is thus explained by the evolution of

opinion, which is explained by the evolution of conversation,

which, as Tarde demonstrated at some length, is affected by

a number of different factors and especially the practices

and approaches of socialization at home, at school, on the

^Ibid., p. 148.

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job, at the church, through the political platform, the book,

and the press."*-

If public opinion is generated by private conversa­

tions as much as by public deliberations, we can see the

cafes, the clubs, the salons, the stores, and all the places 2 where people assemble and talk as real "factories of power."

This is so, however, only when these private conversations

can be fed with information on public matters primarily

through the press, in Tarde's time, through the media of

communication, we would say today.

Thus, in Tarde1s 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 completed the task, begun by conversation and carried on by 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 Foule, A Work Rich in Significant Implications

In reviewing Tarde's book in 1901, Rene Worms, the

Secretary General of the International Institute of

1 2 Ibid., p. 136. Ibid., p. 157.

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Sociology and the editor of Ija Revue Internationale de

Socioloqie, observed that the author's discussions abound

in valuable implications. Indeed, it is by this trait that

this work while always delightful and timely, resists syste­

matic analysis and orderly presentation. What Rene Worms

said more than sixty years ago, could still help us in our

effort to place Tarde'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 broadening of public opinion through the diffusion of the press and of conversation on political subjects that has led to democracy. He even made a contribution to linguistics by sketching a history of speech, first unilateral then bilateral, and by demonstrating 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 by 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 many 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. Nombreux sont les sujets q u 'il rajeunit ainsi rien q u 'en les effleurant. Il

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Having endeavored to untangle the web of ideas in

Tarde'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 would 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, Review of L 'Opinion et la Foule. Revue Interna­ tionale de Sociologie, IX (1901), 857-58.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER VII

SOCIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS IN TARDE'S APPROACH TO

THE STUDY OF PUBLIC OPINION

The analysis of Tarde:s work brings forth both its

interdisciplinary and its sociological implications. it is

primarily the latter that constitute Tarde's contribution

to the study of public opinion. Indeed, this essentially

ignored work--it is missing from the list of references of

practically 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 both depth and extent

if public opinion becomes a central concern in sociology.

We do not say that Tarde'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 itions.

154

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Problems and Areas of Public Opinion Research

We have already presented the questions that Tarde

considered. His topics are essentially the emergence and

development of the public, which is the matrix of public

opinion, and the role of the press and conversation in the

diffusion of public opinion. These are the pivots around

which he constructed his system of propositions. Translated

into specific areas of sociological research 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

person-to-person interaction in comparison to those of

interaction at a distance; the role of elites and of leaders

in both the private and the public spheres of life.

We recognize, in these formulations, areas of soci­

ological research in which there has been achieved more or

less significant work. We consider it a merit of Tarde's

approach to the study of public opinion that it implies

their relevance. We should moreover say that it was on

the part of Tarde also a foresight, since at his time not

much sociological research had been done that could be

brought together in an attempt to clarify the phenomena of

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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 would have a world-wide

range.

Highlights Among Tarde1s General Propos itions

It is impossible to make a meaningful formulation of

the most pertinent 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 successive transformations from diversity to unity.

Fundamental to his theory of public opinion is the

proposition that opinions are originally judgments that

occur in individuals about a matter that may be of concern

to more than a single individual. A matter may become of

collective concern simply because of its timeliness, that

is because it is simultaneously perceived, Through contact,

which is governed by many factors, both social and physical,

the judgment is communicated, confronted and compared,

following which there is agreement or disagreement.

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 by its more rapid and more brilliant radiation, or because , . . it is expressed louder.^

^Tarde, L ' Opinion, pp. 68-69.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 process, 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 circulation of opinions. They are all circumscribed;

the community and the institutions by 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 both 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 simultaneously concerned over

the same matters, an essentially spiritual social aggregate,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the public, placed at a higher level where the material

differences are not perceptible.

This conception constitutes the origin of all of

Tarde's formulations. 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; by doing so it draws

on them the attention of people who otherwise would 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 way could have any interests involved. This

proposition is worth particular attention today when both

the issues in national or international affairs, and the

results of the polling of opinions on them are widely pub­

licized through the widely circulating press, the radio

and television,

^Ibid., p . 7 5.

^Ibid,, p. 16.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Having had no experience with either the radio or

television, Tarde implied that although the press may lead

the publics to abuses, in the long run, because of the

reflective reaction of the reader, it promotes rationality.

However, as it has been pointed out by Harry E. Barnes, had

Tarde written "after the radio, moving pictures, and tele­

vision had come into existence, he would probably have gone

even further in conceding the approximation of public opin­

ion to crowd attitudes."'*" Barnes further implied that the

modern media of communication contribute to make the public

"crowd-like" and in general promote the growth of "crowd-

2 mindedness."

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 Tarde's concern with 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 Theory of G. Tarde" in Introduction to the History of Sociology, ed. Harry E. Barnes (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1948), p. 479, 2 Ibid., p. 480.

^E.g., Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. general in the development of public opinion. The lonely

newspaper reader who has no opportunity to talk with someone

about what he has read does not contribute much to public

opinion. Inversely, without 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 conversation has important effects,

of which the increase in the number and the variety of the

speakers as well as of the topics of conversation has the

most far-reaching implications. Tarde explored a number of

them, and due to his extraordinary perceptiveness and per­

spicacity his observations startle us by their relevance and

timeliness. Indeed, they point to the gains in intellectu­

ality and objectivity that are obtained in the long-run,

when the pattern is set for many people to exchange freely

views on a variety of topics. These gains in turn promote

both national integration and democracy, for they develop

at the expense of social class distinctions and other differ­

entiations and fragmentations. Tarde's observations bring

us ahead of the current conceptions that see modern society

becoming increasingly a "mass" society that is marked "by

mediocrity and by vulgarity and by the loss of autonomous

judgment by contemporary man.""'' It is not that Tarde

^“Robert K. Merton, "introduction to the Compass Edi­ tion," The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon (New York: The Viking Press, 1960), p. xxxiii.

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precluded the appearance of these traits, but he looked

beyond them at the possibilities inherent in the develop­

ments of his time. It is these germinal generalizations in

particular that can be transformed into hypotheses to be

tested through the instruments now available and against

current reality. Though not inspired by Tarde1s work, the

well-known study on the "two-step flow of communication"^

illustrates the way in which Tarde's ideas can be used in

research„

Concluding Remarks

"The analysis of a work of Tarde’s is in every case

a task both fascinating and difficult," was said by Eugene

2 d'Eichtal in 1902 and in closing the discussion of Tarde's

L 'Opinion we cannot but agree with him. The presentation

in the Appendix of the English translation of Tarde1s work

is made so that those of his ideas that promise to be ger­

minal may appear in their innumerable nuances.

In trying to discover the reasons explaining the

oblivion into which Tarde's work fell we pointed out most

^Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Personal Influence, The Part Played by the People in the Flow of Mass Communica­ tions (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955).

2 "L1analyse d'une oeuvre de M. Tarde est tonjours une tache a la fois seduisante et argue," Eugene d'Eichtal, "Revue Critique, _La Psychologie Economique," Revue Philosoph- ique, LIII (1903), 523.

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of its faults, deficiencies, and weaknesses. Our task has

been to demonstrate that they should not be allowed to

obscure any longer what is scientifically valuable in

Tarde's work. It is ironically Tarde's widely recognized

charm that is to be blamed most since many have dismissed

his work for being the creation of a "dilettante" lacking

scientific value.

Tarde danced the step of charm., Durkheim is bran­ 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 amateurs, the thinkers of sorts . . . . ^

At this time, Gabriel Tarde is still out of the JGarden of

Sociology." It is our hope that our work may contribute to

make his return legitimate.

"Tarde dansait le pas de la se'duction. Durkheim brandit 1 1 epee flamboyante de l'archange exterminateur, Il veut chasser du Jardin de Sociologie— et qui pourrait 1'en blamer?--les amateurs distingues, les penseurs en tous genres ... Achille Ouy, "Les Sociologies et la Sociologie," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, XLVII (1911), 245.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPENDIX

OPINION AND THE CROWD

by

Gabriel Tarde

Translated from the first

French edition by

Artemis Emmanuel

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FOREWORD

The term collective psychology or social psychology

is often given a chimeric meaning that we must reject, since

it implies the conception of a collective mind, a social

consciousness, and a we existing outside or above individual

minds. In order to draw a clear line of distinction between

conventional psychology and social psychology, we believe

there is no need for this mystifying conception. We would

rather call the latter intermental psychology.^ Indeed,

while the former concentrates on relations between the mind

and the totality of other individuals outside it, intermen­

tal psychology 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 text.

^"The author used here the term psychologie inter- spirituelle. In translating we used the term "intermental psychology" that G. Tarde used in the title of an article, "La Psychologie intermentale," in Revue Internationale de Sociologie, IX (1901), 1-15. Throughout 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.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. difference between the two psychologies is analogous to the

difference 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 presented here are fragments of

such a conception of collective psychology. A close bond

unites them. It appeared necessary 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 public,

which is the special object of the main study, is actually

a dispersed crowd, where the influence of one mind on another

has become an effect at a distance, at an ever-increasing

distance. Then, Public Opinion, 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 Deux Mondes in December, 1893, then in Melanges Sociologiques (Storck et Masson, 1895) . The other studies, "The Public and the Crowd" and "Public Opinion and Conversa­ tion," appeared respectively in 1898 and 1899 in the Revue de Paris.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 the 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

yield a large number of general principles providing an

appropriate basis for a true science, comparative conversa­

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 Uses of Social Science: The Papers of Robert Redfield, 1963; Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, "The Two-Step Flow of Communication," in Personal Influence, 1955; and Erving Goffman, Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior, 1967 .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A 4 167

regret that it does not exist, I inspired in some young

researcher the desire to fill this large gap.

G. TARDE

May 1901

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OPINION AND THE CROWD1

I

THE PUBLIC AND THE CROWD

I

Not only is the crowd attractice and irresistibly

appealing to its viewers, but its very name exercises an

extraordinary fascination on the modern reader. Certain

writers are much too inclined to designate by this ambiguous

word all kinds of human groupings. It is important to put

an end to this confusion and, in particular, to stop con­

fusing the crowd with the public, a word which is itself sus­

ceptible of various meanings, but which I will 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 entirely different

Later on, referring to this title G. Tarde indicated that it should have been The Public and Public Opinion. G. Tarde, "L 'Interpsychologie," Archives d 'Anthropologie gie Criminelle, XIX (1904), 560.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 169 kind of public; a public which continues to grow, and the

expansion of which is one of the most prominent character­

istics of our times. Crowd psychology has been developed;

we must now develop the psychology of the public. The word

public, in this sense, refers to a collectivity of the mind,

to physically separated individuals, whose cohesion is purely

mental. Where does the public originate? How is it born?

How does it develop? What are its varieties? What is the

relationship between the public and its leaders, its rela­

tionship to the crowd, to corporate bodies, to states?

What 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, association consists

chiefly of a physical aggregate. As we go higher 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 remain

thus separated beyond a very short period of time, their

association ceases. Thus, the crowd presents, in this

respect, something of a parallel with animal nature. Is it

not, indeed, a cluster of psychic contagions resulting essen­

tially from physical contacts? But, all communications from

mind to mind, from soul to soul, do not require that bodies

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 ultimately become consecrated into

laws or decrees by parliaments 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 charac­

teristic of this bond is to be found in the simultaneous

manifestation 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 moving crowd, on the evening of a public holiday, moves with a slowness and many whirlpools that remind one of a stream with no precise bed. For, there is nothing less comparable to an organism than a crowd, except a public. Both are, more or less, waterways whose course is ill-defined.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 himself 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 much less aware: he

hardly suspects the influence exerted on him by the mass

of the other readers. Nonetheless, this influence is unques­

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, which 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. How 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

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 with a large number of other

minds. There is an analogy between 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.

When we unwittingly experience this invisible con­

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 time­

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

timeliness, 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 meaning of "state of what is of the present moment." 2 We 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."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. particular moment, although it may be an old event. Every­

thing concerning Napoleon 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. During the Dreyfus case, important

events of potential interest to us occurred in Africa or in

Asia. But they were not considered newsworthy. In short,

the passion for news progresses with sociability, of which

it is but one of the more 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 prerequisite for this suggestion at _a distance

among individuals making up the same public. We begin as

children, as adolescents, to experience vividly the effect

"'‘Th e author refers to the Dreyfus case— or 1 1 Affaire as it is often called— which was the controversy that fol­ lowed the trial for treason, in 1894, of the French army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, andwhich deeply marked the politi­ cal and social history of the Third Republic, and, indeed, of modern France.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 174 on us of others looking at us, an effect which is expressed

subconsciously in our attitudes, our gestures, the modified

course of our ideas, in our hesitating or excited speech,

and in our judgments and our actions. It is only after

years of having experienced and exercised on others this

effective action_of looking that we become capable of being

affected even by the thought that another person is looking

at u s , by the idea that we are the object of attention of

persons distant from us. Similarly, it is after we have

known and, for a long time, been 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 forma­

tion of a public presupposes a mental and social evolution

far more advanced than the formation of a crowd. Purely

ideational suggestibility, contagion without 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.

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II

There is no word, in Latin or in Greek, that corres­

ponds to what we mean by public. There are words to

designate the people, the assembly of armed or non-armed

citizens, the electorate and all varieties of the crowd.

But where is the writer of antiquity who thought of speaking

about his public? Everyone of them knew only his audience,

in the halls rented for public lectures where poets, con­

temporaries of Pliny the Younger,’*' gathered in small con­

genial crowds. As for the dispersed readers of the

manuscripts, copied by hand and produced 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 . Did a public exist in the Middle Ages? No, but

there were fairs, pilgrimages, tumultuous multitudes, where

pious or belligerent emotions, fits of temper or panics,

found expression. The public could emerge only after the

initial widespread expansion of the invention of printing

in the sixteenth century. The long distance transmission

Roman author and administrator (61 or 62--ca 113 A.D.). He left a collection of private letters of great literary charm which intimately illustrate public and private life in the heyday of Roman Empire.

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of power is nothing compared to this transmission of thought

over great distances. Is not thought the social force par

excellence? Think of the idees-f orces of Mr. Fouillee. 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

with which it appeared to be confused. This is the weakness

of Protestantism, to have been both a public and a church,

two aggregates governed by different principles and of an

irreconcilable 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 gens1'

^Alfred 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 best known for his concept of idees-forces. According to his theory, an idea is not just a powerless representation, but a real dynamic force which influences the behavior of individuals and masses (La Psychologie des idees-forces, Paris, 1893; L' Evolutionisme des idees-forces, P a n s , 1906) 2 This expression refers to people who are cultured.

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who read their monthly gazette, or rather a small number of

books written for a small number of readers. Moreover, these

readers were mainly concentrated in Paris, especially at the

royal court.

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 beginning to detach itself from it .

For by public I do not mean a group of scholars who, despite

their dispersion over various provinces or states, are never­

theless united by their common concern for similar lines of

research and by the reading of the same writings, but are so

few in number that they all correspond 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 per­

sons devoted to the same studies are too numerous to be able

to know one another in this personal fashion, and the bond

of a certain solidarity has developed among them only on

account of impersonal communications 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 historique et critique, 1692.

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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 tribu­

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

which it was still attached as long as the salons and the

cafbs were the centers of an intensive social life.

The birth of the press and consequently of the public

can be traced to the French Revolution-- in itself an expres­

sion of the growing pains of the public. It is not that the

Revolution did not arouse crowds also, but in this there was

nothing to distinguish it from the civil wars of the past,

of the Fourteenth and the Sixteenth 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 Catholic party, that was formed in France in the six­ teenth century in view of defending the Catholic faith against the Calvinists. 3 A popular movement (_c 1413) that took its name from its leader Caboche, a Paris butcher.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. numerous than those of July 14th and August 10th. For a

crowd cannot grow beyond a certain point, determined by the

limits of the voice and the eye, without immediately breaking

up or becoming incapable of collective action. This action,

after all, never changes: barricades, looting of palaces,

massacres, demolitions, and fires. There is nothing more

monotonous than these age old manifestations of its activity.

But what characterizes 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 dur­ 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 Diction­ ary of the Academy only from 1762," and, moreover, it is included, he says--as it still does in most of the diction­ aries— only with the meaning of author who writes on public law. The meaning of the word, in current usage, has broadened only in the course of our century, while that of the public, 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 francaise.

^Jean-Paul Marat (1743-93) is the well-known figure in the French Revolution, considered as a demagogue and instigator of mob action; he was the editor of L 'Avis du Peuple; 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.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Pere Duchesne, ^ had its public, and we can consider the

incendiary, looting, murderous, cannibalistic crowds, which

devastated the France 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 poison­

ous alcohol of empty violent words, It is not that the mobs

were composed exclusively of newspaper readers even in Paris

This was even truer in the provinces and in the country.

But they always represented the leaven, if not the dough.

Clubs, cafe gatherings, which 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 observation applies to the beginning of

the Revolution; a little later, it would lose much of its

^"Pere Duchesne" was the title of a violent revolu­ tionary paper issued by Jacques R. Hubert (1757-94), a French politician. 2 An English economist (1741-1820).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. accuracy. Nevertheless, to the end, the lack of rapid com­

munication constituted an insuperable obstacle to intensive

and widespread dissemination 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, with its improved means of

transportation 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 between them 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, motionless 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 Middle Ages, those of a

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 Middle Ages. The public, how­

ever, 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. Thus, three

inventions, printing, the railroad, and the telegraph,

supporting one another, gave rise to tremendous power of

the press, that marvelous telephone 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 a pub­

lic to what we call a world, "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 reputation of having the ability to transform intransigent opponents into enthusiastic followers.

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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 distance separates the crowd

from the public, despite the fact that the public originates

in part from a kind of crowd, from a speaker1s audience ,

Between 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 organizations 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 which the crowd spirit predominates because one's

being is entirely captured, irresistibly caught up by a

force without a counterweight. Hence 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 pub­

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 degeneration of the public into a crowd is extremely

dangerous, it is, on the whole, rather rare. Without examin­

ing whether these crowds, born of the public, are not, after

all, somewhat less brutal than the crowds existing before a

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. public, the opposition between two publics, always ready to

fuse on their indeterminate borderlines, is evidently a far

lesser threat to social peace than the clash between 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 heat or cold; it is more frequent in summer than in

winter, A ray of sunshine brings it together, a shower dis­

perses it. Bailly,^ when he was mayor of Pans, blessed

rainy days, and was saddened to see the sky clear. However,

the public, a grouping of a higher order, is not subject to

these variations and whims of physical environment, of

seasons, or even of climate. Not only the birth 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 mid-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

Jean-SyIvain Bailly (1736-93) was mayor of Paris after the capture of Bastille in 1789.

