Citation

Riezler K. Am. J. Sociol. 1944; 49(6): 489-498.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1944, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/219471

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

"Collective insecurity," the nightmare of modern industrial society, is a psychological phenomenon of some complexity. It is not merely the economic insecurity caused by mass unemployment. In an article in Social Research (September, 1943) on the psychology of the modern revolution I characterized the kind of fear which in times of crisis befalls the ordinary citizen as "fear of the unknown." An analysis of this phenomenon presupposes an inquiry into the interrelation between "fear" and "knowledge," both individual and social.