دانلود کتاب The Crowd and the Public, and Other Essays

Seldom cited and even omitted from some bibliographies, Robert E. Park's Heidelberg University doctoral dissertation, Masse und Publikum (1904), is the first major work by one of the most influential pioneers of American sociology. As The Crowd and the Public, it now appears for the first time in English.

"Crowd" arid "public" are the traditional units treated by collective behavior, a field which Park named and launched. Here Park's primary concern is to define the units of analysis and establish points of view for sociology and social psychology. The fundamental distinctions between the crowd and the public are simply stated: the crowd suppresses the differences among its members and uncritically and unanimously fixes its attention upon some object; the public is the polar opposite in its recognition of individual differences in value and interest, engaging in rational discussion and debate, and arriving at a consensus which does not impose unanimity on its members.

For his dissertation Park drew on the ideas of many European and American psychologists and philosophers, including LeBon, Sighele, Baldwin, Royce, Rousseau, Hegel, and the Scottish moral philosophers. The diversity of sources and the process of their integration give important insights into the origins of Park's own thought, and through it, into the influences upon early American sociology.

In addition to the Introduction by Henry Elsner, Jr., this volume includes Donald N. Levine's "Note on The Crowd and the Public" and three of Park's later essays on related subjects which reflect the continuity of the ideas first expressed in The Crowd and the Public. They are "Reflections on Communication and Culture," "Symbiosis and Socialization: A Frame of Reference for the Study of Society," and "Social Planning and Human Nature."