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

"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.

Charles Mackay (1841-1889) was born in Perth, Scotland. His mother died shortly after his birth, and his father, who had been in turn a Lieutenant on a Royal Navy sloop (captured and imprisoned for four years in France) and then an Ensign in the 47th foot taking part in the ill-fated Walcheren Expedition where he contracted malaria, sent young Charles to live with a nurse in Woolwich in 1822. After a couple of years' education in Brussels from 1828-1830, he became a journalist and songwriter in London. He worked on The Morning Chronicle from 1835-1844, when he was appointed Editor of The Glasgow Argus. His song The Good Time Coming sold 400,000 copies in 1846, the year that he was awarded his Doctorate of Literature by Glasgow University. He was a friend of influential figures such as Charles Dickens and Henry Russell, and moved to London to work on The Illustrated London News in 1848, and he became Editor of it in 1852. He was a correspondent for The Times during the American Civil War, but thereafter concentrated on writing books. Apart from Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, he is best remembered for his songs and his Dictionary of Lowland Scotch.

David J. Schneider, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences at Rice University, where he chaired the Department of Psychology from 1990 to 1996. He graduated from Wabash College in 1962 with majors in psychology and philosophy, and earned a doctorate in psychology from Stanford University in 1966. Prior to joining the Rice University faculty in 1989, Dr. Schneider served on the faculties of Amherst College, Stanford University, Brandeis University, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Indiana University. In addition to courses in social psychology and stereotyping, he teaches introductory psychology, history of psychology, the psychology of beliefs, and psychology and law. Dr. Schneider was founding editor of [i]Social Cognition[/i] and has published several social psychology texts.