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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 radi­

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 hundred thousand

moujiks is not moved by the disaster in which thirty thou­

sand of them would perish? Why is it that on the basis of

the nationality of a crowd, a good observer can almost pre­

dict the way in which 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.

Why 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 Fronde— just as English crowds of today

remind us of those of Cromwell's time? This is so because

in the composition 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 way social scientists and biologists use it now. It was primarily taken to mean people who have the same ancestors, and in this respect it also implied the bond of heredity.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission 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 pub­

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. More­

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.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. genius, that "a genius is a king who creates his people," is

especially true of the great journalist. How many publicists

:k does one see creating their public! In truth, Edouard

Drumont would not have been 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 purely individual, not very intense, even less con­

tagious, and unaware of itself. He who 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 anti-semitism cannot flourish there, since people read

anyway anti-semitic newspapers. Socialist and Anarchist

tendencies were also insignificant before a few famous pub-

licits, Karl Marx, Kropotkin, and others voiced them and

disseminated them in their own likeness. It is, conse­

quently, easy to understand why the imprint of the indi­

vidual genius of the leader is more pronounced on a public

★ Will it be said that, if every great publicist creates his public, every public, at all numerous, creates its own publicist? This last proposition 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 writer who is adapted to their true outlook. This is the case of the Catholic world at present.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 188 A 25

than the genius of nationality, and why the opposite is true

in the crowd. Similarly, it becomes clear why in each of

its principal types the public of a certain country appears

changed, within a very few years, when., i ts leadership is

changed. For example, the French socialist public today in

no way resembles the socialist party of the time of Proudhon--

while French crowds of all kinds maintain their identity

through the centuries.

It may be objected that the newspaper reader keeps

more of his freedom 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 habitual passivity,

it may occur to him 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 him and

to retain him as a reader. The statistics about new sub­

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 public sometimes reacts upon the journalist, while

the latter acts continually on his public. After some

initial fumbling, the reader has selected his newspaper, and

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the newspaper has sorted out its readers. There has been a

mutual selection, hence, mutual adaptation. The reader has

chosen a newspaper that pleases him, one that flatters his

-prejudices or emotions. The newspaper has selected a reader

agreeable to it, a docile and credulous reader, whom it can

easily direct by making some concessions to his prejudices--

concessions analogous to the oratorical precautions of

ancient orators. It has been said that the man who reads a

single book is to be feared. But what is he alongside the

reader of a single newspaper? And, actually, this man is,

with rare exceptions, each one of us. Here lies the danger

of modern times. Then the process of double selection and

double adaptation, through which the public is transformed

into a homogeneous group--well-known and subject to manipu­

lation by the writer— instead of preventing the publicist

from ultimately having a decisive influence on his public,

allows him to deal with it with greater force and certainty.

The crowd is in general far less homogeneous than the pub­

lic; it enlarges as it is joined by those who are just

curious, half-adhering persons, who are soon temporarily wen

over and assimilated in it, but who nevertheless are the

reasons why it remains difficult to give these incoherent

elements a common direction.

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IV

One might dispute this relative homogeneity of the

public under the pretext that just as "you cannot step twice

into the same river,"you never read the same book."

Although this ancient paradox is debatable, is it still true

to say that we never read the same newspaper? There will be

those who think that as the newspapers are more varied than

the books, the adage is even more applicable to the former

than to the latter. However, every newspaper has in fact

. - 2 its own gimmick, and this gimmick, given constant play,

attracts the attention of all the readers, and hypnotizes

them. In fact, despite the variety of its articles, every

page has a gaudy color that sets it apart, a specialty, be

it pornographic, defamatory, political, or other, to which

all the rest is sacrificed, and on which its public avidly

concentrates. Catching the public by this bait, the jour­

nalist leads it anywhere his heart desires.

Another consideration. The public, after all, is

only a kind of "customer," but a special kind 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 clou; this is a colloquial expression meaning that something attracts attention by a particular trait.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 presupposes among them affinities

that this bond tightens and stresses. Each one of us, in

buying what meets his needs, is more or less vaguely con­

scious of expressing and developing his ties with the social

class which feeds itself, is outfitted, and satisfies itself

in every way in an almost identical manner. The economic

fact, the only one studied by economists, is therefore com­

plicated with a sympathetic relationship also deserving of

attention. They consider the consumers of a product, or

service, as merely competitive rivals quarreling over the

object of their desires; but, they are also congeners,

fellow-creatures, who are seeking to strengthen their simi­

larity, and to distinguish themselves from others. Their

desire is fed by the desire of the other, and in this very

emulation there is a secret communion of feeling which seeks

to be increased. But, how much more intimate and deep is

the bond that is formed among those who habitually read the

same newspaper. Here, no one would think of speaking of com­

petition; there is but a communion of suggested ideas, and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the consciousness of this communion--but not of this sug­

gestion which 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 review there are also two kinds of publics: a

stable, consolidated public, and an unstable, floating pub­

lic. The distribution of these two publics 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

barely counts. And I admit that in this case the publicist’s

effect on the home he has entered is seriously obstructed by

the intolerance of this home, from which he would be imme­

diately expelled should he express any dissent. On the

other hand, the publicist has a quite different 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 by 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 evolution is for the time being irresistible and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. hardly reversible. We can already perceive the prospect of

the increasing social power that it opens to writers. It

may be that this development will more and more subject medi­

ocre journalists to the whims of their public; it is neverthe­

less certain that it will more and more subordinate a

subjugated public 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 poli­

ticians, even of the most popular ones, to the prolonged

indestructible reign of highly talented journalists. This

reign reminds one of the longevity of Louis XIV or the

indefinite success of illustrious writers of comedy and

tragedy. These autocrats never grow old.

This is the reason why it is so hard to make an effec­

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 unpunishable as the offenses of the tribune in

antiquity and those of the chair in the Middle Ages.

If it were true that, as the praisers of crowds are

in the habit of repeating, the historical role of individual­

ism is destined to continue its decline as societies evolve

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into democracies, we should be especially surprised to see

the journalists gain daily. Yet, we cannot ignore that it

is the journalists who fashion opinion in times of crisis;

and, when two or three great chiefs of political or literary

clans decide to rally behind the same cause, however bad

this cause may 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 civilization 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.

V

One needs only open his eyes to see that the division

of society into publics, a purely psychological 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 corporations, sects, occupations,

schools, and parties. It is not only these types of crowds

of the past, the audiences of tribunes or preachers, which

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are dominated or expanded by their corresponding parliamen­

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 with a public radiating beyond itself and

generating a sort of surrounding atmosphere, in which the

sect is immersed, a collective consciousness which makes it

shine more brightly. And, surely we cannot say of this

consciousness that it is a simple epjphenomenon,^ itself

ineffective and inactive. Likewise, there is no profession,

large or small, that does not aspire to have its journal or

its review, just as in the Middle Ages every corporation

wanted to have its chaplain, its regular preacher; just as

in Greek antiquity, every class had its own orator. Is it

not also the first concern of every newly founded literary

or artistic school to have its journal, without which it

would not consider itself complete? Is there a party or

fragment of a party that does not hasten to express itself

noisily in some daily newspaper, by which it hopes to expand,

and through which it is undoubtedly strengthened,before it is

changed, fused with another party or fragmented? A party

without a journal is comparable to a headless monster,

^i.e., a phenomenon that occurs together with another phenomenon, in an accidental manner, without exercising on it any effect.

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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 transformation of various groups into publics is

explained by a growing need for sociability, for a regular

communication among associates by 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 by this change. The press

mobilizes everything that it touches and vitalizes it. There

exists no Church, however immutable in appearance, which,

from the moment that it submits to the mode of continuous

publication, does not develop the signs of internal muta­

tions impossible to hide. To be convinced of this efficacy,

at once dissolving and regenerating, inherent in a newspaper,

we need only compare the political parties before the exis­

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.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 well known that

if they come to power, they will do so only after being

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 modified by the action of the press. At

the outset, let us observe that the press is far from favor­

ing most professional grouping. The professional 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 preponderance by the

press. The press prides itself on expressing these inter­

ests only by disguising or sublimating them into theories

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and emotions. Even when it turns them into emotions, it

intellectualizes and idealizes them; and, however dangerous

this transfiguration may sometimes be, it is, everything con­

sidered, a happy one. Although ideas and emotions may well

boil up while clashing with each other, they are always less

irreconcilable than interests.

Whether religious or political, parties are the social

groups on which newspapers have the greatest hold and which

they enhance the most. Mobilized into publics, parties

become deformed, reformed, and transformed with a rapidity

that would have shocked our ancestors. And, one must admit

that their mobilization and their intertwining are hardly

compatible with the regular operation of Parliamentarism in

the English style. This may be a minor misfortune, but it

brings about a profound modification 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 but temporary

strength. They assume two traits that we did not recognize

in them before: they become susceptible of interpenetration

and internationalization. They can penetrate 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 internationalized because the winged word of the

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newspaper rushes crosses national frontiers without 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 parliamentary

or club eloquence and spreads it over the whole world. If

this international scope of parties transformed into pub­

lics makes hostility among them more dreadful, their

ability to penetrate one another and the vagueness of

their boundaries facilitate alliances— 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 agita­

tion that it produces prepares rather the way toward social

unity. This is so true that, despite the divergence and

multiplicity of publics co-existing and intermingled in a

society, they seem to form one and same public by their

partial agreement on certain important points. This is what

* Certain large newspapers, the Times and the Figaro, and certain large reviews have their public scattered through­ out the entire world. The religious, scientific, economic, and esthetic publics are essentially and continually 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 were preceded along these lines by their respective publics.

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is called Public Opinion, the political impact of which is

constantly increasing. At certain critical moments in the

life of peoples, when 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 excellence, the

nation, like all the other groups, transform 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 but 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 between the progress 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

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that would have gathered had there been no publics. If we

were to assume that all newspapers were eliminated and, with

them, their publics, should we not expect the people to mani­

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 behave 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 bottom 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 which it gives birth. The pious public is typified by the pilgrimage to Lourdes— the "society" by the races at Longchamps, balls, and parties— the literary public by the theater audiences, and receptions at the Academie Francaise— the industrial public by its strikes-- the political public by its election gatherings, its Houses, its Deputies--the revolutionary public by its riots and barricades. . . .

"^Pierre Abelard (1079-1142) was a French scholastic theologian and philosopher.

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than those before the invention of printing, when the conse­

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 pro­

duced in the past. Most of those who would then have been

passionately curious to hear a speech, now say to themselves:

"I'll read it in my newspaper. ..." And it is thus that,

little by little, the publics enlarge themselves, while the

crowds become smaller and tend to decline even faster in

terms of their importance.

What has become of the time when the sacred eloquence

of an apostle, a St. Colomban, or a St. Patrick,1 converted

entire peoples who 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

perpetual mutation 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 bishop honored by the Irish as their saint-patron.

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exploitation and adaptation of desires and interests, that

is most affected by this civilizing transformation. Despite

all the dissimilarities that we have noted between 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 special­

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 union— but so much

stronger in a public than in a crowd!--into a communion of

ideas and emotions which, nevertheless, allows free rein to

their individual differences.

VI

Having discussed the birth and the growth of the

Public, marked as it is by its particular traits, similar

or dissimilar to those of the crowd, and having indicated

its genealogical 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.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. We can classify the publics, as well as the crowds,

from several points of view; from the point of view 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. . . ., have no

resemblance whatsoever with the crowds of the same sex.

Numerically 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, women gather in

the streets, they are always frightening by 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 witch and virago, who in 1529 led bands of peasants, both

men and women, into rebellion by Lutheran preachings. "She

breathed only fire, plunder, and murder," and uttered spells

which, believed to render her bandits 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 quarter­

ing the Queen; of "eating her heart" and "making cockades

"'‘Jean Jannsen (1829-91) was a German historian. 2 Hippolyte Taine (1828-93) was a French historian, philosopher, and literary critic. His Origines de la France contemporaine contains the account of the French Revolution.

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out of her jewels.1' They had only cannibalistic ideas,

which they apparently put into practice. Should we be

induced to say that, despite their seeming gentleness, women

harbor wild instincts and homicidal dispositions which come

to light when they are assembled? No, obviously what happens

in these gatherings of women is that everything that is most

impudent, daring, and, I would even say, most masculine in

them, comes to the fore. Corruptio optimi pessima. 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 crowds— 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 by analogy to gerontocracy,- it means, the rule of the youth.

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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 grow 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 behavior 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 would have

been different. But, the influence on publics of race--the

‘'“Charles X (1757-1836) was King of France from 1824 to 1830.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. term race taken in its national meaning— is not less signifi­

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 beliefs, 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 begin 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 believe 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.

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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 by 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 will go--there are the crowds

★ In his fine work on the Principles of Sociology the American Giddmgs speaks, incidentally, of the important role played by the newspapers in the Civil War, And, in this con­ 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 when it has been the mouthpiece of a command­ ing personality, a Garrison, a Greeley, . , . Besides, the public does not realize that behind the curtain, in the news­ paper office, the man of ideas who 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,

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or the publics which are convinced and fanatic, and crowds

or publics which 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 despotism or their dogmatism, if

less sharp than that of crowds, is, on the contrary, far

more tenacious and durable.

Whether believing or desiring, crowds differ accord­

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 body 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 bond and the social bond 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 out­ growth of the public; for the public itself is the transfor­ mation of an organized social group, party, sect, or ’• corporation.

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whims with the crowds of flagellants that, in the same

period, were summoned by the preaching of monks and pro­

claimed their faith along the roads. We will not confuse

the praying and processional crowds that the clergy led to

Lourdes"'" with the howling revolutionary crowds incited by

2 a Jacobin, or with the pitiful and famished crowds of

strikers led by a trade union., Rural crowds, which are

harder 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 become 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 authori­

tarian and tyrannical. This is due to the fact that through

The famous Roman Catholic shrine of our Lady of Lourdes in southwestern France, which was instituted after the visions of Bernadette Soubirous in 1859, and which is visited by more than two million pilgrims from all over the world annually. 2 Member of the famous political club of the French Revolution which was officially called the Society of the Friends of the Constitution. 3 Name given originally to an insurrection of the peasants in northeastern France against the nobles in 1358 which was marked by appalling atrocities.

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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 adora­

tion, from a fit of anger to a fit of gaiety. Economic and

industrial crowds, like rural crowds, are much more homoge­

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 believing 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 intoler­

ant, precisely 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 propa­

gated their enthusiasm for this or the other artist, for

The reference is to the religious controversy initi­ ated by the teachings of Arius in the fourth century.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 possible justifica­

tion of this faith. Thus, when 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 between 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, born of the illu­

sion that they are omnipotent, and their total loss of the

sense of moderation, resulting from the excess of emotions

mutually exalted. Between 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

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are less pronounced. Publics, like crowds, are intolerant,

conceited, and presumptuous. Under the name of publie

opinion, they believe that everything must yield to them,

even truth when 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 accelera­

tion of currents of intellectual exchange, the sense of

moderation becomes increasingly lost in it? In this spirit

people are overrated or rejected with the same haste. The

literary critics themselves, turning into the complacent

echo of the tendencies of their readers, hardly know how tc

grade or measure their judgments: they too are either

acclaiming or insulting. How far away are we already from

the brilliant 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 proportion than publics of passion and of action,

whereas believing, idealist crowds exist in a smaller pro­

portion than emotional, turbulent crowds. It is not just

the religious public, born of churches, or the esthetic pub­

lic born of schools of art, that is driven by a credo and an

ideal, but also the scientific and the philosophical publics,

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in their numerous varieties, even the economic public which,

by translating wants, idealizes them. Therefore, through

the transfiguration of all social groups into publics, the

world gradually intellectualizes itself. As to publics of

action, one would think that, properly speaking, these pub­

lics could not exist if he did not know that, born of politi­

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 productive than that of

* the crowds.

VII

This is easily proved. Whether created primarily by

either common beliefs or by common consent, crowds can pre­

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 pub­ lics, which often takes the form of a duel between their publicists. But, it is extremely rare to have the confronta­ 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 with 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 Vienna . . . or even in Paris

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their passivity or activity. They are expectant, attentive,

demonstrative, or acting, Publics present the same varie­

ties .

Expectant crowds are those which, assembled in a

theater before the rising of the curtain, or around a guillo­

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, having no relation to its purpose

which is sometimes insignificant. It is even more intense

and exaggerated in expectant crowds thaji in expectant pub­

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 him 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 black horse of a general.. A general

observation: expectant crowds are always much more patient

than individuals in similar cases. During the Franco-Russian

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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 beginning

of the procession 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 know how 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., Why 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 present,

As long as no manifestation 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 parade--everyone is impressed by the spectacle

of the resigned or cheerful attitude of his neighbors, and

unconsciously reflects their resignation or their cheerful­

ness. But if someone--when for example in a theater it can

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. serve to shorten the delay--takes the initiative to show his

impatience, he is soon imitated step by step and the impa­

tience of each individual is doubled by that of the others.

Individuals in crowds simultaneously attain the highest

degree of both mutual moral attraction and mutual physical

repulsion (an antithesis which does not exist for publics).,

Indeed, while they nudge one another with 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,

Attentive 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 per­

formed, Their attention--as well as their mattention--is

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, when it is not large; but, if instead of number­

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

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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 audi­

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 behind several rows of per­

sons, they saw nothing. All they enjoyed was hearing the

more or less expressive and deceptive noise of the carriages

However, back home, they described this spectacle in good

faith, as if they had really witnessed 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.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. at a distance of two hundred leagues from Paris, was looking

at a photograph of the imperial procession 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

conviction 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 banners 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, become demonstrative

once they have reached a certain point of excitement. They

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demonstrate not only indirectly,, through crowds born of them

but also and primarily 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 bloodthirsty 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 demonstra­

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 believes to be true or wants to be true

Let us deal with the acting crowds, 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 coher­

ence and coordination inherent in their actions? Organized

corporations, sects, and associations are productive as well

as destructive. The bridge building orders''’ m the Middle

Ages constructed bridges, the monks of the West cleared

~'~Freres pontifes

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regions and founded towns; the Jesuits, in Paraguay, carried

out the most curious experiment in cooperative community

living'*' that has ever been successfully attempted; the cor­

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 how many prisons that were

broken 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 know which is mere disas­

trous, hate or love, the curses or the enthusiasms of crcwds

When, prey to cannibalistic frenzy, they howl, they are

horrible indeed, But when they grovel at the feet of one

of their human 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 phaIansterlenne: m the manner of the utopian society conceived by the French social reformer, Charles Fourier (1772-1837),

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like Masaniello,1 a wild beast like Marat, a quackish general 2 like Boulanger, Even when they surround a rising hero, such

as Bonaparte 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

particular that crowds display all their enthusiasm. The

glorification of this monster, the worshipping of his ''sacred

heart" exhibited 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, cowardice has had a rather small part, as if drowned

m general sincerity.

