"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.
- ISBN10 1411428595
- ISBN13 9781411428591
- Publish Date 1 September 2009 (first published 12 August 2004)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Barnes & Noble
- Format eBook
- Pages 656
- Language English