Charles Mackay 
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.

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Charles Mackay (1814-1889) was a Scots journalist, author, and songwriter who was born in Perth and educated in London and Brussels. He published a
Dictionary of Lowland Scotch and several volumes of verse, and also wrote several hit songs, including one (‘The Good Time Coming’) that sold 400, 000 copies in 1846. Mackay also held a doctorate in literature and had an extensive career as a journalist.