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21st out of 135 books
—
9 voters
Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds
Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? Why do financially sensible people jump lemming-like into hare-brained speculative frenzies--only to jump broker-like out of windows when their fantasies dissolve? We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and over-valued high-tech stocks...more
Paperback, 740 pages
Published
May 13th 1980
by Three Rivers Press
(first published 1841)
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This book is quite a riveting book. The name of the book describes exactly what you might expect it to contain. “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” provides a list of history’s ridiculous schemes, fantasies, prophesies witchcraft, faith healers and more. The author then debunks the delusions by citing the proof that was published at the time of the delusion.
I will list a few a few of the stories I liked best.
The first chapter teaches us about a Scottish character named...more
I will list a few a few of the stories I liked best.
The first chapter teaches us about a Scottish character named...more
In the weeks before the election, as the financial crisis spun ever farther out of control and the pundits' shrieks grew ever more shrill, I browsed through "Popular Delusions.." and found solace. Charles Mackay's extraordinary survey of the various manifestations of mass hysteria throughout history cannot help but offer perspective. He reminds us that, no matter how batshit crazy a particular fad might seem, it's already been done by our ancestors. There is truly nothing new under the sun; the...more
Aug 19, 2007
James
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Everyone
Shelves:
favorites
This is one of the greatest books ever written.
First published in 1841, I think it has been in print continually ever since. Rare for a non fiction book.
I read it about once every 10 years to remind myself of mob psychology.
One of my favorite genres.
Also the author has a gift for storytelling.
About a dozen chapters, each one about a different set of events.
All examples of mob behavior.
How people can abandon critical analysis when "everyone else is doing it".
About the balance between Fear an...more
First published in 1841, I think it has been in print continually ever since. Rare for a non fiction book.
I read it about once every 10 years to remind myself of mob psychology.
One of my favorite genres.
Also the author has a gift for storytelling.
About a dozen chapters, each one about a different set of events.
All examples of mob behavior.
How people can abandon critical analysis when "everyone else is doing it".
About the balance between Fear an...more
written in the 19th century extraordinary popular delusions in the madness of crowds gives plenty of examples of the irrational behavior caused by money in particularly the selling of shares in the stock market.when compared to the events of today you can see people do not learn when it comes to money. when the economic bubbles pop there's always someone who says they can do it better and they will try but it always will lead to some sort of collapse and reform of government and monetary institu...more
This is quite possibly my favorite book of all time. I remembered today that I hadn't added it to my Goodreads collection when I took a tour of the Witch Trial Museum in Salem, MA, which is a very good place to strike up conversations with strangers about civil rights and religious mania. MacKay of course said that he avoided any inclusion of religious manias in his book, since it would require an entire volume just to enumerate them. Too true.
The best reason I have to recommend MacKay is that...more
The best reason I have to recommend MacKay is that...more
Sep 23, 2012
Keith Kendall
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Humans
Shelves:
history,
psychology
I kept mentioning this book to people, but it has been over 10 years since I read it and I was forgetting what it actually contains, and so it was time to read it again. This time it was just as delightful as the first time, although I began to wonder about the value of reading endless repetitions of the folly of man.
It is a great cautionary tale about how easily we fall into error, and warns against some of the bigger errors that we have fallen into. As such, this book is valuable to remind ou...more
It is a great cautionary tale about how easily we fall into error, and warns against some of the bigger errors that we have fallen into. As such, this book is valuable to remind ou...more
Extraordinary Popular Delusions was recommended to me as a way of doing some homework on a novel I’m working on set in the financial world. And, indeed, McKay explores some of the more interesting historical examples of boom and bust, such as the South Sea Bubble. However, he also takes a look at other instances of public mania--the adoration of criminals, the Crusades, alchemy, and the like.
