Charles Mackay (1) (1814–1889)

Some people may wonder why I call the book extraordinary and give it four starts. Only those interested in that subject will be interested in the detailed history in each chapter, which is why I gave the book four stars. For instance, I used to be interested in The Crusades. If my interest in this topic was intense, like it used to be, I would have lapped up the chapter. I read the section on The Thugs and the South Sea Bubble with great interest.

Apart from this minor gripe, the book is extraordinary. Charles Mackay prefaced each chapter with a summary of the particular madness that gripped people and the circumstances leading to the events of the times.

After you finish the book, it may be good to sit back and reflect on the madness that has gripped the world in the last century. The two world wars, the debates about vaccines, the religious divide, and civil wars are all the result of crowd psychology and groupthink.

We are not much better than many of our ancestors who lived a few centuries back.

Read this book.… (meer)

FYI Review, Contents for the Curious:
This study is available as an abridged volume or unabridged in three volumes which contain:
Volume I: National Delusions / Economic Bubbles (available vis Project Guttenberg)
-The Mississippi Scheme
-The South Sea Bubble
-The Tulip Mania
-Relics
-Modern Prophecies
-Popular Admiration for Great Thieves
-Influence of Politics and Religion on the Hair and Beard
-Duels and Ordeals
-The Love of the Marvellous and the Disbelief of the True
-Popular Follies in Great Cities
-Old Price Riots
-The Thugs, or Phansigars
Volume II: Peculiar Follies
-The Crusades
-The Witch Mania
-The Slow Poisoners
-Haunted Houses
Volume III: Philosophical Delusions
-The Alchemysts
-Fortune Telling
-The Magnetisers… (meer)

For me, this book is an example as to the necessity of half-star ratings. This is a perfect 3.5 star book.

it's audio-only, it's only 3 hours long, and it's really just a small portion from a larger book. Not a great start...

BUT, on the other hand,

I find the topic of witch hysteria vastly interesting. How and Why we treated other, differenter humans so poorly is, as this title suggests: Terrifying. Was life so bleak and scary back then, that people found the Devil lurking everywhere? Including their neighbors? Their teachers? Their poor?

Witch-hunting was a terrible disease, that we can still learn a lot from.

While this is more of a collection or catalog of cases, which means it lacks a lot of detail and nuance, it's still a great introduction to the history of witch-hunting.… (meer)