Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds was written in 1841 by Charles Mackay as a sort of treatise on the strange social movements through western history based on stubbornly erroneous beliefs, but as Mackay was a journalist rather than a psychologist, the result is a fascinating compendium of memoirs and anecdotes relating to each topic. I chose this public-domain text as the basis for my master's degree thesis project at SVA; I decided to make a deeply abridged illustrated edition, complete with spot illustrations and drop caps.
