First published in 1989, this persuasive and original work by John McClelland examines the importance of the idea of 'the crowd' in the writings of philosophers, historians and politicians from the classical era to the twentieth century.

The book examines histories of political thought and their justifications for forms of rule, highlighting the persistent and profoundly anti-democratic bias in political and social thought, analysing in particular the writings of Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Hitler, Gibbon, Carlysle, Michelet, Taine and Freud.