Genres: General Nonfiction, Psychology, Religion
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback, Large print
Age Groups: 16-18, 18+

After graduating from college in 1979, Daniel Martin stuck his thumb out on Interstate 94 in St. Paul, Minnesota, hitchhiking east. He returned a year later, still hitchhiking east. While on that journey around the world, he read Charles Mackay's "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds," first published in 1841. Mackay wrote about the tulip bulb mania and the poor sailor who mistook a priceless bulb for an onion and ate it for breakfast. He wrote about alchemy, which was practiced with all seriousness by great thinkers of the time like Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon. He wrote about the Crusaders who raped and pillaged their way to Jerusalem in order to save their souls. He wrote about witch burning, a popular delusion that at its peak killed more than five hundred women annually in England alone. Daniel Martin was captivated by how relevant and relatable this history...