About the Author

Robert E. Bartholomew is the author of twelve previous books, most recently Mass Hysteria in Schools (with Robert Rickard), and more than sixty articles in professional journals, including the British Medical Journal and the International Journal of Social Psychiatry. He has been interviewed in the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and on the History and Discovery channels. He is featured in an eight-part National Geographic series on UFOs. Bartholomew holds a PhD in medical sociology.

Peter Hassall is a researcher, writer, stuntman, and fight choreographer. He is the author of The NZ Files- UFOs in New Zealand and he has contributed a chapter to The Martians Have Landed! A History of Media Hoaxes and Panics by Robert E. Bartholomew and Benjamin Radford.

Reviews

""A delightful and entertaining romp through false beliefs, tall tales, fads, crazes, and urban legends of all kinds. A Colorful History of Popular Delusions is a much-needed reminder that the human capacity for self-delusion is seemingly endless. Enlightening and eye-opening--and great fun." --Scott O. Lilienfeld, PhD, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology, Emory University "Humans are a strange lot, and this book encapsulates that notion perfectly. Put a bunch of us on the same planet and we'll come up with things that don't even exist. From UFOs and monsters like Bigfoot, to mass hysteria involving tarantulas--this book takes a critical yet loving look at the utterly bizarre. Never mocking, but with a sense of fun, it puts a magnifying glass up to the stuff we think is real, but probably isn't. Probably." --David Farrier, Journalist "Vast, intriguing, and downright interesting. Robert E. Bartholomew and Peter Hassall take a no-nonsense tour of the world of fantasies, illusions, fallacies, disturbances, and deceptions. You will be enlightened more than you can imagine!" --Loren Coleman, MSW, Author of Cryptozoology A to Z "Scholarly enough for the researcher yet accessible enough for the interested layperson, this book is a welcome and important addition." --Benjamin Radford, MEd, Discovery News columnist and coauthor of The Martians Have Landed! A History of Media-Driven Panics and Hoaxes