The Delusions Of Crowds
Why People Go Mad in Groups

Overall, pretty good. The middle section is significantly brought down by his sneering tone towards evangelical Protestants (and religious people in general). I would have appreciated a section on "scientific" delusions, such as eugenics, polywater, N-rays, and so forth. It would have leavened his r......more

This book started out pretty good. Goes through some of the standard bubbles or mass delusions over history. Then, as is always the case the book at the 200 mark devolves into Marxist propaganda. He starts arguing mass group delusions mostly stem from Christianity, which is clearly not true given th......more

The Delusions of Crowds by William J Bernstein is in many ways an updating of Charles Mackay’s Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions. Because they resonate with people and to keep the length of the book manageable, he limited his examples to financial and religious mass manias. In other words,......more

I hesitated between 3 starts and 5 on this one. It's an incredibly insightful book full of fascinating new analytical perspectives on this mystery of why people behave so irrationally as crowds. A few chapters were a bit too long and detailed which made it hard to follow and not engaging, especially......more

The author says people don’t analyze the world but tend to rationalize how the facts conform to their emotions. We respond more to narratives than to facts and data. Bernstein combines elements of neuropsychology, social psychology, evolutionary psychology, financial economics, and history. Religion......more