AYOUSH LAZIKANI introduces her guide to the many ways in which the Moon was interpreted in medieval times
Bonding with others offers a level of freedom and strength
A recognition that individually we are powerless both politically and socially is essential, writes GORDON PARSONS
FEAR OF MULTITUDES: Policing overkill at a pro-Palestine march on March 23 2025
An analysis of the choices facing the US left has to reach beyond the confines of the Democrat party, suggests RON JACOBS
FRANCIS BECKETT introduces his new play that aims to give its audience a taste of what a far-right triumph would be
KENNY MACASKILL welcomes an outstanding biography that gives full context to the life of Scotland’s greatest early 20th century novelist
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Ackroyd & Harvey: The Art of Activism, The Lost Bus, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, and Happyend
MARY CONWAY relishes the spectacle of a domestic implosion in a setting strangely divorced from any social, political or cultural context
Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World
Dan Hancox
Verso, £20
“WHY do we join crowds?,” asks Dan Hancox in his book examining the crowd in its physical, social and psychological forms. Mob, horde, rabble, mass, swarm — there is no shortage of denigratory terms to describe large gatherings of humanity, whether their communal purpose is to support their local football team or to celebrate in shared carnivalesque joy at the burgeoning music festivals but particularly to demonstrate for or against an infringement on their own or others’ freedoms.
Hancox claims that the crowd is “both the agent and the protagonist of history; the harbinger of change, the forcer of arguments.”
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