The Mind and Society
book by Vilfredo Pareto
The Mind and Society (Italian: Trattato di Sociologia Generale, lit. "Treatise on General Sociology") is a 1916 book by the Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923). In this book Pareto presents the first sociological cycle theory, centered on the concept of an elite social class.
The Mind and Society has been named, by Martin Seymour-Smith, as one of the most influential books ever written. The English edition was published in 1935. An abridged version, Compendium of General Sociology (Italian: Compendio di Sociologia Generale), was published in Italian in 1920 and English in 1980.
Release
The book was first published in Italian in 1916, then in French between 1917 and 1919. A second Italian edition was released in 1923. An English edition, titled The Mind and Society: A Treatise on General Sociology, was released in 1935.
Summary
The book characterises human acts as mostly 'non-logical': not conducive to an intended goal.
The public source identifies “The Mind and Society” as book by Vilfredo Pareto. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mind, Society and book.
Why this record matters
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17056950. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1916, 1848, 1923 and 1935.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Mind and Society” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.