Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" is a landmark study of crowd psychology and mass mania and a singular casebook of human folly throughout the ages.

Chronicled here are accounts of swindles, schemes, and scams on a grand scale.

Other chapters deal with fads and delusions that have sprung from ideas, beliefs, and causes that still have champions today: the prophecies of Nostradamus, the coming of comets and Judgment Day, the Rosicrucians, and astrology.

The book also surveys controversial people and movements of the past: necromancy, Father Hell and Magnetism, Anthony Mesmer and Mesmerism, the Crusades, sorcery and the burning of witches, not to mention the popularity of murder by slow poisoning.