The Revolt of the Masses

Introduction

“The Revolt of the Masses” appeared in instalments in the Madrid newspaper “El Sol” from 1929 and as a book in 1930. Ortega describes a new figure: the “mass man”, not a social class but a type found in every class, who feels like everyone else, enjoys the achievements of civilisation as if they were natural and claims rights without recognising obligations or standards above himself. Bolshevism and fascism are for Ortega forms of this revolt, and a state that absorbs society is its greatest danger. Against national narrowness he argues that Europe must become a unity. A prologue for French readers (1937) and an epilogue for English readers (1938) followed. The book became Ortega’s most widely read work; it has been read both as a liberal defence of standards and responsibility and as an elitist critique of mass democracy.

More works by José Ortega y Gasset

• 1914Meditations on Quixote
• 1923The Modern Theme