In Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America, author Ann Coulter cites sociologist/psychologist Gustave Le Bon's work The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1895). This was a new one for me. A brief review of wikipedia portrays Le Bon as a formative element of the field of group psychology, especially as it relates to group think and propaganda. Wikipedia notes that Edward Bernays -- who was influence by Le Bon -- wrote a work titled propaganda, in which "he declared that a major feature of democracy was the manipulation of the mass mind by media and advertising", in addition to both Hitler and Mussolini making use of Le Bon's findings.Note: The work appears to be amoral; it is an academic study of the collective consciousness as opposed to an Alinksy-style how-to manual.
