COMMENT:This is perhaps the perennial skeptical-historian's book, detailing several instances of mass delusion, popular fraud, and other examples of credulity. A minor shift of the nouns -- say, changing `Tulipomania' to `crystal healing,' or `witch mania' to `Satanic Ritual Abuse' -- and the book could have been written yesterday. Particularly valuable are chapters detailing the South Sea bubble, the Mississippi scheme, and the Crusades.
DATE:19990630
KEYWORDS:pseudoscience:history
MISC:748p.
PUBLISHER:Crown
SUBMITADDR:revpk@cellar.org
SUBMITNAME:Brian Siano
TITLE:Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds
