Inspired by Charles Mackay’s 19th-century classic Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Bernstein engages with mass delusion with the same curiosity and passion, but armed with the latest scientific research that explains the biological, evolutionary, and psychosocial roots of human irrationality. Bernstein tells the stories of dramatic religious and financial mania in western society over the last 500 years―from the Anabaptist Madness that afflicted the Low Countries in the 1530s to the dangerous End-Times beliefs that animate ISIS and pervade today’s polarized America; and from the South Sea Bubble to the Enron scandal and dot com bubbles of recent years. Through Bernstein’s supple prose, the participants are as colorful as their motivation, invariably “the desire to improve one’s well-being in this life or the next.” As revealing about human nature as they are historically significant, Bernstein’s chronicles reveal the huge cost and alarming implications of mass mania: for example, belief in dispensationalist End-Times has over decades profoundly affected U.S. Middle East policy. Bernstein observes that if we can absorb the history and biology of mass delusion, we can recognize it more readily in our own time, and avoid its frequently dire impact.
Details of e-book The Delusions of Crowds
- Author(s): William J. Bernstein
- Title: The Delusions of Crowds
- Rating: 4.5 out of 5 base on 179 reviews
- Publisher: Grove Press; Reprint edition (March 15, 2022)
- ISBN-10: 0802157106
- ISBN-13: 9780802157102
- Language: English
- Print length: 496 pages
- Categories: Health, Fitness & Dieting
Elaine Leonard
This book has given me many great ideas and even more practical advice. I see some reviewers saying this was mostly a general sales philosophy and outdated advice. If you're already on sale, this might be a re-hash for you. There are criticisms of the book that it doesn't talk about tools, metrics, and so on, and I agree that it's important.
Daphne Garner
I usually don't spend a huge amount on a single book. For thirty dollars, I expected more. There was plenty to go here or email for more. But 4/5 for concepts that I think will be useful, even if there seems little hope of gaining a massive following without paying.
Iris Watts
This book is what I have been looking for for the past 2 years! Seriously, I just stumbled across this book and when I started reading it…my enthusiasm skyrocketed!
