Written in 1841, this is as relevant today as ever. It's a history of several mass madnesses, including the South Seas bubble (England, early 1700s), Tulipomania (Netherlands, 1624), the Alchemists, the Crusades, the medieval prophets, relics, and more. Dotcom bubbles? Been there seen that, hundreds of years ago, several times. Crash of '29? S&Ls in the 80s? Ah, the repeats of forgotten history.

At points the exhaustive amount of information can get to be a bit much, but no matter - this is a great book for skimming.

Well, lovers of Harry Potter can read about the real Nicolas Flamel.