This talk discusses some of the historical developments of the idea of group minds and the resurrection of the idea in contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science. I begin with a discussion of how the idea of group mind is part of the social imaginary. I then turn to consider the ways in which the idea has turned up in different time periods. In particular, I focus on 19th and 20th century social scientists and their attempt to make sense of the social world by appeal to something like group minds.