Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is a study of crowd psychology by Scottish journalist Charles Mackay. The subjects of Mackay's debunking include witchcraft, alchemy, crusades, duels, economic bubbles, fortune-telling, haunted houses, the Drummer of Tedworth, the influence of politics and religion on the shapes of beards and hair, magnetizers (influence of imagination in curing disease), murder through poisoning, prophecies, popular admiration of great thieves, popular follies of great cities, and relics.
Contents:
Volume 1: National Delusions:
The Mississippi Scheme
The South Sea Bubble
The Tulipomania
Relics
Modern Prophecies
Popular Admiration for Great Thieves
Influence of Politics and Religion on the Hair and Beard
Duels and Ordeals
The Love of the Marvellous and the Disbelief of the True
Popular Follies in Great Cities
Old Price Riots
The Thugs, or Phansigars
Volume 2: Peculiar Follies:
The Crusades
The Witch Mania
The Slow Poisoners
Haunted Houses
Volume 3: Philosophical Delusions :
The Alchemysts
Fortune Telling
The Magnetisers

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) was a Scottish poet, journalist, author, anthologist, novelist, and songwriter, remembered mainly for his book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Mackay visited North America in the 1850s, publishing his observations as Life and Liberty in America. During the American Civil War he returned there as a correspondent for The Times, in which capacity he discovered and disclosed the Fenian conspiracy.