But, it must be said, there is an enormous variety cf

crowds of love, a variety that plays a very necessary and

beneficial role and serves as a counter-weight to all the

wrong done by all other types of gatherings. I wish to

speak of the holiday 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 minister of war in 1886, He was involved in political intrigues during the last years of his life

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hasten to s trike out from wha t 1 said above about the non­

productive character of crowds everything that is materialis­

tic and narrow. Surely, all productivity does not consist

in building houses and in manufacturing 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 momen­

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 between two storms--

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 crowds,

‘'“The Fete de la Federation, on July 14, 17 90, was held 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,

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forget the mourning 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 people gains experience m uniting into a single

bundle all wills.

In short, the crowds in general are far from deserv­

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 holiday 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 demonstra­

tions, and popular enthusiasm were unknown. This insipid

colorless country would certainly be far less impregnated

with a profound 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 between these frenzies

has preserved, like Florence m the Middle Ages, the custom

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of large religious or secular celebrations, of common

rejoicing, of games, processions, and carnivals., Thus,

crowds, gatherings, jostlings. and mutual influences among

men 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 seen,

This is probably the reason for the strict attitude sociolo­

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 conciliatory 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 mis­

using the metaphor? Is not the public, that widely dis­

persed crowd, essentially passive? 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 demon­

strates through them, and it imposes itself on the statesmen

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. who become its executors. This is what we call the power cf

public opinion. It is true that this power attests espe­

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 experi­

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 because it is a

more deliberate and calculated action, even when violent

The good this action produces is not limited to the every­

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 compassion, 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

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ravages caused by furious crowds.. Publics are much less

blind and much more durable crowds whose more perspicacious

anger accumulates and endures for months and years.

Therefore, after all that has been said about the

crowds, I am surprised that nothing has been said about the

crimes of publics- For, there certainly are criminal,

ferocious, and bloodthirsty publics just as there are crimi­

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.

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which publics are the object, let us here open a parenthesis

to note how inadequate is the very individualistic concept

of legal bond,^ as the jurists have always defined it so far

and how much it needs to be revised to correspond 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 personal relation­

ship among the persons involved This worked before the

invention of printing, when 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 business relationship, the customer was always per­

sonally known by the trader, the beneficiary by the doner,

the debtor by the creditor. Thus, the bilateral 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 particular persons,

and more and more to collectivities that, through the news­

papers, we address ourselves, with which we enter into

Lien de droit

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. relations of all kinds, we engage commercially through adver­

tisement and politically 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 withdraw m favor of his republican opponent if he

obtained fewer votes than he. He did receive fewer votes,

but he failed to withdraw 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 Transformat 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 drolt franca is (Paris; v, Giard et E, Briere, 1891).

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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 delib­

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 pub­

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 proportion 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 him 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 know perfectly well.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 pub­

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 permanently 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 govern­ 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 Onqines de JLa France contemporaine, which was reissued m 1899 m eleven volumes

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a hoarder, he wants to make people eat hay. Huez was a man

known for his kindness, who had rendered many services to

the city.. This did not matter., On September 9, three wagon­

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,

kicked and beaten, and struck on the head with a wooden 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 hay in h is

mouth," There followed lootings and the destruction of

houses and, as a notary public recorded, "more than six

ic hundred bottles wre 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 representa­

tives, had lists cf outlaws drawn up or passed laws of con­

fiscation in order to obtain the spoils of their victims.

Faire manger du foin au peuple.,

Revolution, Vol, I. p.. 88. In the same period, the crowd did worse things at Caen: Major de Belsunce was dis­ membered, like La Perousse in the Fiji Islands, and a woman ate his heart,

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No, they were inspired by vengeance, like the family murders

of barbarian clans, They were dictated by the need to pun­

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 vindic­

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 betrayed 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

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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 Prus­

sians huge sums of money, a hundred or two hundred thousand

francs, This was said of men who at the same time were very

honorable 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 homi­

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 bloody result,

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.

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they are overcome by panic. They have true collective hallu­

cinations: Men in crowds believe that they see or hear

things that once as individuals they neither see ncr hear.

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 Tame, Towards

the end cf July, 1789, under the impact of the national dis­

turbances that had aroused feverish gatherings everywhere,

m the streets and m the public places, a rumor had grad­

ually spread that soon invaded the regions cf the Angoumcis

of the Pengord, and Auvergne: ten thousand, twenty thou­

sand brigands were coming; they had 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 unmis­

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 brigands, it comes from elsewhere"; from

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 indi­

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 gladiator for its

pleasure, was it not savagely homicidal despite the attenu­

ating circumstances derived from hereditary 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 whom a secret

affinity has brought together, and whose perversity has been

aroused by their grouping, They are aroused to the point

that actually they are less criminal than they are criminal!

insane,^ if we could use this term about individual crimi­

nality to describe collective criminality. The cnminalIv

insane individual, this dangerous and repulsive lunatic who

kills and commits crimes by morbid impulse, but whose mor­

bidity is less a deviation than the exaggeration of the

Aliene criminel

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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,

How 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 because of an outburst cf anger. It is especially

capable of criminal complacency towards its chiefs of

manutenqolisme^ as the Italians say. But, why be concerned

with the public's own crimes, since it is equivalent to pub­

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 them­

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

Manutengolisme: complicity; manutengolo is the Italian term for the receiver of stolen goods.

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often been 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, property and life of the citizens? Dees it net fre­

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 persecution of the Protestants

under Louis XIV. and so many others) The September Massa­

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 practiced in some cities Are

net these grcup offenses committed with the more or less

conscious complicity of an entire public? As a general rule,

XSt. 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 Medicis.

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publics, and, at their head, publicists who are even more so.

Publicists derive their power mainly from the instinc­

tive knowledge of the psychology of publics. They know their

likes and dislikes; that with them one might with impunity

take the liberty of presenting pornographic descriptions,

that crowds would not tolerate. Indeed, theater crowds, for

example, have a collective modesty that checks the individu- *1 ual cynicism of the persons composing it. This modesty is

lacking from the particular publics of certain newspapers.

We may even say about the press publics that they are charac­

terized by collective impudence made up of relative modes­

ties , But, whether 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 enthusiasm does not

lead far; but to offer them a motive and an object of hate

is to give free rein to their activity which, we know, is

Crowds sometimes also present a collective honesty made up of collective dishonesty. In 1720, after a fever of financial speculations, the English Parliament, "almost all the members of which had taken part in that speculative debauche, condemned it as a body and ordered that its pro­ moters be persecuted for having corrupted public figures," (Claudio Janet, le_ Capital) .

■''Claudio Janet, Le Capital, la Speculation et la finance au XIX Siecle (Paris: E. Plon & Co., 1892).

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destructive as long as it is expressed by definite acts.

Hence the success of the proscription lists in the riots.

What the angry crowds want is a head 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 malignity of publics,

their inspirers lead them only too easily 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 unity 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

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and mutual penetration. To me, this appears to be the con­

clusion to be drawn from this lengthy study.

But, I hasten to add that it would be 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

individual 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 contradic­

tion that their arguments contain. In general, they show

so much admiration for allegedly anonymous and collective

great works only because they wish to express their contempt

for an individual genius other than their own. It is

therefore worth 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 himself from the crowd in order to think and become one with it in order to act" : II faut se separer. pour penser. de la foule, Et s'jr confondre pour agir. Cited in G. Tarde, "Appendice: La Psychologie des foules," Essais et melanges sociologigues (Lyon: A. Storck, 1895), p. 425..

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Chateaubriand and Rousseau, has professed the theory accord­

ing to which "the people is the effective force of a work 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 achieve­

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 diffi­

culty thinking men have to escape the obsession cf fascinat­

ing agitation. The descent in a diving bell is difficult in

a very rough sea. The leaders given prominence by our

modern 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 every­

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 book Ancient Law (1861) was very influential in political theory and m anthropology.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 243 A80

intellectuals, 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 pas­

tures by the mountain people is not at all the notion of the

services rendered by these natural water-castles. 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 sum­

mits cf mankind 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 believe that it will

be the strength of their resistance, Let us beware, lest

they should break down.

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PUBLIC OPINION AND CONVERSATION

PUBLIC OPINION

I

In modern times, public opinion is to the public what

the soul is to the body, and the study of one naturally

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, but let us

see to what this objection is reduced. What is public

opinion? How is it born? What are its various sources?

How is it expressed while developing, and whether by being

expressed, it grows, as is shown by universal suffrage and

journalism, the modes of its expression today. What is its

productivity and social importance? How is it transformed?

And toward what outlet, if there is an outlet, are its

multiple 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

blended but which should be distinguished for the purpose of

244

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. analysis: public opinion in the proper sense of the word,

which is a collection of judgments, and general will,

which 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

Opinion must not be confused with two other parts of the

social mind, which at once feed and limit it, and which are

in a perpetual dispute with 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 burden to the living, presumptions. The

other is what I would like to give, a collective abbreviated

name, Reason.'*’ By this term I mean personal, relatively

rational--although often irrational--judgments of an elite

which isolates itself and thinks, and which stays out of the

popular main 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,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. reason, clearly 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 enumeration the Parliaments, Chambers or Senates,

Aren't their members elected precisely to deliberate in com­

plete independence and to serve as a brake to the public

course of action? But there is a long way 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 knowingly submit to the

decisions of a reason that they deem 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. Against 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. Which of these two rivals does

Opinion hurt most? This depends on those who direct it.

When 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

destroying it, a rather dangerous undertaking. But, when

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the leadership of the crowd is left to anyone who comes

along, it is easier for him, by relying on tradition, to

arouse public opinion against reason, although the latter

eventually triumphs„

Everything would be for the best if the role of

opinion was limited to popularizing reason in order to con­

secrate it into tradition. In this way, the reason of

today would become the public opinion of tomorrow, and the

tradition of the day after tomorrow. But, instead of serv­

ing as a link between its neighbors, Public Opinion is fond

of taking sides in their quarrels. Thus, sometimes, intoxi­

cated by the popularity of new doctrines, it ransacks the

customary ideas or institutions before it is in a position

to replace them? at other times, coming under the influence

of Custom 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

by 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

whether it is primarily a question 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

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of conversation— are the main factors in public opinion, not

forgetting— it goes without saying— tradition and reason,

which are ever present and leave their mark on it. The

k factors of tradition, in addition to public opinion itself,

are upbringing 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, where reason is formulated, it

develops out of its characteristic sources of observation,

experience, inquiry, or, in any case, reasoning and deduc­

tion based on the texts.

The contests or alliances of these three forces,

their clashes, their reciprocal encroachments, their inter­

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 bloody 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 moreover ambiguous; it means channel or source. Here, it means channel. For conversa­ tion and education only convey the ideas of which opinion and tradition are made up. The sources are always individ­ ual efforts, small or great inventions.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. like the wind, but also, like it, expansive, constantly

aspiring to become international, like reason. Generally

speaking, we can say that the cliff of tradition is con­

stantly being eroded by the overflow of Public Opinion, an

ebbless tide. public Opinion is stronger the weaker 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, which 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 may 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

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 believed himself to be alone in his

understanding no one would feel close to and, because of

this, no one would be drawn into an association with those

who think as he does, even though he may 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 which then gradually 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 by its more rapid and

more brilliant radiation, or because, though less widespread

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 from the sky, like something

with an impersonal, and therefore more fascinating, origin.

Everyone thought of it as connected with the tonal quality

of a voice, with a face, with a familiar personality from

whom it originated and who 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 may 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 clear— play an immense role in the fusion and the inter-penetration of the opinions of various groups and in their propagation. Through the demon­ strations, it is the most violent opinions that become aware sooner and more clearly that thevco-exist, and in this way their expansion is strangely favored.

"''The author's term for demonstrate is manifeste.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 played 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 prodigiously long interval that separates these

two historical phases, the importance of public opinion

suffered a great decline, explained by 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 cur­

rents of ideas, or rather the whirlwinds 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 were interested in national politics, they dis­

cussed them only among themselves. They had only the vaguest

idea of the way the same questions were solved in the

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neighboring towns. There was no "public opinion," but

thousands of separate opinions with no link whatsoever

among them.

The book first, then and with greater effectiveness

the newspaper, provided this link. The periodical press per­

mitted these primary groups of unanimous individuals to form

a secondary, and very superior, grouping whose components

are closely associated without ever having seen or known one

another. This gave rise to important differences, and among

them the following: in the primary groups, opinions are

weighed, rather than are counted,^ while in the secondary

and much larger group, in which one participates blindly

without seeing the others' opinions can only be counted not

weighed. Without knowing it, the Press has therefore worked

to create the power of the numbers, and to decrease the

power of quality, if not of intelligence.

By the same token, the Press has suppressed the con­

ditions that made possible the absolute power of rulers,

which was greatly favored, by 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 country exist as such when its

The author uses the Latin terms ponderantur and numerantur.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 Fair,1 except on some rare occasions

when 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 mind. There

were only local minds motivated separately by their fixed

ideas or fixed emotions. But the king, through his func­

tionaries, was aware of these very diverse states of mind,

and by incorporating them in his mind, by the summary know­

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. Only in his person did

^Philip IV the Fair, King of France, reigned from 1285 to 1314.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 atten­

tion toward its representatives and developing some interest--

though infinitely less than at present— 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,

by travelers on foot or on horse-back, by wandering monks,

or by 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

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. hereditary local groups composed of relatives or traditional

friends in the market-towns and fiefdoms felt united in a

temporary grouping.

II

The development of postal services, by increasing

public correspondence first and private correspondence later*

the development of roads, by multiplying new person to per­

son contacts; the development of standing armies, by causing

soldiers from all provinces to meet and to fraternize on the

battle fields, and finally, the development of royal courts,

by summoning 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 whatever

is local, which, despite its intrinsic interest, would for­

merly 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

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission 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 which was already adult or rather adoles­

cent at this time. A century and a half ago, who 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 reputation of Voltaire and partly because

of the extra-judiciary interest that the emotions of the

times caused: an interest in no way local but, on the con­

trary, one that could not be more general since rightly or

wrongly it concerned judiciary errors, constituting the

trial of our institutions, of the whole judicial system..

At a different period 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 1880's and the 1890's. 2 Jean Calas, a merchant 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, began proceedings in 1307 against the order of Templars, and finally suppressed it.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 know 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 bloody 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 superim­

posed layers of the public mind. Only the proportion of

these various layers in terms of their importance and of

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their volume, has considerably varied, and it is easy to

see in which direction. The further back one goes into the

past the more he finds local opinion to be dominant. The

accomplishment of journalism has been to gradually national­

ize and even to increasingly internationalize the public

mind.

Journalism 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 modified by the goal that the journalist pursues, and the

party for which he speaks. Actually, this news, that is

reality, is an impulse that gradually becomes irresistible.

In expressing public opinion, the newspapers began by convey­

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.

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III

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 time, the

conversations of individuals, even of those who do not read

newspapers, but who, by talking with newspaper readers are

forced to follow in the groove of their borrowed thoughts.,

A pen is enough to put into motion thousands of tongues„

Parliaments existing before the Press were so pro­

foundly different from Parliaments since the Press that

they seem to have only the name in common. They differ by

their origin, by the nature of their mandate, by their oper­

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 entirely 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, were 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

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in a narrow enclosure, or radiating with some intensity only

in the towns where these gatherings took place,, So, when

the town in question was a capital city, like London or

Paris, its municipal 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 Constituent 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

with 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 manifesta­

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 interpene­

trate .

The old parliaments were groups of heterogeneous

mandates, related to different interests, rights, and prin­

ciples; the new parliaments are groups of homogeneous mandat

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. l19 262

even when contradictory, because they are related to identical

concerns conscious of their identity. Moreover, the old depu­

ties were different from one another on account of the orig­

inal procedures in the mode of their election; they were all

based on the principle of electoral inequality and dissimi­

larity of various individuals and on the eminently personal

character of the right to vote, The power of the majority

was not yet born nor recognized as legitimate. For this

ver;y reason, in the deliberations of assemblies--thus elected,

a simple numerical majority was not considered by anyone as

having the force of law.

In the more "backward" States, unanimity 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 majority conceived 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 spreading everywhere until

it acquires the wisdom to reform itself. In spite of evi­

dent objections, it is admitted that all must comply before

the gravest decision taken by half the voices plus one.

Universal suffrage and the omnipotence of parliamentary

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 before the

Press never thought of claiming. They managed to become

equal, then superior to the king only when the*'- incarnated

national consciousness as well as, and then better than, the

king, accentuating by expressing the already existing public

opinion and general will, which, so to speak, play a role in

their deliberations. Parliaments lived with them in such

intimate union that the monarch could not continue 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, even 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 respectfully and consider themselves

fortunate in obtaining from him, from King John,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. for example, a charter, thus recognizing, not by supersti­

tion but by reason, by a profound and secret social logic

the necessity of his prerogative. Monarchies existing

before 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 been achieved

without and better than by them. They can continue to exis

however, but only by being as different from the old mon­

archies as modern parliaments are from the parliaments of

the past. The supreme merit of the monarch of old was to

constitute the unity and consciousness of the nation; the

monarch of today can have no other justification except to

express this unity which is constituted outside himself by

the continuity of a national public opinion aware of itself

and to conform 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 pronounced sense of nationality that politically char­

acterizes the times in which we live? Is it not due to the

^The Magna Carta to which King John set his seal in June, 1215.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Press the fact that as our internationalism grew, so did our

nationalism which even though it appears to be the negation

of the former could very well be its complement? If in the

place of decreasing loyalism growing nationalism has become

the new form of our patriotism, should we not recognize this

frightful productive power? We may be surprised to see that

the more states influence and imitate one another, and are

assimilated and morally 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 paradoxical result is the most logical

one in the world. While the exchange of goods, of ideas, of

examples of all kinds between either neighboring or distant

peoples was accelerated and multiplying, the, thanks to news­

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 increas­

ingly to coincide with those of the principal languages.

