This book is not about the recent tragedy at the Hajj in Mecca, not about the events on the Maidan, and not about any riots.
The author uses the word «crowd» in a figurative and somewhat disparaging sense. By this very crowd, I mean the general public in general — that is, you and me. This blatant lack of political correctness is only excused by the fact that the author, the Scottish poet and journalist Charles Mackay, died in 1889 — more than a hundred years before the triumphant march of political correctness across the planet. That is why he called the crowd those who, in general, deserved this title. People who tend to obey the herd mentality, not bothering to listen to common sense. From the search for the Philosopher’s Stone to the Crusades and the influence of politics on the styles of beards and mustaches, Delusions and Follies is a brilliant study of the mass manias and fads that take over the minds of thousands of people overnight. An incredibly informative book that has not lost its relevance since its writing in 1841.
Alpina Publisher, 683 p., 2015.