Excerpts from Charles Mackay's Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, covering the Mississippi Scheme, the South Sea Bubble, and the Tulip Mania of 17th century Holland; plus the novels Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas, which deals with the tulip mania, and The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, which deals with land speculation in 19th century America.