Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay, David J. Schneider (Introduction); 1841/2004. Softcover.

Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading

First published in 1841, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is often cited as the best book ever written about market psychology.

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.