# Taine — The Crowd character guide

> Taine in The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** M. Taine

**First appearance:** 0002-the-crowd

## Snapshot

The historian-philosopher whose authority Le Bon leans on, even while correcting him, to build a science of crowd psychology.

## Who they are

Taine appears as an intellectual touchstone, cited and occasionally disputed as Le Bon stakes out his own account of collective behavior. His presence signals that this is a book in conversation with nineteenth-century historiography, borrowing its prestige while insisting that crowds obey laws of their own. For the reader, he marks the moment the treatise shifts from anecdote to argument, grounding its claims in the scholarship of the day.

## Relationships

### [Crowds](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/crowds)

_psychological_

Taine is a historian who analyzes the crowds as a destructive, irrational force in history.

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_psychological_

Taine's theories on crowd psychology heavily influence the narrator's own analysis.

## In the story

### [The Sentiments and Morality of Crowds](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/chapters/ii-the-sentiments-and-morality-of-crowds)

Cited for observing that perpetrators of the September massacres deposited pocketbooks and jewels on committee tables, illustrating crowd morality.

### [The Exaggeration and Ingenuousness of the Sentiments of Crowds](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/chapters/3-the-exaggeration-and-ingenuousness-of-the-sentiments-of-crowds)

Referenced indirectly through M. Tarde's research on crowd crimes, supporting the claim of lowered intelligence in crowds.

### [The Morality of Crowds](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/chapters/5-the-morality-of-crowds)

Cited for observing that perpetrators of the September massacres deposited pocketbooks and jewels on committee tables, showing unexpected honesty.

### [A Religious Shape Assumed by All the Convictions of Crowds](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/chapters/iv-a-religious-shape-assumed-by-all-the-convictions-of-crowds)

Criticized for studying the French Revolution only as a naturalist, missing the psychological and religious roots of crowd behavior.

### [Instruction and Education](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/chapters/5-instruction-and-education)

Quoted extensively on the superiority of professional instruction over classical education and on the formation of ideas through practical experience.

### [Images, Words, and Formulas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/chapters/1-images-words-and-formulas)

Cited for his observation that the Jacobins used popular words like 'liberty' and 'fraternity' to justify despotism and violence.

### [Crowds Termed Criminal Crowds](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/chapters/ii-crowds-termed-criminal-crowds)

Historian whose contemporary sources are used to describe the September massacres.

### [Parliamentary Assemblies](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/chapters/v-parliamentary-assemblies)

Quoted to describe the unconscious and automatic behavior of the Convention, where members voted for measures they held in horror, including the murder of friends.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters/taine
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_crowd_se/characters