There are states in which the fight of the languages and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 266 that of nationalities are but one and the same. The reason

is that national feeling was revived by journalism, and that

the truly effective range of the newspapers stops at the

borders of the language in which they are written.

The influence of books, which 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 who 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 wit­

ness to national existence, but it is the newspapers which

stir up national life and which give rise to the unified move­

ments of feelings and wills in their imposing daily fluctua­

tions. Instead of, like newspapers, deriving their own inter­

est from the definite timeliness of their information, books

seek to interest primarily by the general and abstract charac­

ter of the ideas they contain. Therefore, they are more apt

to create a humane current, as did our eighteenth century 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

positively conceive has nothing in common with the "humane­

ness" deified by the Encyclopedists, whose ideas on this

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. point were made dogma by Auguste Comte. Consequently there

is ground to think that it is the primacy of the book over

the newspaper as the educator of public opinion, that ex­

plains the cosmopolitan, abstract character that the public

mind tended to develop, at the beginning of the French

Revolution.

CONVERSATION

I

We have just had a first, quick glance at our subject

in order to give an idea of its complexity. After having

defined opinion, we have made a special effort to show its

relationship 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

public opinion that we have already recognized as the most

continuous and most universal, the little invisible fountain

head 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:

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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 who speak after hav­ ing thought, and who continue to form centers of instruction at different points of the society, from which reasoned errors and truths gradually reach even the remotest city limits where they become established as articles of faith.

If we did not talk, even though newspapers might

appear— and assuming this, we cannot conceive of their publi­

cation-- they would have no durable and profound action on

the mind;- they would be like a vibrating chord without a

sound board. On the other hand, if newspapers and even

speeches were missing, and yet conversation succeeded in

making progress without this nourishment--something that is

also inconceivable— it could, in the long run, supplement

to a certain degree the social role of the tribune and the

press, as a factor shaping public opinion.

By conversation I mean all dialogue without direct, or

immediate utility, when one speaks for the sake of speaking,

for pleasure, for play, or out of civility. This definitic-n

excludes both the court interrogations and the diplomatic or

commercial negotiations and councils, and even the scientific

congresses, although these abound in superfluous small talk.

It does not exclude social flirtations or, in general, love

talk, despite the frequent transparency of its goal, which

does not prevent it as such from being pleasant.. It includes,

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on the other hand, ail the solemn conversations about

wealth among barbarians and the savage. If I were only con­

cerned with polite and cultivated conversation, as a special

art, I could hardly 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 blooming 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 primi­

tive peoples do not fail to have a great social importance,

Never, except in a duel, do we observe someone with

all the amount of attention of which we are capable as we

do in talking with him, This is the most constant, the most

important, and the least noticed result of conversation.,

* 1 It marks the highest point of spontaneous at tent ion that

men pay to one another and through which they influence one

another to a far greater degree than in any other social

if The clear, profound studies of Mr, Ribot on "spon­ taneous attention" the importance of which he demonstrated, are well known,

^Th, A. Ribot (1839-1916), French philosopher and editor of the Revue Philosophique, who was known for his work in psychology.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. relationship, By causing them to come together, it makes

them communicate with one another by 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, which 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 by language but also by 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 charmer, in the magic sense of the word. Telephone con­

versations, where most of these elements are missing, tend

to be boring when they are not purely utilitarian.

Let us sketch, as briefly as possible the psychology

or rather the sociology so to speak of conversation. 'What

are its varieties? What have been its successive phases,

Despots are well aware of this. Therefore, they suspiciously watch the talks of their subjects and prevent them as much as possible from talking among themselves. Authoritarian housewives do not like to see their servants talk with other people's servants, for they know that this is how they "get ideas." From the time of Cato the Elder, Roman ladies would gather together to chatter, and the fierc censor looked with disapproval on these small feminine cir­ cles, these beginnings of the feminist salons. In his advice to his overseer, he says about the wife 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."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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

Conversations vary greatly according to the character

of the talkers, their degree of culture, social standing,

rural or urban origin, professional habits, and religion,

They 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 world has been measured. The statistics published

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

Japan, Mr. Bellessort notes "the slowness of Japanese convei

sations, the noddings of the head, the immobile bodies

kneeling around a brazier." All the travellers have noticed

the slow speech of the Arabsand other primitive peoples,

Does the future belong to the peoples who speak slowly or- to

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. those who speak rapidly? Probably, to those who speak

rapidly but I believe 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 psycho-physics. For the time

being, the elements are lacking.

Conversation between inferior and superior is of an

entirely different tone, even of a different speed, than it

is between equals— between relatives than between strangers--

between persons of the same sex than between men and women.

Small town conversations among fellow-citizens, who are

close to one another because of hereditary friendships, are,

and ought to be, quite different from big city conversations

among educated people, who know one another very slightly.

The former as well as the latter speak about what is best

known or most common among them, where ideas are concerned.

Among the latter, only, what is common, in this respect is

shared also with a host of other persons since they do not

know 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 more familiar, except the

peculiarities of the life and character of other persons

among their friends: hence, their propensity to gossip and

to slander. If there is less slander in the cultivated

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. circles of the capitals, it is not because there is less

wickedness there; but there is less raw material within 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-struggle 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 controversy and seeks the reconciliation of ide.-is

as he advances in age.

Let us also distinguish between compulsory conversa­

tion-regulated and ritualized ceremonial--and optional con­

versation. The latter generally takes place only among

equals, and equality 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 conversation-lutte and conversation-echanqe,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 31 274

than the obligation imposed on functionaries by decrees,

and on private citizens by etiquette, to pay periodic visits

to one another, during which 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 by their

inferiors, to sovereigns by their vassals, were primarily

for the purpose of bearing gifts which were at first spon­

taneous and irregular but later became customary 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 con­ 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 many countries, to bring candy and sweets. In the past, compliments as well as visits must have simply accompanied the gifts.. And, similarly, after the decline of the custom of gift giv­ ing compliments survived, but they were gradually mutualized and became conversation.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and it is thus perceived by many peasants in more backward

regions in their relations with persons of a superior rank,

Little by little, these two elements of the archaic visits

became dissociated, the gift becoming a tax and the talk

developing in its own way but not without keeping, even

among equals, something of its past ceremonial character.

This is the reason for those phrases and ritual formalities

with which every conversation begins and ends. Despite

their variations, all agree in showing a very vivid concern,

for the precious existence of the person addressed or a

strong desire to see him again, These phrases and formali­

ties, which are becoming shorter, but which, nevertheless,

remain the permanent framework of conversation, make of the

latter a true social institution,

Another origin of obligatory conversations must, have

been the profound boredom that loneliness causes in primi­

tive people, and the illiterate in general, when they have

leisure time. Then the inferior makes it a point of going,

even without a gift in hand, to provide companionship for

his superior, and talk with him in order to entertain him,

By this origin as well as by the other, the ritual framework

of compulsory conversation is easily understood,

As for optional conversations they originate in human

sociability which has always resulted in spontaneous exchar.gr

when peers and friends came into contact.

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II

Since we have just discussed the evolution of conver­

sation, should we not go further back to seek its first

seeds? Without any doubt, although I am not tempted to go

as far back as animal societies, as the twitterings of spar­

rows in the trees or the noisy crowing of crows in the air.

But, it may be confidently suggested that from the most

ancient beginnings of the articulated language and the lan­

guage of gestures, the pleasure of speaking for the sake of

speaking, in short, of conversing, must have been felt. The

creation 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 work 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 primitive men would speak

to one another, when they met at leisure, they began by sing­

ing together or by singing to one another. A surviving rem­

nant of these musical conversations may be seen in the alter­

nate songs of the shepherds in the eclogues,'*' as well as in

''‘Short pastoral poems.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the custom, still alive among the Eskimos, who sing against

someone instead of making fun of him, Also their alternate

satirical songs, like inoffensive and prolonged contests,

play the same role that animated debates do among us.

Another 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 between 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 commandments, From these

heights, by 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 monologue at first. Dialogue came only after­

wards, according to the law by which the unilateral always

precedes the reciprocal.

This law applied to the subject at hand is suscep­

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 mumb­

lings, one individual more gifted than the others had the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 278 35

monopoly of language; the others merely listened, able to

understand him only with some effort, but still unable to

imitate him. This special gift must 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 with their master. in a reverse way, later

on, the inferior spoke to those high 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 man 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. We know that the songs

addressed to Bacchus were the beginnings of Greek tragedy.

Through the survival of the chorus whose role continually

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. decreases, the evolution of Greek tragedy presents quite a

number of transitional steps between the monologue and the

dialogue„ Greek tragedy was originally, and has remained

to the end, a religious ceremony, which, like all religious

ceremonies in their last stage of development in superior

religions, comprises both ritual monologues and dialogues,

both prayers and conversations, But the need to talk gains

ground more and more over the need to pray,

People have always talked about what their priests

or their masters, their orators or their journalists have

taught them. Therefore, monologues pronounced by superiors

feed the dialogues among equals.. Let us add that very

rarely are the roles between two speakers perfectly equal.

Most often, one speaks much more than the other , Plato’s

dialogues are an example of this., The transition from mono­

logue to dialogue is proved in the evolution of parliamen

tary.eloquence. Solemn, emphatic, uninterrupted speeches

were usual in the old parliaments; they are very much the

exception in the new parliaments. The more we advance, the

more the sessions of the Houses of Deputies sound like dis­

cussions, if not of the salon type, at least of

In the legal ceremonies of primitive Rome (actions of the law) there are also ritual conversations, Were they preceded by monologues?

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the club or cafe type0 Between a speech in the French

Chamber of Deputies disturbed by frequent interruptions and

certain violent conversations, the distance is minimal,

One speaks to teach, beg, or command, or ask question

A question 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 born only after a long sharpen­

ing of the minds that followed centuries of preliminary

exercises that must have started in the most remote times,

It is not in the earliest periods of pre-history that

people talked the least or tried the least to talk.. As

conversation implies, above all, leisure, a certain way of

life, and opportunities for getting together, the rough

* i and often idle existence of primitive hunters or fishermen

In the paleolithic period called the Magdalen, when a naive art flourished, and when everything revealed a peaceful, happy population (on this subject see M. de Mor- tillet, _La Formation de la nationalite francaise), they talked undoubtedly a great deal in the beautiful barracks where they lived at that time. In the Lettres edifiantes there is very often a question of the taste that the savage hunters of America, and especially their women, have for conversation. A young woman convert :s praised by a

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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, who are both hunters and fishermen, talk a great

deal. This child people is already familiar with the prac­

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. Conversations 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 dis­

persed for longer periods of time. Shepherds, even the

nomads, Arabs or Tartars, are silent, If the bucolic

a missionary 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,

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poems of Virgil or Theocritus seem to indicate the contrary,

let us not forget that these two poets described the customs

of shepherds who were civilized because of the proximity of

large cities. On the other hand, pastoral life is linked to

a patriarchal system in which the virtue of hospitality is

practiced, a virtue which-~like the social hierarchy, also

born at this social stage--might be the origin of obligatory

conversation _

One of the causes which must have most delayed the

introduction of conversation, before the establishment of a

strong hierarchy, is the fact that unrefined people, when

among equals, tend to speak all at the same time and to inter-

A rupt one another constantly. There is no fault harder to

correct in children than this. To let the speaker talk is

In his trip to Tripolitania (1840), Pezanc is impressed by the deafening noise at the audiences of a bey; "The Mameluks and the Negroes," he says, "joined the discus­ sion and ended by talking all at the same time, which created an uproar that made me dizzy the first time that I attended these debates, I asked why the bey was confronted by so many obstacles in his decisions, and what were the motives for these loud discussions. Unable to answer me categorically, they told me that this was their way of rea­ soning among themselves," There are exceptions. According to the Lettres edifiantes, the Illinois were exceptionally gifted in the art of conversation. "They understand jokes very well; they do not know 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 perfectly idle life; they talk while smoking a pipe, and that is all The women work, but they do not miss the opportunity to chatter."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. a matter of courtesy that one accepts to practice at first

only as a favor to a superior; it is practiced with regard

to everybody only once the habit has been developed, This

habit., therefore, could become prevalent in a country except

after long previous discipline. 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 obligatory

conversations, not optional ones,

E'rom this point of view, agricultural life, which

alone has made possible the establishment of strongly 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 restriction 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 recapitulation according to which the phases through

which the mind of the child passes in its gradual develop­

ment, are probably in some vague way, the compressed repeti­

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

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in the earliest ages of man. Long before they speak in dia­

logues, children start asking questions. This interrogation,

to which they subject their parents and other adults, is for

them the first unilateral form of talk. Later, they narrate

and listen to tales, or they alternately narrate and listen.

Finally, they make remarks, they express general observa­

tions, which are the embryos of discourse; and, when dis­

course in turn becomes mutual, we have discussion, and then

conversation. Indeed the child is credulous long before he

learns to contradict. He passes through a phase of contra­

diction just, as previously he went through a phase of inter­

rogation ,

But, asking questions, narrating, discoursing, dis­

cussing, all this is the intellectual exercise of the child

The exercise of the will comes first.

The child is commanded and commands long before he

is taught and teaches, The use of .imperative comes before

that of the indicative. The child fights before he dis­

cusses or even argues, He feels the antagonism of the

desires of others before he feels that of the judgments of

the others, He can feel the antagonism of these desires,

and then of beliefs, only after he has experienced their

contagion. His docility and credulity are the necessary

and prior condition for his spirit of disobedience and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. contradiction. The child is, therefore, one who discusses

and talks because he is, above all, an imitator,

If based on these remarks we conjectured what the

past of conversation in the human races must have been, we

would first infer that, despite its very remote pre-historic

antiquity, talking could not be traced back to the very ori­

gins of mankind, It must have been preceded not only by a

long period of silent imitation, but. also later on, by a

stage in which people were fond of narrating or listening

to narration, and not of talking. This is the stage cf epic

poetry. The Greeks could well have been the most talkative

race of all, it is no less true that in Homer's time they

talked little except to ask one another questions . All

their conversations were useful ones. The Homeric heroes

all like to tell stories, but converse very ljibtie.'*' Or

rather, m their conversations they merely take turns tell­

ing stories, "In the first light of dawn," says Menelaus

in the Odyssey, "Telemachus and I will exchange long talks

and we will mutually entertain each other," Exchanging

long talks, was what was considered conversation in that

period„

^Les heros homeriques sont tres conteurs mais tres peu causeurs,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 compassion for me .... It is not the time to talk with him about the oak and the rock, just as young men and young women do when 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 geste1

in which conversations are so sparse, modern novels, start­

ing with those of Madame de Scudery, are distinguished by

the ever-increasing abundance of dialogues.

In order to understand well the historical transfor­

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 whether

Epic or heroic poems of the Middle Ages.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 287 or not national religion limits to some extent freedom of

conversation and forbids, under the threat of more or less

severe penalties, flirting, slander-mongering, and "licenti­

ousness of spirit"; opposes the progress of the sciences

and popular education; it imposes the rule of silence on

certain groups, such as Christian 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 with

subjects that the tribune or electoral life furnish it; in

an absolute monarchy, with literary criticism or psycholog­

ical observations, for want of more important topics made

dangerous by the law of "lese-majeste." 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 would find everybody deep in politics, the sole subject of conversa­ tion in Spain and in all the Spanish republics of South America.

"''Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842), a French navigator who made a notable voyage of discovery to the antarctic. A true scholar, he combined to his professional training a knowledge of botany and entomology and was proficient in several languages.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. causes of which I have already mentioned the most important-

leisure, the satisfaction of more urgent needs, In a word,

there is not a single aspect of social activity which could

not be intimately connected with conversation and which

would not be affected by changes in it., I mention only as

a reminder the influence that certain peculiarities in cus­

toms of less interest may have on it. The tone and rate of

speed of conversations are influenced by body posture while

talking. Conversations when one is seated are the most

thoughtful, and most substantial. They are also the most

common among us, but not in the court of Louis XIV, where,

since the privilege of sitting on a stool was granted only

One of the big obstacles to the establishment of consumer Cooperative Societies, which are so advantageous to the consumer, is, according to an excellent observer, "the habit of gossiping that prevails in the. stores. It is there that people meet, there that they exchange the news of the neighborhood and all the petty gossip which is so dear to women, and which attaches them to the shcpowners, It is even this tendency in women that causes certain societies to decide to sell (exceptionally) Jco _the public (and not only to their members), because then the shop no longer has a special look, and women have the feeling of going to an ordinary store " We can see by this how strong and irresistible the current of conversation is once it has been launched. We have another proof of this in the proven difficulty of keeping a secret, when we know the secret is likely to interest the person to whom we are talk­ ing, even when we know that it is in our interest to say nothing. This difficulty, so great at times, can serve to measure the force of the sympathetic inclination, of the need for mental communication with our fellow-men.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to duchesses, others talked standing up. The ancients,

talking from their triclinia,1 particulary appreciated con­

versation while lying down, which was not the least delight­

ful if we judge from the characteristic slowness, the drawn

out and fluid charm 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, by its

greater solemnity, differs profoundly from speech while

seated which is more casual and brief,, As for speech while

lying down or while strolling, I am not familiar with many

examples, Another observation. Very often, and the more so

the closer one is to primitive 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 drinking 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 which conversation is carried out, with people lying prone on straw mats ,"

’''Three couches arranged around a table.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. It is clear that the task we are engaged in while talking

influences the manner in which we talk. Another 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 kind 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 proportionately as the original mul­

tiplicity of languages decreases, and as their territory

In his book, Franc a is d 1 au~] ourd ' hui , which seems to have been purposely written 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 Southern France for conversation and their inclination to hyperbole.

■^Edmond Demolins was an exponent of progressive edu cation in France,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. grows, The number of conversation subjects increases when

the sciences advance and expand, when 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

migration 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 completely different and new topics are sub­

stituted to the old. In brief, speaking the same language,

having knowledge of the same things and ideas, and having

leisure are the necessary 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 work 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 country to the cities favors con­ versation, and causes it to change, But, in the small towns, where idlers abound and where everybody knows every­ body else, is there not more talking than in the large ones? No, for subjects of conversation do not exist. In these places conversation worthy of the name is merely the echo of conversation in the big cities.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. productive with the aid of the forces of nature, contributes

to the progress of conversation.

