Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken, & Stanley Schachter, When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the End of the World (University of Minnesota Press; 1956).
Jon R. Stone (ed.). Expecting Armageddon: Essential Readings in Failed Prophecy (Routledge; 2000). ISBN 0-415-92331-X.
Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Stanford University Press; 1957).