From the financial point of view, we are reminded of how much the old French saying about same and cha...more
From the financial point of view, we are reminded of how much the old French saying about same and cha...more
Mark Twain once famously characterized a "classic" as "a book that everyone praises and nobody reads," and while there are plenty of classics that absolutely hold up (The Iliad, Moby Dick,, hell, most anything by Twain himself), there are plenty of others that disappoint. I waited years to finally read Don Quixote (first book only), only to find that it was pretty boring. Figured the movie M, starring Peter Lorre, was can't-miss. It missed. Gave up on Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and fin...more
This book is pretty entertaining in parts, though I think descriptions of it tend to make it sound even more entertaining than it is. The main subject is the lunacy that people get up to when in groups, especially in the form of investment bubbles (South Sea Island company, Mississippi company, etc.). There are also a number of other stories scattered throughout (Tulipomania is probably the most ridiculous). That said, he does tend to focus on the bubbles and the rest of the stories seem to be l...more
This book was mentioned in both Tulipomania : The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused and in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark as a book worth reading, so I thought I would have a look. I haven't finished it yet, but so far it has been an interesting look at a rather neglected facet of history.
It was written in the mid-19th Century, so it has an old-fashioned writing style, which puts some people off, but which I have alway...more
It was written in the mid-19th Century, so it has an old-fashioned writing style, which puts some people off, but which I have alway...more
This book kind of straddles the intellectual trend of categorizing and the trend of analyzing, in the way Michel Foucault talked about that transition in The Archaeology of Knowledge. Or at least I thought that was what he was talking about. LOL
MacKay tries to collect and analyze every large-scale delusion that has gripped humanity, a task with an ambition particular to his time. He does give a good education in various follies, presumably so we could avoid them in the future. No such luck, as w...more
MacKay tries to collect and analyze every large-scale delusion that has gripped humanity, a task with an ambition particular to his time. He does give a good education in various follies, presumably so we could avoid them in the future. No such luck, as w...more
Actually, I read this book on books.google.com.
Outstanding read. Not only does history repeat itself but we never learn from our pasts.
This books tells the story of various financial scams and public furors and deceptions which have occurred over the last thousand years. They are little different from the issues we are having today with the housing bust and the stock market overvaluation. (2008-2009)
My opinion on the stock market is, stock prices have been drive by demand, not value. If people w...more
Outstanding read. Not only does history repeat itself but we never learn from our pasts.
This books tells the story of various financial scams and public furors and deceptions which have occurred over the last thousand years. They are little different from the issues we are having today with the housing bust and the stock market overvaluation. (2008-2009)
My opinion on the stock market is, stock prices have been drive by demand, not value. If people w...more
This book was an extraordinary disappointment. It's a history of the delusions that sweep entire cultures - like the idea that house prices will continue to go up forever and that banks can mortgage houses to people who can't afford them and avoid the risk by packaging said mortgages and selling them off as investments. In this case he tells the story of how, for instance, the Dutch once got so deluded by tulips that they traded individual bulbs at prices in the thousands of dollars. Everyone th...more
The German philosopher Friedrich Schiller tells us, "Anyone taken as an individual is tolerably sensible and reasonable - as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead." Written in 1841 by Charles McKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions outlines classic episodes of mass behavior in history. These include worship of alchemists, fortune-tellers, haunted houses, and "popular follies of great cities". For modern context, Andrew Tobias comments in the book's forward about "'the hustle', where...more
Written in the mid 19th century I found the "old" english a bit tough to read. The book shows just how little has changed when it comes to capital markets and how irrational people can be when money (and greed) are involved. The chapter on the 17th century Dutch tulip craze summarizes the overall message rather well.
Mar 16, 2011
Daveski
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction,
favorites
This was probably the best book I've ever read, and I'm not exaggerating. It's informative, entertaining (and often hilarious), and provides insight into human nature that is just as meaningful and relevant today as it was in 1842. Despite the wide range of topics, the title describes the central theme perfectly, and MacKay describes ways that civilization has constantly been plagued with crazes and manias, and how these delusions still effect people in modern times.
He covers a wide range of top...more
He covers a wide range of top...more
First published in 1841, this is a chronicle of some of the more prominent lunacies ever to sweep a culture. Included are in-depth studies of The Crusades, the Dutch tulipomania, various proto-capitalist bubbles, the Euro-American witch hunts, prophets and alchemists, and slow poisoners.