This shows the tremendous influence that the chief

inventions of our century have had on it. Thanks to them,

the press was able to flood the whole world and impregnate

it to the lowest popular classes. The greatest forces influ­

encing modern conversation are the book, and newspapers.

Before the deluge of the latter nothing was more different-,

from one. market-town to another and from one. country to

another, than the subject, the tone, the pace of conversa­

tion, nor more monotonous in each of them from one period of

time to another, At present, the opposite is true. The

Press unifies and animates conversations, makes them uni­

form in space and diversifies them in time. Every morning,

the newspapers offer their public the conversation of the

day. We can almost always be sure, of the subject of con­

versation among men in a club, in a smoking room, or in a

waiting room. But, the subject changes every day or every

week, except in cases, fortunately very rare, of national

or international obsession with a fixed subject. This grow­

ing similarity of simultaneous conversations over an increas­

ingly vaster geographic territory is one of the most, impor­

tant characteristics of our times, for it goes far in expiat­

ing the growing power of Public Opinion against tradition or

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against, reason itself. This dissimilarity between successive

conversations also explains the instability of public opinion,

which 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 acci­

dental, partly 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 appeared somewhere one after the other, having been pop­

ularized 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, by the evolution of conversation we meant a con •

tinual, spontaneous unfolding, we would be in error, This

observation is applicable to all kinds of evolution; indeed

k But, whether similar or varied, they also bear wit­ ness to tremendous progress, from the social point of view, for, the fusion of classes and professions, the moral unity of the motherland, can be real only from the day when a sustained conversation becomes possible among individuals belonging to the most different classes and professions.. We owe this blessing, in return for so many evils, to the daily press.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. observed closely, it seems to resolve itself in intermittent

insertions, successive and superimposed graftings, and new

seeds, In a small town, hypothetically closed to the read­

ing of newspapers and without easy communication with the

outside, as in pre-Revoluticnary times, however much one may

talk, conversation never rises of its own accord above the

level of gossip. Without the Press, country gentlemen could

well be talkative, they would almost never speak of anything

except hunting and genealogy, and the most voluble magistrates

would speak only of law or of "changes of jurisdiction" just

as German cavalry officers, according to Schopenhauer, talk

only of women and horses.

The wave-like propagation of Imitation, by degrees

both assimilating and civilizing, 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

actually similar conversations; on the other, because of

this progression, the passing from narrow subjects, of

interest to only a small group, to increasingly loftier and

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more general subjects. But, if this double tendency is

everywhere the same, it does not prevent the course that

the evolution of conversation 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

Before the eighteenth century, a salon like that of d 'Holbach was not conceivable. The salon of Mme de Ram- bouillet was a literary and precieux salon, without any freedom of thought--where the little freedom that existed was restricted 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 animated conversation that ever was. When I say free, I mean in the subjects of philosophy, religion, and govern­ ment, for other kinds of free jokes were banished from it." It was quite the opposite in the sixteenth century and the Middle Ages: broad 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 Helvetius and those of the last part of the eighteenth cen­ tury, brought together persons of all classes and all nationalities, an eclecticism that would not have been possible previously, By the great diversity 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 Andre Morellet (1727-1817), French scholar and economist, collaborator of the Encyclopedie■ Mme de Rambouillet (1588-1665) received at her home, the Hotel de Rambouillet, on the Rue Saint-'Thomas du Louvre, in Paris., From 1620 until the Fronde in 1650 it was the meeting place of the elegant people in the Parisian society; Paul-Henri d'Holbach (1723-1789), French philosopher; Claude-Arien Helvetius (1715-1771), French writer and philosopher.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 Ram­

bouillet, the appearance of which resulted in making the

*1 Triboulet's unbearable. In France, it is certain that the

disappearance of these grinning, clumsy buffoons 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 diplomatic negotia­

tions, is it in church or school discussions that the art

of conversation has succeeded in becoming conscious of its

own existence? This depends on the country.. Italian conver­

sation flourished mainly through diplomacy; French conversa­

tion through flirtations at court; Athenian conversation

through sophistic debate; Roman conversation through debates

in the forum, and, under the Scipios, through the lessons

of Greek rhetoric 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 Montmorency and naturally, to send to their death [ad patres] all the patients under his care, Instead of hanging him, Henry II bestowed on him the position of Master of the Post Office in Paris.,

‘'"Anne de Montmorency (1493-1567) , field marshal of the French army.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and fragrances of the flower are so diverse? Mr. Lanson

considers the age of the Scipios as that when the Romans

learned to talk with elegance and urbanity, In the dia­

logues of Cicero 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.. Women 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 combined influence of Christianity 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 conversation in France.

Another great general trend in the transformations

of conversation 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 rustica, on agriculture, which was written in Aristotelian dialogue form,

2 Severius was the name of some the Roman Emperors who reigned after the Antonines, the seven Emperor's who reigned from 96 to 192 A.D.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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-believe or minor fights„

But the amount of arguing in the dialogues of mature men

gradually decreases. First of all there is a whole cate­

gory of arguments, formerly countless, violent, and ani­

mated, but which are now disappearing.. Fixed prices are

replacing haggling„ 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 by the number and sails of

its vessels, etc,, now become pointless, The even more vio­

lent arguments, caused by the conflict of individual pride

or by mutual ignorance, cease or are weakened by more fre­

quent contact and more complete knowledge of others. Every

new piece of information dries up an old source of arguments,

How many 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

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. accurate the idea that various provinces and nations have

of one another, and in making impossible the return to quar­

rels born of ignorant patriotism, Finally, growing indiffer­

ence in the matter of religion daily makes easier the observ­

ance of the rule of courtesy that prohibits religious discus­

sions, which, in the past, were the most formidable and most

passionate of all. Indifference in politics, as it spreads,

is also beginning 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 without hurting them.

Parliamentary discussions seem to be the only ones--but this

may only seem so--to escape this law of progressive mellow­

ing. It might be said that, in our modern 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, calm conversation, full of courtesy and grace..

As to deciding whether the type of conversation that will

ultimately prevail, will be amorous, philosophical, or

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. aesthetic, nothing allows us to do so. The evolution of con­

versation will probably have many paths, as it has had many

origins and many different directions, despite a certain

'ir unity in its general tendency.

IV

After 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 conversation conforms to the laws of imitation notably to that of the imitation of the superior by the inferior, who is recognized 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 play the role aristocracies played before them. For a long time new forms and the new subjects of conversation emanated from the Court, the aris­ tocratic elite, imitated by the mansions in the large cities and the chateaux, and then by the homes of the bourgeoisie. It is now from Paris, imitated by the large cities, the middle-sized ones, the small ones, down to the tiniest vil­ 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 espec­ ially in the diffusion of the Paris accent to the heart of Southern France, Abroad, as well as at home, the accent of the capital spreads to the provinces; the opposite process has never occurred, at least wherever the capital is truly recognized as the capital. If the capital of France were Bordeaux, all France would now speak with the accent of Gascony,

k -4r "We need," writes Mile de Montpensier to Mme de Motteville, all kinds of people so that we may speak of all

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When does it blossom forth this way? We have an almost cer­

tain indication of this in the blossoming of dramatic art,

especially of comedy, which, being completely in dialogue,

would 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 conversation as brilliant

and as beautiful as battles. This expains why epic poems

everywhere preceded 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 which are complex dreams mutually inspired among

two or three participants. It is also reproduced in written

literature, which is the registering of speech. But dramatic

art is something more, the reproduction, and not just the

conservation of speech. It is therefore, in some way a

reflection of a reflection of real life.

Another 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 which, in your judgment and mine, is the greatest pleasure of life and almos t the only one to my .1 iking,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. existence of a public parlor is no less significant.: among

Greeks, the gymnasia included among their dependencies an

enclosure, covered or not, called the exedra, 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 prob­

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 origin of our modern salons is different, Can

they not. be traced back to the monastery 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 renuncia­ tion of all useless conversation, has always been considered the hardest act of mortification, the most rigorous and the most often broken rule, that the imagination of the founders of monastic orders could have invested. This proves how much the need to talk is general and irresistible,

k: k ^ Every precieuse had her own salon known as a reduit, cabinet, or alcove,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. bourgeoisie up to our century when 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 great-great-grandfather had built at

Crecy in 1710, I observe that there was no special room for

receiving the visitors. Salon, dining-room, even bedroom,

one room served all these purposes. And, he was a man of

the bourgeoisie on the way to becoming rich. They often

ate in the kitchen. But, in that house which was considered

very comfortable 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 conversa­

tion, It was thanks to the 800 precieuses that had received

their training there, whose names have been preserved, that

"a general enthusiasm for conversation," to use the expres­

sion of a contemporary, spread around. From France, then the

universal model, this passion was soon propagated abroad,

It has certainly had a profound influence on the formation

or transformation of the French language. The precieuses,

* 1 we are informed by the Abbe de Pure, "take a solemn vow of

*Les mys teres des ruelles, novel (16 56) .

"'"Abbe Michel de Pure (1634-1680), French teacher and writer.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the purity of style, of eternal war to the pedants and the

provincial.11 According to Somaise,^" "they sometimes use

new words without realizing it, but make them pass with all

imaginable lightness and delicacy." According to Pure, ques­

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 Calendrier des

2 ✓ 3 Ruelles. This custom was attributed to Mile de Scudery

whom all our countless modern women, who also have their

day,- copy without realizing it.

For the precieuses and for all the great ladies who

copied them, conversation 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 contrary of the

women of the period. "I have in vain sought, in the

''"Somaise, French writer, author of a famous Diction- naire des precieuses; he was born in 1630.

2 The Calendar of the Alcoves,

3 Mile de Scudery (1607-1701) one of the most famous of the Precieuses, author of novels Grand Cyrus and Cleiia

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 305 i6 2 *1 writings of the times," says Roederer "the occupation

that the women 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 women 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 while 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, com­

bined with grace and beauty.. There must be "style" in ges-

* '*■ 3 tures just as there is "style" in furniture. In this

Memoires pour servii: _a _1' histoire de la societe polie en France (183 5).

Morellet says that in his adolescence, Turgot was rejected by his mother "who found him sullen because he did not bow gracefully;"

^Pierre-Louis Roederer (1754-1835), French statesman. 2 “Mme de Maintenon (1635-1719), was the wife of poet Scarron; widowed in 1660 she became the teacher of the chil­ dren of Louis XIV and Mme de Montespan; later she married in secret the king, on whom she had a great deal of influence. 3 Turgot (1727-1781), French economist and minister of Finance under Louis XIV.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 306 63

respect cur aristocratic society of the seventeenth and the

eighteenth centuries distinguished itself. But, we should

not believe that this tendency was exceptional. This same

need was felt in other ways in every society. We still feel

it in the esthetic oases of our democracy. Would we not

say, on reading Taine, that the taste for refined conversa­

tion and for salon life was not only more intense among the

upper classes under the Ancien Regime but also more a unique.

typical trait of French society in this phase of its devel­

opment?

Here lies the error in the views of this penetrating

mind, and it has not been without significance. For example,

he attributed the taste for general ideas in pre-Revolution-

ary France to the life of the salon. However, it seems that

Tocquevilie after having found the taste for general ideas

mere highly developed in the United States than in the

England of his day, despite the similarity of race and cus­

toms, more correctly ascribes this to the influence of the

equalitarian regime. The pleasure of talking about general

ideas or on moral generalities was also appreciated in other

countries without 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 set­

ting for polite conversation, which was born without it in

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Greece under Pericles, in Rome under Augustus, and in the

Italian cities in the Middle Ages. This need to talk devel­

oped gymnasium life in one place, forum life in another, or

monastic life, especially convents where conversations were

probably animated and interesting at the time of Saint Louis

when the bishop 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 worldliness of the Ancien 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 women pre­

sided over by a person, the host or the hostess, to whom

everybody pays tribute, and who represents, in miniature,

the monarch. The art of behavior in such a society, is not

limited exclusively 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 ranks;

and in an eminently 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 women in French salons, cannot

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 Ancien Regime'*'

Taine makes of mundane life are not therefore directed at

conversation in general. It is not true that the latter

must be necessarily "artificial and dry." And indeed this

is true of the most aristocratic salon life only up to a

point. Now, although the life of the salon may express

respect for the social hierarchy, just because 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

invenit, 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 equality of rights and rank is the only stable,

final equilibrium of self-esteem in prolonged contact.

Moreover, we know that it is only a conventional mask, a

transparent veil, covering up the profound inequality of

The first volume of his work Les Origines de la France contemporaj.ne ■ it appeared in 187 6.

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individual talents and merits and serves to enhance it.

This fiction of equality is the final blossoming of socia­

bility. In a royal court, in spite of all the barriers of

etiquette, the habit of living and talking with the king

establishes between his subjects and him an almost leveling

familiarity. "Sir," the marechal de Richelieu, who lived

through two previous reigns, said to Louis XVI, "under Louis

XIV 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 ' • gradually disappeared, and the infinite degrees

of nobility had begun 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 essentially sociable nature of man always and every­

where push him toward these games in common, toward these

pleasure gatherings of various kinds? Are they not as

natural a condition to him as gregariousness is to sheep?

As to the loss of spontaneity’*' that life of the salon

~*~"Secheresse de coeur" : "dryness of heart."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. is supposed to engender, it is brought about by the exces­

sive inequality that aristocratic respect, so long as it is

not attenuated, creates between parents and children, or

even between 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 half 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, which 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 Ancien 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 parlia­

mentary life. If the dream of the collectivists came true,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. it would later on be phalanstery life, and all the more so.

Neither can we include among the essential character­

istics of worldliness 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, which 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 worldliness of his time, was able to re-cast

*1 it m his own image. Can 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 with imagination, fecund with ideas, and stim­ ulating to others. One would 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 hidden fountainheads of the tremendous current of the Revolution. This is a formidable objection to the alleged intolerance of innovations of the salons.

^Diderot. (1713-1784), French philosopher and one of the founders of the Encyclopedie. His Correspondance addressed to various princes presents a vivid and true pic­ ture of the intellectual movement of the eighteenth century.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. a Voltatre, and so many others were able to make their per­

sonality acceptable only by blunting it?

V

We could use the evolution of life of the salon to

see the evolution of conversation from a different, more

comprehensible 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

which 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 gatherings1 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

1Veillees.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. is on a reduced scale, a copy of the gatherings of the upper

classes, The latter, in most of the cities of moderate

size are divided, at most, into two or three "societies,"

and, in some cases, a tendency that seems to become general

again, they just form one and the same kind of social body,

"society." The same trend is observed, even in the largest

cities, and, m Paris, Vienna, London, everywhere, in spite

of the progress of democracy, the class that is still

reputed to be the most brilliant, if not the highest, seeks

out those occasions in which its very numerous components

meet and join one another tc be fused together.

Thus, many exceptions aside, the general rule is that

the size of "societies" grows in inverse ratio to the numer­

ical importance of the class to which they belong. The

smaller the class to which their members belong, the larger

they are. From the plebian to the elite, the social pyramid

tends to shrink as societies grow larger, This is explained

by the superior quality of leisure, knowledge, and subjects

of conversation as one climbs the social ladder. This also

shows the constant aspiration of social progress to extend

as much as possible the meeting of minds and their mutual

acquaintance and penetration. For it is by talking that

minds meet with one another and penetrate one another.

Subjects of conversation vary from one social level

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to another. What is the subject of conversation in the

small circles of peasants, during their evening gatherings?

A little more about the rain and fair weather than anywhere

else, because this topic not an idle one here, is linked

with the hopes, as well as the threats, of the next crop.

Only during the election periods, do they talk politics.

They are concerned about their neighbors, they estimate

their incomes, and they gossip. This professional and per­

sonal aspect of the conversation is still what predominates

in the conversations of workers or small tradesmen, but

politics, considered from the point of view of the news­

paper of the day replaces rain and fair weather as the basic

subject. Political meteorology is substituted for celestial

meteorology, something that constitutes social progress.

Businessmen and doctors, even though they occasionally like

to talk about their business, often rid their minds of this

concern to venture some considerations of a philosophical *1 or scientific order. Finally, we must reach the most

★ 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 Scudery gives an amusing description of a trip she took by 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 woman-grocer of the Rue Saint Antoine, and a

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refined societies to see conversation based on one's profes­

sion and current politics reduced to the minimum and flow

instead on general ideas, reciprocally suggested by readings,

travel, an extensive and solid basic education, and personal

woman-chandler of the Rue Michel-leComte, who 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 Normandy who told more jokes than the Abbot of Franquetot told when they were fashionable, and who, wishing to tease the company, gave more pretext for being teased than all the others." All these people, when they start talking, speak about their personal or professional concerns. The financier "always returns to the penny per pound." The musician always wants to sing. The chandler thinks of her store. "The young student speaks about written law, customs, and Cujas on every occasion." If they discussed beautiful 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 many of them. Mile de Scudery calls this diverse assemblage of travellers bad company. In her time, indeed, in order to enjoy the charm of general conversation, 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 were quite trivial except for an occasional animated argument between Catholics and Protestants about dogma.

•^Cujas was a famous French jurist; the name Cujas is used as the personification of a law scholar.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. reflections.

As far as these groups are concerned, we noted that

the daily Press, ceases to be the metronome and the most

habitual guide to conversation, or, at least, its suggestive

action is less immediate, if not less profound. It nourishes

them directly only on those days when some sensational news

item, or a haunting question fills the newspapers. Other­

wise, conversation is emancipated; it follows an unexpected

course, it unearths exotic subjects, and so turns the

"society" of the extra-refined people into a magic circle

that continually expands in space and in time, uniting all

the elites of the civilized nations and linking them to the

1 *2 "cultured people" from the past of each one of them.

