University of Toronto Press The Criminal Crowd and Other Writings on Mass Society (Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library)

The Criminal Crowd and Other Writings on Mass Society is the first English collection of writings by Italian jurist, sociologist, cultural and literary critic Scipio Sighele. Sighele is largely responsible for providing post-unification Italy with a new outlook on issues ranging from the blurring line between individual and collective accountability, the role of urbanization in the development of criminality, and the emancipation of women. This work draws a multifaceted portrait of a provocative thinker and public intellectual caught between tradition and modernity during the European fin de si?cle. Containing a comprehensive introduction by the editor, The Criminal Crowd and Other Writings on Mass Society includes Sighele's seminal work, The Criminal Crowd, as well as his formative studies on group behaviour. Nicoletta Pireddu contextualizes Sighele's contribution to the so-called 'age-of crowds, ' from the fierce polemic with his French rivals Gustave LeBon and Gabriel Tarde to the scientific, literary, and cultural developments of his conceptualization of mass behaviours as a legitimate object of psychological investigation into a new century. About the Author Scipio Sighele (1868-1913) an Italian sociologist and criminologist, was born in Brescia on June 24, 1868. After finishing the course in Law University of Rome, in 1892-1902 he taught at the Free University of Brussels.