Routledge Revivals: The Rape of the Masses (1940): The Psychology of Totalitarian Political Propaganda

First published in French in 1939, and later in English in 1940, this work by the author, analyses and strongly critiques the effect of Nazi propaganda on the psychology of the masses. By bringing together the political and the psychological, the author refers to the use of propaganda in order to serve the ends of a handful of men as ‘psychical rape’ and warns that this phenomenon cannot be attributed solely to the Nazi regime.

The English translation was updated to account for the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. It will be of great interest to anyone studying the Second World War, Nazism, Fascism and the psychology of propaganda.

Sergei Stepanovich Chakhotin was a Russian biologist, sociologist and social activist of Russian origin. He was one of the first thinkers to describe the effect of propaganda on the psychology of masses and warned against the techniques used by the Nazi Party. He was friends with Einstein and discussed his fears concerning the rise of Nazism with him.