★ ^ Indeed, it is probable that if the precieuses of the seventeenth century could be re-born and, naturally begin to talk again, their conversation would interest us. It would certainly be of the greatest interest to our feminists in their gatherings. According to the abbe de Pure, during their meetings, "they examine questions such as which is more important, science or poetry. They discuss whether history should be preferred to the novel or the novel to history. They ask what freedom women enjoy, and have the right to enjoy, in society and in marriage. The freedom advocated on this occasion is closer to domination than to independence. it seems, says the debater, that the suspi­ cions of the husband give the wife 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 Quinault It sometimes occurs that a precieuse weeps for a friend and then suddenly begins a discourse on grief. He claims

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. These "cultured people" of all times, perfect speci­

men of consummate sociability, are recognized by the inex­

haustible richness of their topics of conversation always

new, that they derive primarily 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 problem 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 would not have failed to extract from it a rather solid

argument, at any event an argument worthy of being examined,

favoring the retention of traditional culture to a great

extent.

We would have seen that the principal advantage of

the study of ancient languages and literatures is not only

the preservation of the social kinship 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. An opponent rejects this conception that she finds barbaric . . . ."

Honnetes gens" : 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 Corneille (1606-1684) is known as the founder of French drama.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 well as the study of philosophy and the history of phil­

osophy were suddenly dropped in the French schools. Before

long, a disruption 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, military men,

and industrialists, trained only in view of their profes­

sions, would be social strangers. They would no longer have

common 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"

would 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 unproductive of futilities. For them, conversation is

a waste of time, and it is certain that, if all social life

must converge towards unlimited production, towards production

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. for the sake of production, speech has no right to be tol­

erated except as a means of exchange. But would a society

that carried out this ideal, in which case one would speak

to another only for transacting business, for buying, loan­

ing, or for alliances, have anything really social? There

would 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 profound 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

Having discussed the types of conversation, its

transformations, and its causes, let us say a few words

about its effects, a subject we have hardly 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,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. conversation preserves and enriches languages, if indeed it

does not extend their territorial domain; it stimulates lit­

erature, drama in particular. From the religious point of

view, it is the most fruitful means of missionary work; in

turn it spreads dogma and skepticism alternately. It is

not so much by preaching as by conversation that religions

are established or weakened. From the political point of

view, conversation is, even more than the press, the only

restraint on governments, the unassailable refuge of liberty;

it creates reputations and prestige, it dispenses glory,

and through it, power. It tends to equalize the speakers

by assimilating them, and destroys hierarchies by dint of

expressing them. From the economic point of view, it creates

uniform judgments on the utility of various goods; it creates

and specifies the idea of value; it establishes a scale and

system of values. Thus, this superfluous banter, in the

eyes of utilitarian economists a simple waste of time is

actually the most indispensable economic agent. Without it,

there would be no public opinion; and without public opinion

no value, a fundamental notion of political economy, and in

fact, of several other social sciences.

From the moral point of view, it struggles continually

and as a rule successfully, against egoism, against the tend­

ency to pursue totally individualistic ends by opposing it

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to this individualistic teleology. It oulines and creates

an entirely social teleology, in favor of which it lends

credibility to salutary illusions or conventional lies by

means of praise and blame, purposely distributed and con­

tagiously spread. It contributes, through the mutual pene­

tration of minds and souls, to the creation and development

of a psychology not precisely individual, but primarily

social and moral. From the aesthetic point of view, it

engenders politeness, first by unilateral flattery and

afterwards, by 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

considerably the spreading of civilization, of which cour­

tesy and art are the primary conditions.

Mr, Giddings, in his Principles of Sociology, has

an important word to say about conversation. According to

him, when two men meet, the conversation they engage in

only complements the action of looking at each other, by

which 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

because we care for the things we talk about, just as we

cherish that most delightful of all illusions, the belief

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in art for art's ake. The truth, however, is that all

expression, by the dolt or by 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 who meet for the first time

always has the character indicated by Giddings, is question­

able, although it may be true in many cases. But, it is

certain that the subsequent conversations of these persons,

once they have become acquainted, assume an entirely differ­

ent character. They tend to bring them together, or to

strengthen their relationships if they already belong 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 kind," 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. When

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 Sociology (New York: Macmillan and Co., 1896), p. 109.

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a civilized people falls back into barbarism, it becomes

relatively mute. There used to be a great deal of talk in

prose and in verse, through the oral and the written word;

there is now almost none. We can have an idea of how much

they liked to talk, at the end of the Roman Empire, by read­

ing various passages from Macrobius}" a contemprary of Theo­

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 partici­

pate in conversation." He criticizes the habit evidently

rare in his time, of those who did not permit their slave

to converse with them while serving them at the table.

Elsewhere, one of his characters says,

Decius, all my life, nothing seemed better than to employ the leisure that I have left after pleading to talk in the company of educated men, such as you for example. A well governed mind could not find a more useful, more honest relaxation than a conversation in which courtesy adorns the questions as well as the answers.

This last sentence, it is true, heralds the approaching

barbarism unless this fondness for rather pompous, verbose

conversation at which Horace would have poked fun, is

explained by the oratorical habits of this lawyer.

The isolated peasant keeps silent; the barbarian, in

Latin author of the fifth century.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. his stronghold, in his hole in the cliff, says not a word.

When, by chance, he talks, it is to deliver a speech. Is

it not by this very simple fact that the decomposition of

Latin and the birth of the neo-Latin languages may be

explained? If the Gallo-Roman city-states had continued to

exist and communicate among themselves as much after the

fall of the imperial throne as before it, Latin would 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 by 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 expression fully satisfied

them. The shrinking of their vocabulary brought about the

simplification of their grammar; the Latin words, the Latin

sentence structures and inflections would be remembered only

in mutilated and corrupt forms, to be understood these

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. people had to make a greater effort in ingenuity, the greater

the more the habit of speaking correctly and easily was lost.

Therefore, man had almost returned to the same state as in

the prehistoric times, when because he could not yet talk,

he was forced to invent speech word by word by equally

ingenious attempts and by mobilizing all his inventive

resources on meeting the urgent need for mental communica­

tion. It is in this way that, in the period between the

seventh and the tenth century 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 conversation in social life, the

neo-Latin languages grew and flourished. Is this not true

of every decomposition or birth 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 necessarily 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

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. England of the Middle Ages presents when compared to the neo-

Latin peoples. And, is it not this contrast which may serve

to explain why the French dialects required so many centur­

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 which aston­

ishes linguists? As Mr. Boutmy,'1' among other historians,

has pointed out, it is because centralized power was estab­

lished in Great Britain far earlier than in our country, and,

because the natural imprisonment of the inhabitants on an

island, contributed to their more precocious homogeneity.

As early as the Middle Ages assimilatory imitation from

group to group functioned with 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 Anglo-Saxon 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 Middle Ages is life in common of all

^Emile Boutmy (1835-1906) , French historian, one of the founders of the Ecole libre des sciences politigues.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the classes in perpetual contact and exchange of models.

Let us add, in passing, that there, as everywhere, imitation *1 was primarily propagated from above to below, from the

brilliant courts in which conversation was already so rare,

rimid, or circumscribed within a narrow circle of gossip.

Where Public Opinion is mobile, restless, where it goes from

one extreme to the other, it is because conversations are

frequent, audacious, and free. Where Public Opinion is weak,

it is because people speak calmly; where it is strong, it is

because people discuss things a great deal; where it is

violent, it is because people become emotional when discus­

sing things; where it is exclusive, exacting, or tyrannical,

it is because the speakers are victims of some collective

2 obsession like the "Affaire"; where it is liberal, it is

★ We can see the application of this law among the savage themselves. In describing the customs of the Acadian savages Charlevoix (History of New France) writes: "Every town had its saqamo (chief) independent of the others; but all maintained 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 cussed general matters." It is so that the habit of talking regularly, periodically, and of purposely calling on one another originated among tribal chiefs and contributed, by spreading, to the assimilation of the neighboring tribes.

1Francis Xavier de Charlevoix (1682-1761), French Jesuit; a traveler, he explored the St. Laurence and the Mississippi Rivers. 2 The "Dreyfus Affair."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. because conversations are varied, free, and inspired by gen­

eral ideas.

This intimate bond between public opinion and conver­

sation is such that in certain cases it allows us to substi­

tute what we know of the former when 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 which 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

know for example that the governments of Athens, more than

those of Sparta, were governments of Public Opinion. Hence,

we might rightfully infer, if we were 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, who unconsciously felt its

influence; the opinion of the city hardly 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,

because the example of the political conversation given from

above, gradually reached the heart of the provinces.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The evolution of Power is, therefore, explained by

the evolution of Public Opinion, which in turn, is explained

by the evolution of conversation, which is further explained

by 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,

inventive, 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. Among 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, broken into tiny pieces by the

Press, and digested by conversation, contribute to a large

extent to the transformation of Power. However, it would be

pointless for power to act if its actions were not revealed

by the press and commented upon by conversation; it would

not evolve, it would remain unchanged, except for modifca-

tions, reinforcements, or weakenings, which would be caused

by another kind of innovations, especially religious and

economic, from the moments they become generalized and popu­

lar. Where Power remained very stable, we can generally be

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ★ certain that conversation was timid and very restricted.

Therefore, to return to Power its stability of times past,

of the primitive times, when there was no conversation out­

side the narrow circle of the family, one would have to

start by establishing universal muteness. In this hypothe­

sis, the very universal suffrage itself would be powerless

to destroy anything. “

It is not so much parliamentary conversations and

discussions as private conversations and discussions that

must be considered in their political implications. This

is where power originates, while in the Chambers of Depu­

ties and their corridors, power is worn out and often dis­

credited. When Parliamentary deliberations are not reflected

in what is reported by the Press, they have almost no influ­

ence on the political value of a man in power. What happens

in those closed places is related only to the shifting of

★ At the time of Bacon, conversation was beginning in England, and to this subject he devoted a short passage in his Essays on Ethics and Politics, in which there are, not general observations that would be of great interest, but general advice, that interests us less. if we judge mat­ ters on the basis of the latter, English conversations far more than on the continent, which were upset by religious wars— were probably extremely 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 himself . . .)." etc.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. power, not to all its force or its actual authority. The

cafes, clubs, salons, stores, and all the places where 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 with which they work, the

habits*of docility and credulity created by family life,

and upbringing at home, did not exist. Power arises from

them in the same way 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

maternal teachings, that military force comes out of gun

foundries and training camps.

Imagine the citizens of France closed in prison cells,

left to their own thoughts, without any influence on one

another; and then imagine them going to vote. Well, they

would not be able to vote: As a matter of fact they, or most

of them at least, would have no way to decide between Peter

or Paul, one program or another. Or, if each had his own

preference, what a mess the election would be.

Certainly, if a statesman, a Mirabeau,^ or a Napoleon,

could be personally acquainted with all Frenchmen, he would

"'"Mirabeau (1749-1791) , the most prominent orator of the French Revolution.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. not need conversation to establish his authority, and even

if the French were silent, in their large majority they

would still be fascinated by him. But, as it cannot be so,

from the moment that a State has expanded beyond the borders

of a small town, it becomes necessary for people to talk

among themselves so that they will establish the prestige

which must govern them. Actually, most of the time, one

obeys a man because he sees him being obeyed by others.

Those who first obeyed this man had, or thought they had,

their reasons: they believed in him, because of his advanced

age, his illustrious birth, his physical strength, his elo­

quence, or his genius for protecting or leading them. How­

ever, by their conversations, they communicated this faith,

which came spontaneously to them, to those who, after them,

also had faith. It is by talking about a man's actions that

we make him notorious, famous, illustrious, or glorious; and

once he has come to power through glory, it is the conversa­

tions about his campaign plans or his decrees, about his

battles or governmental action, that can cause his power to

increase or decrease.

In economic life especially, conversation has a funda

mental importance that economists do not seem to have recog­

nized. Is it not conversation, an exchange of ideas--or

rather a reciprocal or unilateral gift of ideas--a preamble

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to the exchange of services? it is above all by speech, by

talking, that men of the same society communicate to one

another their needs, their desires as consumers and as pro­

ducers? it is very rare for a desire to buy a new object

to be born on seeing it without having been previously sug­

gested by conversation? This occurs when, for example, a

navigator landing on an unknown island find himself sur­

rounded by savages, who without talking to him, since they

do not know his language any more than he knows theirs are

dazzled by the glass trinkets he shows them, and they want

to acquire them in exchange for food or furs. With these

exceptions, the influence of conversation is most important

for the birth, even more so for the propagation, of needs.

Without it, there would never be a fixed and uniform price,

a condition basic to any developed trade and to prosperous

enough industry.

The relationship between conversation and social and

moral psychology is obvious in the French seventeenth cen­

tury, but it is not only there that it appears. In one of

his satires, Horace praises his life at his country home.

There, he often received his friends at the table.

Every guest, liberated from the laws of etiquette, empties, at will, larger or smaller cups. Conversa­ tion begins but not about neighbors, to speak ill of them, nor about their property out of envy, nor about Lepos' talent in the art of dancing. Rather, we talk

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 334 II

about subjects which 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? What is the nature of the good? In what does the supreme good consist? How­ ever, in these serious conversations Cervius pertinently mixes some wife's tale."

Evidently, the conversation that was fashionable among the

distinguished people of the century of Augustus resembled

those of the "cultured people" of our seventeenth century in

an important aspect: they also revolved about moral generali­

ties, when they were not concerned with literary judgments.

Except that the ethics debated by the contemporaries of

Horace, who were epcurians with a touch of stoicism, is more

individual than social, for the disciples of both Zeno and

Epicurus'1' paid particular attention to strengthening and

purifying the individual alone, considered apart from the

group. On the contrary, the questions raised by the wordly

and moralistic Christians of the time of Louis XIV are

related primarily to social ethics. 1 , /2 Mme de Lafayette writes to Mme de Sevigne that dur­

ing an after-dinner gathering, her whole conversation with

^Mme de Lafayette (1634-1692), French intellectual and author of the novel _La Princesse de Cleves and of Memoires.

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.

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Mme Scarron and Abbe 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 sociability reached its highest point,

nothing was more pertinent 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 with individual psy­

chology. A novel by Bourget1 would have caused Mme de

Lafayette and Larochefoucault to yawn. What must have inter­

ested them far more, was the study of inter-mental relation­

ships, and they practiced a great deal of what is inter-

2 psychology without knowing it. Read La Bruyere, read the

3 portraits that Bussy-Rabotin, or any other writer of his

^Paul Bourget (1852-1935), French novelist and liter­ ary critic; his work contributed to the development of the psychological novel.

2 Jean de La Bruyere (1545-1996), French writer, author of Les Caracteres, ou les moeurs de ce siecle, a satirical portraiture that won the admiration of nineteenth century intellectuals. 3 Roger de Bussy-Rabotin (1618-1693), writer, cousin of Mme de Sevigne, author of Histoire amoureuse des Gaules, which is full of witty gossip.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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 with himself, but solely on his social relations

with other men, on whether his judgments about beauty agreed

or disagreed with their own (taste), on his ability to

please them by telling a piquant anecdote or by writing a

witty letter (wit),^ etc.

It is natural that when men started psychologizing,

they would resort to social psychology. It is also under­

standable that they did so without knowing it, because they

could have a precise notion of it only by opposing it to

individual psychology.

The latter was developed in the seventeenth century

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 vividly described in the Letters of 2 Fenelon and many mystics of the times, are felt by them to

be a silent and internal conversation with the divine

speaker, with the ineffable comforter hidden in the soul.

1 A matter of taste: gout, . . . of wit: esprit. 2 ✓ Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambrai (1651-1715), was the tutor of the due de Bourgogne; he wrote the famous Telemaque, an intellectual guidebook for the education of succeeding generations. in his Letters addressed to king Louis XIV and various princes, he analyzed and discussed the political sit­ uation in his times.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To tell the truth, under the Ancien Regime, mystic life, is

fashioned somewhat in the image of the "world." God pays

visits to the soul; He speaks to it; it answers Him. Is not

Grace the joy and strength given by a beloved voice that

speaks inside you and comforts you? The period of drought

and listlessness of which the "spiritual" people complain,

are the intervals, at times very long, between the visits

and conversations of the inneffable guest.

Another specialized branch of social psychology,

intimately attached to individual psychology, is sexual psy­

chology, to which dramatists and novelists have given par­

ticular attention and which plays in conversations a more

pervasive role the more civilized they are. It is not with­

out some link with mystic psychology.

Conversation is the mother of courtesy. This is true

even when courtesy consists of not talking. To a provincial

arriving in Paris nothing seems stranger, more unnatural,

than to see the buses full of people who carefully abstain

from speaking to one another. Silence among strangers who

meet one another naturally seems impolite just as silence

among acquaintances is a sign of misunderstanding. Every

well-bred peasant makes it his duty to "keep company" with

his fellow-travellers. Actually, it is not that the need

for conversation is stronger in small towns or farms than

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in the large towns.. On the contrary, it seems to grow in

direct ratio with the population density and the degree of

civilization. But, it is precisely because of its intensity

in the large cities that it became necessary to set up dams

against the danger of drowning in the flood of inquisitive

words.

One must reach a high degree of affectionate intimacy

to feel entitled to remain silent for a long time, when one

is with a friend. Because speech is the only social link

among friends who are not very close, among casual acquaint­

ances who meet in a salon, when this sole link is broken, a

great danger appears, the danger of seeing exposed the

deceitfulness of courtesies the total absence of any genuine

attachment, despite all the exterior marks of friendship.

When this icy silence appears, it is as dismaying as the

sundering of veils of chastity and so every effort is made

to avoid it. Everything that comes to mind is thrown into

the fire of a dying conversation, the most cherished secrets,

what it would be more to one's interest not to mention, just

as, when there is a shipwreck, the most precious bundles

are thrown overboard in trying to delay the sinking.

Silence in the middle of salon conversation is like the

sinking of the boat in mid-ocean.

Both compliments and insults are born of conversation.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. By conversing men realized that their high opinion of them­

selves was not shared by others and vice-versa.

One's illusion of his own importance could be scoffed

at, and harshly fought, by insulting the adversary, if he

happens to be an equal; but experience taught that conflicts

caused by these outbursts of frankness should be avoided.

However, where a superior, or a master was concerned, it

was wise to flatter this illusion. Hence, the compliments,

which by gradually attenuating and mutualizing themselves,

and by becoming generalized in this reciprocal form, became

the basis of urbanity. They always begin by being selfish,

and they become unselfish only in the long run. I wonder

if what the Hindus have said about the omnipotence of Prayer

is not explained by the intoxicating power of praise on sim­

ple souls. Prayer is, above all, the ultimate praise. The

nature of compliments is changing. In China, to pay someone

a compliment they tell him that he looks old, in France we

say that he is getting younger. In the Middle Ages, it was

the most refined praise to tell a young cleric, seeking holi­

ness through mortifications, to tell him that he looked

thin and emaciated. Is there a perceptible direction in

the evolution of compliments as well as in that of insults?

By comparing the invectives of Homer's heroes to those of

slanderous press, one might say that the vocabulary of

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insults has been enriched rather than transformed. To all

the physical defects, diseases, and deformities that once

were imputed to one's enemies, were simply added the vices

of civilization, such as refined depravations and intellec­

tual abnormalities that are also attributed to them and

lavished upon them. But, these public insults the press

like its praises, are something special, something very

different from the insults and praises made in private rela­

tions, and must have retained some of their primitive exag­

geration. Everything directed at the public, that uncouth

figure, must also be in loud, coarse colors: wall posters,

electoral programs, press polemics. It is nonetheless true

that compared to the polemics among scholars of the six­

teenth century, those of our most violent newspapers, deposi­

tories of insults, are greatly attenuated. As to private

insults, their toning down was even more rapid; they have

passed from Homeric brutality to the most discreet irony,

instead of harping on physical defects, they more and more

emphasize the intellectual deficiencies or moral indiscre­

tions. This double progress is certainly irreversible.

These same two traits are noticeable in the evolution

of praise, and with an equal semblance of irreversibility.

Certainly, no kind, no great man of our day would accept

the extravagant praises that the Pharaohs made their priests

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heap on them or that Pindar poured on the crowned heads of

athletes. The tone of the dedications in the books two

centuries ago still make us smile. If we compare private

conversations and discussions to those in the past, in the

eighteenth, seventeenth, or sixteenth centuries, of which

we have samples, we quickly observe a decrease in the propor­

tion of direct compliments or frank insults; these heavy

coins were divided and subdivided into very small and fine

change. On the other hand, the nature of these more veiled

compliments has changed no less than that of the disguised

civilities. At first it was the physical strength of the

deity (see the Book of Job), that was given special praise,

then its wisdom and intelligence, and finally its kindness.

There is no turning back. In the same way it was first the

power of kings that was praised, then their talent and organ­

izing genius, and finally their concern for the people. To

whom was all the lyricism of poet flatterers addressed, at

the height of Greek civilization? To athletes more than to

artists. In our days, the opposite is true, and, despite

the infatuation for the winners of bicycle races or football,

there is no danger that this order might be reversed. We

can however note that compliments addressed to women have

evolved in an almost opposite direction. Women were praised

first for their virtues, their sense of order, and their

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economy; they were praised for their talents as weavers,

and then as musicians, before they were praised, at least

publicly, for their physical beauty. Now, when they are

praised, it is more for being beautiful than for being vir­

tuous or even witty, but the praise of their beauty has

undergone a small evolution of its own that falls in the

general trend; after having been praised for their forms

more than for their gracefulness, they are now praised more

for their gracefulness than for their forms.

Consider two persons, men or women, who are paying a

courtesy call on each other and who are conversing. They

carefully avoid these subjects on which they would run the

risk of having divided opinions; or, if they cannot escape

the necessity to touch on them, they hide their opposed

opinions as much as possible. Frequently, they even go so

far, as to partially sacrifice their ideas in order to agree.

Therefore, polite conversation can be considered a contin­

ual and universal exercise of sociability, as well as a unani­

mous and contagious effort to make minds and hearts agree

and erase or mitigate their discordances. The speakers are

moved by an evident good will to tune with one another in

everything, and, in fact, they unconsciously suggest strongly

to one another concordant feelings and ideas. This sugges­

tion, however, is not always perfectly reciprocal.

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Ordinarily, one speaker has a stronger effect on the other,

or others, whose 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 plow deeply

enough into the ground where social unanimity must bloom

and they are the indispensable preparation for it. * Conversation was the cradle of literary criticism.

In the seventeenth century, as is evident in the correspond­

ence, a long conversation in writing, that Bussy-Rabutin had

with his kind cousin/ the conversations of polite society

dealt to a great extent with the comparative merit of books

and authors. Indeed, they exchanged and discussed judgments

on the latest tragedies of Racine, a fable of Lafontaine, a

2 letter of Boileau, or a Jansenist work. If we examine

these conversations closely we see that they always tended

to concur, after discussion, on a same way of seeing things.

★ This is a notable effect, particularly if we think about the importance that literary criticism has achieved in modern times, when it judges everything, even in domains such as philosophical criticism, politics, and social ideas.

■^Mme de Sevigne. 2 Prominent poets and writers: Pierre Racine (1633- 1699) for his drama; Jean La Fontaine (1621-1695) for his fables, N. Boileau (1636-1711) as a literary critic; Jansenist, a community of theologians of whom Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was the best known.

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It was always so whatever the dominant subject of the conver­

sations may have been. This was especially true wherever,

in certain circles, there was much discussion of literature;

without realizing it they worked on the collective prepara­

tion of a poetic art, of a literary code accepted by all and

capable of providing ready-made judgments always agreeing

with one another, on all kinds of creations of the mind.

Thus, when 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, by an intense social life. We can therefore

be certain that in Athens and the rest of Greece they talked

a great deal before Aristotle and at his time, beginning 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 Precieuses. 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 greatly

extended because of the increase in the number of speakers,

the elaboration of a code, in its incubation stage, will be

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longer than in previous times, for the simple reason that,

the larger the vat the more prolongued the fermentation time.

By discussion as well as by the exchange of ideas, by compe­

tition and conflict as well as by labor, we all collaborate

always toward a higher harmony of thoughts, words, and

actions; toward a stable equilibrium of judgments which are

formulated into literary, artistic, scientific, philosophical,

and religious doctrines; or toward a stable equilibrium 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 below it, lies cor­

respondence as a factor of public opinion. But, the latter

subject, which is linked to the former by the closest ties

will not take much of our time, An exchange of letters is

a conversation 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

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makes cases of absence more frequent, the spread of the art

of writing, and the good operation of the postal service.

We might at first believe that by making correspond­

ence more frequent, travel should make conversation rarer.

But, the obvious truth is that the countries where people

travel most are the ones where people both talk most and

write 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 susurri, which as Horace said, "were repeated at

the usual hour," between old friends, between 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. Curiosity has

won much more than intimacy has lost and, however sensitive

I may be to this loss, I resign myself to it by 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

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vice-versa? The times when people were the most inclined

to writing letters (I mean before the recent advent of journ­

alism, which has somewhat changed things in this respect,

as we will see) are also those when people travelled most

and talked most. Such was the period of Pliny the Younger.'*'

So also was our sixteenth century. "The sixteenth century,"

says a Historian, "is primarily a century of letter-writers,

The number of political letters of kings, ministers, captains,

and ambassadors, preserved among the manuscripts of the

Bibliotheque Nationale, is incalculable. There is also * religious and private correspondence. in comparison to the

other Western nations of Europe, in Spain little is written.

Everywhere and always, the fire of conversation burnt, and

the need to correspond was felt by the most travelled social

* At that time, the entire hierarchy of formulas of courtesy and the ritual of letter-writing appeared. A sup­ erior is addressed as Sire, an equal as Sir. One begins with "I recommend myself to your good grace," when writing to an important person. They end by "praying that the Lord grant you perfect health and long life." Rank is marked by the words preceding the signature: "Your good servant, your obedient servant, your humble servant" (Decrue de Stoutz). Let us add that in the sixteenth century letters like conver­ sations, of which they give us an exact image, are lacking in reserve and taste; they are most indiscreet, indecent, and indelicate. The following century will spread the feel­ ing for nuances.

"'"Pliny the Younger (62-c. 120 A.D.) Roman writer, author of Letters, whose interest lies in the portrayal of manners of his time.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 348 105 strata of the nation: in Greece, by the orators and the

Sophists, by the peddlers of wisdom living in the midst of

a seafaring and unstable people; in Rome, by the aristocracy,

so readily mobile and tourist; in the Middle Ages, by those

in the ranks of the University and the Church, where preach­

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 prop­

agation of examples from above to below. First kings and

popes, then princes and prelates, had their personal cour­

iers, before the simple lords, then their vassals, then in

turn all the social classes of the nation, to the very lowest

all yielded to the temptation to correspond. When, by 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

Monsieur du Camp, "this service soon became administrative,

under the express reservation that the letters had been read

and did not contain anything prejudicial to the royal

authority." Louis XI was well aware of the powerful effect

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that private correspondence could have on emerging public

opinion. Under Richelieu, a regular tariff was imposed on

letters for the first time (1627) that demonstrates their *1 numerical increase then. "We may easily realize the extra­

ordinary development of this service in eighteenth century

France by comparing the price of successive postal conces­

sions." It increased from two and a half million in 1770,

to ten million in 1777; it was therefore quadrupled, Postal

statistics now permit us to calculate the rapid and continual

•a * increase in the number of letters in the various States,

and to measure in this way the uneven, but universally con­

tinual increase of the general need which they meet. Very

However, the private letters (for, before, in talk­ ing about the sixteenth century, it was a question of corres­ pondence having political interest) must have remained rather limited until the middle of the seventeenth century, judging by a passage in the Memoires of Mile de Montpensier, quoted by Roederer. She says about the Princesse de par- thenie (Mme de Sable): "It is in her time that writing was practiced. Previously, only marriage contracts used to be written; _of letters nothing was ever spoken . . .

•k rk For example, in France, from 1830 to 1892, the num­ ber of letters increased regularly from year to year (except in 1848 and in 1870), from 63 million letters to 773 million. From 1858 to 1892, the number of telegrams rose from 32 to 463 million in rounded figures.

■^Mlle de Montpensier (1627-1693) sister of the dukes of Guise, took part in the Fronde; Mme de Sable (1599-1678), one of the most famous Precieuses, whose salon competed with the Hotel de Rambouillet.

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conveniently, these statistics inform us of the different

degrees of sociability and of its progress.

But, these same statistics are also a good example

of the fact that there are always qualities hidden under the

social quantities that, generally speaking, statistics ■k measure approximately. Indeed, nothing is more externally

uniform than letters in a single country, and at a given

period of time, and it seems that the condition of homogene­

ous units for statistical calculations could not be better

fulfilled. Letters have approximately the same format, con­

cerning the envelope and enclosure, and the written address.

They now bear identical stamps. Criminal and civil statis­

tics are far from dealing with numerical units as similar as

this. But, the moment the letters are unsealed, how charac­

teristic, profound, and substantial are the differences

among them, despite the uniformity of the ceremonial opening

and closing formulas! To add these totally heterogeneous

things would not lead us far. We may count the number of

letters but we do not even know their length. However, it

would be interesting to know at least whether as they

•k If this were the place, I would show that there is no less a qualitative element hidden under the physical quan­ tities measured through the scientific procedures, analogous actually to statistics and not less specious although appear­ ing more reliable.

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increase in number they are not shorter, and less spontane­

ous, something that seems likely. And, if statistics of

*1 conversation existed, which would be quite legitimate,

we would like to be similarly informed about their length,

which in our busy century, could well be in inverse ratio

to their frequency. The cities where it rains most, where

the most water falls from the sky (may I be forgiven this

comparison) are often those where it rains less often. It

would be particularly interesting to know 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 Journalism has decisively favored transformations in

letter-writing. The Press that has stirred up and nourished

conversation with 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 would 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.

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and as regularly shipped to the provinces, as our present

newspapers Olivier Patru, who was so busy, would not have

taken the trouble to write to his friend d' Ablaincourt [sic]^

a long letter giving him so many details--that today one

would find in any newspaper— on the visit of Christine of

Sweden to the Academie Fian^a.se. An important but unnoticed

service that newspapers perform today is to relieve us of the

*2 task of writing our friends all kinds of interesting news

on the events of the day, which filled the letters of past

centuries,

Can it be said that by relieving and ridding private

conversations of this burden of chronicles, the Press has

helped letter-writing find its vocation, which is narrow but

profound, purely psychological, and intimate? I am afraid,

* Journalists very early became aware of their useful­ ness in this respect. Renaudot, at the head of the miscel­ lany column of his Gazette, in 1631, speaks of the "relief that they (the Gazettes) bring those who write their friends, to whom they were previously obligated, in order to satisfy their curiosity, to describe laboriously the news, frequently purely imaginary, and based on the uncertainty of simple hear-say." This relief was still no more than partial in this period, as can be seen from the letter of Patru cited above.

"''Olivier de Patru (1604-1681), French lawyer, friend of Boileau. Perrot d' Ablancourt (1606-1664), French writer and author of translations.

^Theophraste Renaudot (1586-1653), French physician, historian of the king, founder of the Gazette de France in 1631.

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it might be an illusion to think so. The increasingly urban

character of our civilization has resulted in a continual

increase in the number of our friends and acquaintances

while the degree of intimacy in these relationship is

decreasing. What we have to say or write is addressed less

frequently to single individuals, and more frequently to

increasingly larger groups. The one we really talk to, we •# really write to, a little more everyday, is the Public,

Therefore, it is not surprising that printed announcements,

notices and advej'tisements in newspapers, are increasing far

more rapidly than our private letters. We may perhaps even

be permitted to believe that among the latter, the casual

letters and the conversational letters, that must naturally

be distinguished from business letters, will continue

★ The need to address the Public is quite recent. Even the kings of the Ancien Regime never addressed themselves to the public: they addressed themselves to social bodies, Parliament, or the clergy, never to the nation as a whole; and even less to private individuals. * * Announcements of births, marriages, and deaths have freed private correspondence of one of its most frequent sub­ jects in the past. We see, for example, in a volume of the correspondence of Voltaire, a series of letters with ingenu­ ous and elaborate variations of style announcing to friends of Mme de Chatelet, the arrival of the child she had just given birth to.

^Mme de Chatelet (1706-1749), a French intellectual known for her friendship with Voltaire.

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diminishing in number as well as in length, judging by the

extraordinary degree of simplification and abbreviation which

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 letters, 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 discourse,

from monologues and, primarily, from poems, and songs, The

What in letters of all kinds is becoming briefer and more simplified is unquestionably 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 correspondence of the past and the present.

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origin of books is lyrical and religious. However, the ori­

gin of newspapers is secular and casual. They proceed from

private letters, which in turn proceed from conversation.

So newspapers began by being private letters which were

addressed to individuals, and of which 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 persisted until the

eighteenth century through the letters of Grimm or the mem-

oires of Bachaumont,

Saint Paul's Epistles or the letters of Missionaries

are really newspapers. If Saint Paul had at his disposal

any Religious Weekly, 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, become their major governing factor and

their most abundant source of nourishment, uniform for all

Journalism, by Eugene Dubief. Hachette 1892.

^Frederic-Melchior Grimm (1723-1807), famous writer and critic, who has left a Correspondance of the greatest interest; Louis P. De Bachaumont (1690-1771), French writer whose Memoires secrets ore still important, reference work.

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peoples throughout the entire world, profoundly changing for

all people from one day to the next. They began as merely

a prolonged echo of conversations and correspondence, but

they ended by being the almost unique source of these. They

live on correspondences, now more than ever, particularly 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 way 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, which remain basically dis­

tinct under the double invasion of that more serious rational

internationalism of which the public mind is very often

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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 necessarily conclude that

characters have been weakened, When the poplars and oaks

are felled by the storm, it is not that they became weaker,

but that the wind became stronger.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books by Gabriel Tarde

Tarde, Gabriel. _La Criminalite comparee. Paris: F. Alcan, 1886.

______. Essais et melanges socioloqiques. Lyon: A. Storck, 1895.

______. Etudes de psychologie sociale. Paris: V. Giard

et E, Briere I 1898.

______. Etudes penales et sociales. Lyon: A. Storck, 1892 .

______. Fragment d ’histoire future. Paris: V. Giard et E. Briere, 1896.

______. Introduction et pages choisies par ses fils. Preface de H. Bergson. Paris: L. Michaud, 1904.

______. _La Logique sociale. Paris: F. Alcan, 1895.

______. Les Lois de 1'imitation, etude socioloqique. Paris: F. Alcan, 1890.

______. Les Lois sociales, esquisse d 'une socioloqie. Paris: F. Alcan, 1898.

______. L 'Opinion et la Foule. Paris: F. Alcan, 1901.

______. L 'Opposition universelle, essai d 1une theorie des contraires. Paris: F. Alcan, 1897.

______. _La Philosophie penale. Lyon: A. Storck, 18 90.

______. La Psychologie economique. Paris: F. Alcan, 1902.

______. Les Trans formations du droit, etude socioloqique. Paris: F. Alcan, 1895.

______. Les Transformations du pouvoir. Paris: F . Alcan, 1899.

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Articles by Gabriel Tarde

Tarde, Gabriel. "L1accident et le rationnel dans l'histoire d ’apres Cournot," Revue de Metaphysique et de Morlae, XII (1905) , 319-47 .

______. "L1Action des faits future," Revue de Metaphys ique et de Morale, VIII (1901), 119-37.

______. "L'Action inter-mentale," Archives d 'Anthropologie Criminelle, XVI (1901), 168-95.

______. "L'art et la logique," Revue Philosophique, XXXI (1891) , 123- 47. 288-312.

______. "Augustin Cournot," Annales de 1'Institut Interna­ tional de Sociologie, IX (1902), 87ff.

______. "L'Avenir latin," Revue Politique et Litteraire, Revue Bleue 5e s. I (1904), 789-801.

______. "Biologie et sociologie, reponse au Dr. Bianchi," Archives, VIII (1893), 7.

______. "Les classes sociales" (Notes et Discussions), Revue Internationale de Sociologie, XI (1903), 125ff>

______. "Les crimes des foules," Archives, VII (1892), 353-86.

______. "La Criminalite et le probleme economique," Archives, XVI (1901), 565-75.

______. "Criminalite et sante sociale," Revue Philoso­ phique, XXXIX (1895), 148-62.

______. "La croyance et le desir: possiblite de leur mesure," Revue Philosophique, X (1880), 150-63, 264-70.

______. "Darwinisme social et darwinisme naturel," Revue Philosophique, XVII (1884), 607-37.

______. "Les deux sens de la valeur," Revue d'Economie Politique, XXIX (1888), 526-40, 561-76.

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Tarde, Gabriel. "La Dialectique sociale," Revue Philosoph­ ique, XXVI (1888), 20-43, 148-65.

______. "Du Chantage," Archives, XV (1900), 644-53.

"L'esprit de groupe," Archives, XV (1900), 5-27.

"Fragment d'histoire future," Archives, XIX (1904), 565-621.

