William J. Bernstein

It has become well known how individuals might be rational and reasonable, but people in groups easily go crazy. Theologically Niebuhr made much of this in his Moral Man and Immoral Society. And Charles Mackay attested to it in his 19th century Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.

William Bernstein was motivated by the latter work to take up the same theme in The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups (galley received as part of early review program).

I am on record often suggesting how subtitles end up telling you more about what a book is about than the title itself; while I do still believe that tendency remains, it is not true in terms of this book. This book is not really about why people go mad in groups as much as details various instances of how they did so and attempting to provide warning indicators.

The author does not presume to be compendious, and he tends to focus on two particular catalysts for mass delusion: apocalyptic fervor and financial speculation. The narrative is roughly chronological and intersperses religious apocalypticism and financial speculation. He describes Anabaptist millennial fervor in the 16th century, French and British financial speculations and bubbles of the 18th century, the rise of dispensational premillennialism and its Millerite, Christian Zionist, and Religious Right manifestations, the speculations of the 1920s and the dot-com bubble, somewhat but less about the 2008 collapse, and much regarding Islamic apocalypticism manifest particularly in ISIS, among other narratives.

On the whole the narratives are well expressed, although the author continues to have too much esteem for the presumptions of the Enlightenment and has bought into some historical tropes; for instance, he bought the ex post facto justification of the Moral Majority on account of abortion as opposed to the opposition to IRS de-listing of segregation academies as non-profit organizations, and only later grabbing ahold of the abortion issue.

One can tell the author is not neutral about religious apocalyptic fervor but less vituperative regarding financial speculation. Regardless, much of what the author presents is a result of delusion, and no doubt there will be plenty more material for some later author to consider in some future volume regarding the delusions and madness of human collectives.… (mer)