• Examines the psychology of crowds and mass mania throughout history, including many of the classic scams, financial bubbles, mass hysteria, and deceptions that have characterized the business world and beyond.

• At once a gripping thriller and fascinating historical document, the book discusses the underlying processes that lead markets into boom-and-bust cycles that still occur today.

• Considers why people form into irrational groups when they engage in collective action.

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”

“Money, again, has often been a cause of the delusion of the multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper.”

“Of all the offspring of Time, Error is the most ancient, and is so old and familiar an acquaintance, that Truth, when discovered, comes upon most of us like an intruder, and meets the intruder’s welcome.”