"Fragment d'histoire future," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, IV (1896), 603-54.

"La graphologie," Revue Philosophique, XLIV (1897), 337-63.

"L'heredite des professions," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, VIII (1900), 50-59, 117-24, 196-207.

"L'idee de l'organisme social," Archives, XI ’(1896) , 418-28.

"L'idee de 1'opposition," Revue Philosophique, XXXVIII (1897), 1-18, 160-75.

"L'idee de valeur," Revue Politique et Litteraire,4e s. XVI (1901), 545 -51.

"L'Inter-psychologie," Archives, XIX (1904), ’537-64.

"L 'Inter-psychologie," Bulletin de l'Institut General psycholoqique (June, 1903), 1-32.

"L 'Inter-psychologie infantile," Archives, XXIV ’(1909), 161-72.

"L'invention consideree comme moteur de 1'evolu­ tion sociale," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, X (1902), 562-74.

"Leqon d'ouverture d 'un cours de philosophie moderne au College de France," Archives, XV (1900), 233-51.

"La logique sociale des sentiments," Revue Philo­ sophique, XXXVI (1893), 561-94.

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Tarde, Gabriel, "Les maladies de 11 imitation," Revue Scien- t if ique, XLV (1890), 737 -48, XLVI (1890), 6-11.

______• "Monadologie et sociologie," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, I (1893), 157-73, 231-46.

______. "L1Opinion et la conversation," Revue de Paris, VI4 (1890), 689-719, VI5 (1900), 91-116.

______. "Les Oppositions sociales: La guerre," La Revue Politique et Litteraire, Revue Bleue, 4e s. VIII (1897), 331-36 .

______. "Positivisme et penalite," Archives, II (1887), 32-51.

______. "Les Possibles: Fragment d 'un ouvrage de jeunesse inedit," Archives, XXV (1910), 8-41.

______. "Pro Domo mea, reponse a M. Ferri," Archives, VIII (1893) , 258.

______. "La Psychologie en economie politique," Revue Philosophique, XXII (1881), 232-50.

______. "La Psychologie et la Sociologie," A Discussion at the 1903 Congress of the institut International de Sociologie Annales de 1'Institut International de Sociologie, X (1902-03), passim.

______. "La Psychologie intermentale," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, IX (1901), 1-13.

_____ , "Le public et la foule," Revue de Paris, v4 (1899), 287-306, 615-35.

______. "Quelques mots sur le materialisme historique," .Annales de 1' Institut International de Sociologie, VIII (1900-01) , 283-89.

______. "Qu'est ce qu'une societe?" Revue Philosophique, XVIII (1884), 489-570.

______. "La realite sociale," Revue Philosophique, LI1 (1901) , 457-77 .

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Tarde, Gabriel. "La religion, etude de logique sociale," Revue Politique et Litteraire, Revue Bleue, V (1894), 435ff.

______. "Role social de la joie," Revue Politique et Litte- raire, Revue Bleue, 4e s. XIX (1903), 33-36.

______. "La richesse et le pouvoir," Notes et Discussions. Revue Internationale de Sociologie, IX (1901), 663-65.

** "La serie historique des etats logiques," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, II (1894), 34-49,

______. "La Sociologie et les sciences sociales," Discus­ sion a 1'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales, Revue Internationale de Sociologie, XII (1904), 84-86.

______. "Sur l'idee de l'organisme social," Revue Philo­ sophique, XL1 (1896), 63 7 -46.

______. " Le transformisme social," Revue Philosophique, XL (1895), 26-40.

______. "Vers d'un Sociologue: L'lmaginaire (1620)," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, XII (1904) , 580-84.

Translations of Gabriel Tarde1s Works

Tarde, Gabriel. "Inter-psychology, the Interplay of Human Minds," Translated by C. H, Page from "La psychologie intermentale" (Revue Internationale de Sociologie, IX (1901), 1-13 ), International Quarterly, VII (1903), 59-85,

______. The Laws of imitation. Translated by Elsie C. Parsons, New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1903.

______. Penal Philosophy, Translated by R. Howell, from La Philosophie penale (1890) with an Introduction by Robert H. Gault. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1912.

______. Social Laws r An Outline of Sociology. Translated by Howard C . Warren with a Preface by James Mark Baldwin. New York: Macmillan, 1899,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. B-6 364

Tarde, Gabriel, The Underground Man, Translated from Fragment d 'histoire future by Cloudesley Brereton with a Preface by H. G. Wells. London-, Duckworthy & Co., 1905,

Reviews and Analyses of Gabriel Tarde's Works

Arreat, L. "Analyse et Compte-rendu, Fragment d'histoire future," Revue Philosophique, LX (1905), 88-89.

Baldwin, James M. "Preface," Social Laws: An Outline of Sociology by Gabriel Tarde. New York: Macmillan, 1899.

Carpentier J,"compte-r endu, Les Transformations du droit, " Revue Philosophique , XXXIV (1893), 535.

Durkheim, Emile. "Compte-rendu, 'L esprit de groupe,'" L 1Annee Socioloqique, IV (1899-1900), 136.

______. "Compte-rendu, 1L'Inter-psychologie,1" L 'Annee Socioloqique. IX (1904-05), 133-35.

Eichtal, Eugene d ’. "Revue critique, _La Psychologie Econo- mique," Revue Philosophique, LIII (1902), 522-32.

Espinas, Alfred, "Compte-rendu, La Criminalite comparee," Revue Philosophiq ue , XXVIII (1887) , 81,

Essertier, Daniel. Psychologie et Sociologie. Essai de bibliographie critique. Paris? F. Alcan, 1927. Pass im.

Faguet, Emile. "Revue, Les Trans format ions du pouvoir," Revue Politique et Litteraire, Revue Bleue, 4e s, XII (1899), 777-80,

Fauconnet, Paul. "Compte-rendu, L ’Opinion et la Foule," L 'Annee Socioloqique , V (1900-01), 160-66.

Giddings, Franklin H. "Introduction," The Laws of Imitation by Gabriel Tarde. New York; Henry Holt & Co., 1903,

Levy-Bruhi, Lucien, "Revue, Les Lois de 1'Imitation," Revue Politique et Litteraire, Revue Bleue, 4e s. Ill (1895), 779.

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______, "Compte-rendu, _La Philosophie penale, " Revue Philosophique, XXXII (1891), 654.

Mazel, Henri, "Revue, Etudes de Psychologie sociale," Mercuie de France, XXVI1 (1898). 527.

______. "Revue, Fi^a^men.t d • Histoire future, " Mercure de France, LIII (1905), 608,

"Revue, Les Lois sociales," Mercure de France, XXVII (1898). 526.

"Revue, L Opinion e_t If) Foule, " Mercure de France, XLI (1902), 196-98,

"Revue, Psychologie Economique , " Mercure de France, XL (1902), 780-83.

"Revue, Les Transformations du pouvoir," Mercure de France, XXXII (1899), 232,

Paulhan, Francois, "Analyse et Compte-rendu, L'Opinion et la Foule," Revue Philosophique, LIII (1902), 201-07,

______. "Compte-rendu, _Le§ Lois de 1' Imitation, " Revue Philosophique, XXXIII (1892), 75,

Small, A. W. "Review, Social Laws,” Ameri.can Journal of Sociology. IV (1899), 3 95-400.

Ward, Lester F, "Review, Social Laws," Science, New Series, XI (1900) , 260 .

Worms, Rene. "Revue, L Opinion et _la Foule," Revue Inter­ national e de Sociologie, IX (1901), 856-57.

Biographical _and Cr_i_tical References to Gabriel Tarde

Baldwin, James M. Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development: A Study in Social Psychology. New York-, Macmillan, 1897,

Barnes, H. E. Ari Intellectual History of the Western World. 3 volsVol. Ill: From the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day. New York: Dover Publications, 1965.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 366

______(ed.) . "The Social and Political Theory of Gabriel Tarde," in Introduction to the History of Sociology. Chicago:- The University of Chicago Press, 1948;

______. "The Philosophy of the State in the Writings of Gabriel Tarde," Philosophical Review. XXVIII (1919), 248-79.

Belot, R. "La Logique sociale de M. Tarde," Revue Philo­ sophique. XXXVII (1896), 194-97.

Becker, Howard and H. E. Barnes. Social Thought from Lore to Science. 3 vols. Third edition. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1961.

Benolst, Charles "Discours" au nom de l'Ecole des Sciences Politiques," Seances et Travaux de 1'Academie des Sciences Morales et Politigues, XIII (1910) , 185-89.

Bergson, Henri. "Preface," Gabriel Tarde, Introduction et pages choisies par ses fils. Paris: Louis Michaud, 1909 .

Bertrand, Alexis. "Un essai de cosmologie sociale: Les theses monadologiques de Gabriel Tarde," Archives d 'Anthropologie Criminelle. XIX (1904), 623-60.

B1 on.de 1. Charles.. Introduction a_ JLa, psychologie collective. Paris A. Collin 1928.

Bougie, Ceiestin. " Un sociologue individualiste: Gabriel Tarde," Revue de Paris. XII^ (1905), 294-316.

______and M. Deat. Le. Guide de 1' etudiant-en-sociologie . Third edition.. Paris; M. Riviere, 1931.

Cat ton, William R., Jr. "The Development of Sociological Thought," Handbook of Modern Sociology. Edited by Robert E. L. Faris. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1964. Pp. 912-50. '

Clark, Terry N. "Gabriel Tarde," International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. XV, 509-14. New York: Macmillan-Free Press, 1968.

______. "Introduction" to Gabriel Tarde. Draft copy. Heritage of Sociology Series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, The University of Chicago, in press.

Cooley, Charles H. Social Organization. New York: Scribner's Sons, 1909.

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Cuche, P. "Gabriel Tarde" (Necrologie), Revue Penitentiaire, XXVIII (1904), 1013-18,

Cuvillier, Armand. Manuel de Sociologie 2 vols.. Paris % Presses Uni versitaires de France, 1956.

______. Sociologie et Problemes actuels. Second edition. Paris-. Librairie -J. Brin, 1961.

Dagan, Henri. "Les Sociologues contemporains: M. Gabriel Tarde," _La Grande Revue, I (1901) , 141-57.

Dauriac, L . "La Philosophie de G. Tarde," L 'Annee Philo- sophique, XVI (1906), 149-69.

Davis, Michael J , J r . Gabriel Tarde: An Essay in Socio­ logical Theory. Ph.D, dissertation. New York: Columbia University, 1906.

______.. Psychological Interpretations of Society New York; Longmans, Green & Co., 1909.

Dewey, John. "The Need for a Social Psychology," Psycholog­ ical Review, XXIV (1917), 266-7 7.

Dupont, August". G. Tarde et 1 : economie politique Paris. Jouve et Cie, 1910.

Durkheim, Emile. "Correspondence," Revue Philosophique, LIT (1901), 704.

______. "Les sciences sociales" (Serie des conferences'; , Revue Internationale de Sociologie, XII (1904) , 83-84,

______. "La Sociologie," La Science Frangaise. Vol. I Paris; Ministere de 1'Instruction publique et des Beaux Arts, 1915.

Ellwood, Charles. "The Theory of Imitation in Social Psy­ chology," American Journal of Sociology, VI (1900-01), 721-41.

Espinas, Alfred. "Discours," Seances et Travaux de 1' Ac.ade- mie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, LXXIII (1910), 167-84„

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______"Notice sur la vie et les oeuvres de M. Gabriel de Tarde," Seances et. Trayaux de 1'Academie des Sciences Mor ales e_t Polit lques, LXXIII (1910) , 309-422

Fauconnet, Paul, "The Durkheim School m France,” Sociolog- ical Review, XIX (1927), 15-20,

Faure, Fernand, "Les Idees de Cournot sur la Statistique." Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale, XIII (1905), 395-411,

Fischer, Rudolf, Masse und Vermassun g . Zurich: Polygraph- ischei Verlag, 196.L .

Gaultier, Jules de "M Gabriel Tarde" (Notes et Analyses;, ia§ Revue des J.c|ees, I (1904) , 454- 59,

Geisert, Andre. Tarde _et la criminalite, Paris, 193 5. (A thesis,)

Giddmgs, Franklin H. Principles of Sociology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1913..

Goyau, M. Comment ] uger _la " sociologie1' contempo r a m e , Marseilles: Editions Publioror, 1934,

Gusti, Demetrius. "Gabriel Tarde: eine Skizze zur Wieder- kehr semes Todestages," J ahrb ach fur Gesetzgebung, Verwaltunq, XXX (1906), 97 3-88.

Hughes, Everett C, "Tarde's Psychologie Economique An Unknown Classic by a Forgotten Sociologist," The Amer .1 can Jourral of Sociology, LXVI (1961) , 553- 59

Kolaja, •Jiri. "Sociology m Romania," The American Sociolo­ gist, III, No. 3 (August, 1968), 241-43,

Ldcassag.ne, A. "Cesare Lombroso (1836-1909) , " Memoires onginaux, Archives _d ' Anthr opologie Crimine.1 le, XXIV (1909) , 881-94,

______. "Gabriel Tarde 1843-1904," Arch ives d 'Anthropolo- gie C n m m elle, XIX (1904) , 501-25.

______. "Gabriel Tarde," Discours prononee a 1 !inaugura­ tion de son monument a Sariat le 12 septembre 1909," Archives d 'Anthropoloqie Cr iminelle, XXIV (1909) , 895-903,

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______, "Notes sur Tarde, " Archives d ' Anthropologxe Cn m - J.nelle, XIX (1909), 674-76,

Lazarsfeld, Paul F "Public Opinion and the Classical Tradi­ tion," Public Opinion Quarterly, XXI (1957), 3 9-53,

Levasseur, E,, Ch, Limousin, Rene Works, M. Kovalewsky, and P. Grimanelli., "Hommages a la memoire de G. Tarde," Revue Internationale de Sociologie, XII (1904), 527-31.

Mahaim, E, "L'Economie politique de M. Tarde," Revue ' Economie Politique , XXVII (1903), 25-26

Matagrin, Amedee. La psychologie soc iale de Gabriel Tar de Paris? F Alcan, 1910,

______. "La psychologie sociale de G. Tarde," Revue Politique et Litteraire, Revue Bleue, XVI (1909) , 497-99.

May, Dick,. "L oeuvre sociologique de M, G, Tarde," Revue Encyclopedique, IX (1899).. 10 26-29,

Mazel, Henri. "A Propos de M. Gabriel Tarde," Mercure de France, LI (1904). 89-102,

Merton, Robert K Social Theory and Social Strueture. Third edition. New York? Free Press, 1968,

______. Cm Theoretical Sociology, Five Essays, Old and New, New York, The Free Press, 1967.,

______"Introduction" to the Compass Edition of The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon, New York: Viking Press, 1960,

______, On _the Shoulders of Giants , New York. The Free Press, 1965.

Mer z, J , T . A History of European Thought _in the Nineteenth Century. Vol IV of 4 vols. New York: W, W. Black­ wood & Sons, 1904-12,

Moreau, Georges, "Necrologie de Gabriel Tarde," Revue Ur. i ver s el le, No, 112 (June 15, 1904) , 333 .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3-12 3 7 0

Palmer, Paul A. "The Concept of Public Opinion in Political Theory," in Essays in History and Political Theory in Honor of Charles Me I Iwain, Cambridge-. Harvard Univer­ sity Press, 1936„

______=. "The Concept of Public Opinion in Political 'Theory " Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1934.

Park, Robert E. "The Natural History of the Newspaper." American Journal of Sociology, XXIX (192 3), 2 7 3-89.

______, Masse und Publicum.. Bern? Buchdruckerei Lack & Grunin, 1904.

______and Ernest W, Burgess Introduction to the Science of Sociology. Chicago. University of Chicago Press, 1921

Richard, G. "La Psychologie Economique de M, Tarde," Revue Philosophique, Lit (1902). 640-48.

Roche-Agussol, Maurice, Tarde et 1 Economie Psychologique . P a n s , M. Riviere. 1926,

Rogers, Everett M Dif f us ion _of Innovations . Glencoe. The Free Press, 1962,

Ross, E, A. Joc_ial psychology New York. Macmillan, 1908.,

Small, Albion W. "Review, G, Tarde's Social Laws," American Journal of Sociology, IV (1899), 395-400,

Stoetzel. Jean. Esquisse d June Theorie des opinions, Paris?. Presses Universitaires de France, 1947,

______. Psychologie Socials. Paris-. Flammarion, 1963,

Tarde, Guillaume de, "L'evolution Sociale d :apres Gabriel Tarde," Revue Internatlonale de Sociologie, XIX (1911) , 253-81. ’

Tosti, Gustavo, "The Sociological Theories of G. Tarde," Political Science Quarterly, XII (1897), 490-511.

Vaschide, N. "La Psychologie de M. Tarde," Archives d 1Anthropologie Criminelle, XIX (1904) 661-74.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 371 B- 13

Vierkandt, A. "G. Tarde und die Bestrebungan der Sociologie,’' Zeitschaft fur Socialwisenschaft, II (1899) , 557-77,,

Wallas, Graham, .The Great Society. New York: Macmillan Co,, 1914.

Ward, Lester F ., "Letter of Condolence, " Revue Internationale de Soclologle, XII (1904), 654,

Worms, Rene. "Gabriel Tarde," Revue Internationale de Sociolog ie, XII (1905), 397,

______, "La philosophie sociale de G. Tarde," Revue Philo- sophique, LX (1905), 121-56.

Wroblewska, Ev . "Die gegenwartige SociologischeEfewegung in Fran'kreich mi t besondeier Rucksicht auf G. Tarde," Archiv _fur .die Geschichte der Philosophie I (1897) , 492,

Selected References on Public Opinion Research and Theory

Aix-Marseille , Universite de (Centre de Sciences Politiques de l'Institut Juridique de Nice), L 'Opinion publique . Paris; Presses Unlversitaires de France, 1957,

Albig, William. Modern Public Opinion. New York. McGraw- Hill Book Company, .1957 .

______, "Two Decades of Opinion Study: 1936-1956," Public Opinion Quar terly, XXI (i957), 14-22.

Allport, Floyd H. "Toward a Science of Public Opinion," Public Opinion Quarterly , I (1937), 7-23,

Allport, Gordon W. "Attitudes," in Handbook of Psychology Edited by Carl Murchison. Worcester, Massachusetts: Clark University Press, 1935, Pp, 798-844,

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