Why do in any other case intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they take part in collective action? Why perform financially sensible people jump lemming-like into hare-brained speculative frenzies–only to leap broker-like out of windows when their fantasies dissolve? We might think that the fantastic Crash of 1929, junk bonds from the ’80s, and over-valued high-tech shares of the ’90s are peculiarly 20th hundred years aberrations, but Mackay’s classic–first released in 1841–shows which the madness and dilemma of crowds understands no limits, and has no temporal bounds. They are extraordinarily illuminating,and, however, entertaining stories of chicanery, greed and naivete. Important reading for just about any student of human being character or the transmitting of ideas.