Oliver Stone's latest hit Wallstreet 2 at one point had Gekko describing the astounding historical economic bubble in the mid 1600s. Tulipomania, a period in the Dutch Golden Age when prices for Tulip bulbs reached extraordinary levels (some single bulbs sold for ten times the annual income of a craftsman), and then came crashing down to reality. The modern day "Outliers" or "Freakanomics" aren't the first of their kind... in 1841 a book written by Scottish journalist Charles Mackay chronicled the "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds". Debunking subjects such as alchemy, crusades, witch-hunts, fortune telling and of course, economic bubbles.
For the odd and informed
Macolm Gladwell's site
