About how, through the centuries, decades and years, people have not lost and will never lose their passion for obscurantism. And how else can you call medieval torture, ancient Greek predictions and even modern fortune telling by the moon and coffee grounds? Mackay does not even try to answer the question of why people do this. He simply colorfully outlines the statistics of the madness that humanity has gone through.

Charles Mackay's book is a selection of the most outstanding delusions and madness of humanity: from financial pyramids to religious psychoses. It has become a classic work on mass manias, crowd behavior and human stupidity.

The "delusions" and "madness" set out in the book relate to the chronic "diseases" of humanity. Financial pyramids, corruption of power, falsifications and self-deception of imaginary healers and prophets - all this was, is and will be.

The greatness of the soul does not lie in extracting profit from everything, and the strength of spirit does not lie in bloodshed, unless there is a worthy reason for it.

Features
The most interesting historical data, presented in the genre of vivid memoirs.
Prophecies and alchemy as the scourge of humanity. What has changed over the past 10 centuries?
Fear of the apocalypse is a mass epidemic. To what extent has it been curable? The answer is obvious. Examples from the past.
The relevance of historical problems: only the wrapper changes, man is still mortal and subject to phobias and madness.
For whom
Designed for a wide range of readers.