This book, despite its age has a timeless quality to it as it keeps us alive to the stupidity of each succeeding generation with the endless delusions we get caught up in. The snag is, that we forget, and as Santayana said, 'those who forget history, are doomed to repeat it. Each succeeding generation should read this book. It covers our mistakes with 'The South Sea Bubble' possibly the first major market crash where fortunes were made and lost; Tulipmania, where certain tulip bulbs changed hand...more
Charles Mackay catalogues some of the irrational fads that have gripped mankind over the years, in an effort to demonstrate that today's bullshit is neither unique nor new. Of course, his ``today'' was 1841, so his grasp on history isn't particularly reliable—which is made more painful by the completely unnecessary level of detail of his accounts—and he isn't necessarily as good at identifying irrationality as might be hoped (at one point calling belief in the afterlife ``the greatest triumph of...more
FINALLY finished this, after the better part of three years of cadging bits & pieces of spare time to slog from cover to cover. Overall, the opus is a revealing catalog of the many ways human folly, greed, & fear manifest themselves in events that have wasted countless lives as well as fortunes. Getting through the mass of facts & examples is sometimes tough going, as Mackay's writing style bespeaks his vocation as a lawyer. However, the first three chapters--on the Mississippi schem...more
I have read and re-read this book many times and I had to single this out and include it on my good reads list because it has been so influential. MacKay records popular madness, usually very brief hysterias, where something patently wrong or preposterous becomes madly popular, from financial crazes like the Tulip mania in Holland, to hauntings in England. Extraordinary... also covers phrases, such as 'quoz!' (a clever retort) and it's friend 'that's a shocking awful hat!' both of which were vir...more
Aug 18, 2011
Erik Graff
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
business students
Recommended to Erik by:
James Koehnline
Shelves:
history
I was surprised and somewhat pleased to see that some business book publishers help keep this amusing work in print. The most memorable portions of it are about financial scams, panics and fads--all crazy.
‘But you do not tell us your age,’ said Madame du Pompadour to him on another occasion; ‘and yet you pretend you are very old. The Countess de Gergy, who was, I believe, ambassadress at Vienna some fifty years ago, says she saw you there, exactly the same as you now appear.’
‘It is true, madame,’ replied St. Germain; ‘I knew Madame de Gergy many years ago.’
‘But, according to her account, you must be more than a hundred years old?’
’That is not impossible,’ said he, laughing; ‘but it is much more...more
‘It is true, madame,’ replied St. Germain; ‘I knew Madame de Gergy many years ago.’
‘But, according to her account, you must be more than a hundred years old?’
’That is not impossible,’ said he, laughing; ‘but it is much more...more
This was originally published in 3 volumes with the first volume appearing in 1841. The version that I read was the Wordsworth edition which had 600 pages and 16 chapters.
Please note that all 3 volumes appear on Project Gutenberg for those people who don't mind reading from a screen. The version that I read contains most chapters that appeared in the 3 volumes. The chapters that are in the Gutenberg version but not my version are 'The O.P. Mania', 'The Thugs, or Phansigars' and 'The Love of the...more
Please note that all 3 volumes appear on Project Gutenberg for those people who don't mind reading from a screen. The version that I read contains most chapters that appeared in the 3 volumes. The chapters that are in the Gutenberg version but not my version are 'The O.P. Mania', 'The Thugs, or Phansigars' and 'The Love of the...more
This is one of very, very few books I've ever read that I thoroughly enjoyed, finished, turned to the publication date, and saw...1841???? Besides Candide and the King in Yellow I can't think of any other books that simply have not aged at all. Not one bit. If you didn't know this book was 200 years old you would not figure it out.
The content is as astounding as the style, but you can tell from the title alone whether or not you want to read this book -- it's exactly what it promises, a compendi...more
The content is as astounding as the style, but you can tell from the title alone whether or not you want to read this book -- it's exactly what it promises, a compendi...more
Jul 27, 2009
Todd Martin
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
culture-politics
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds was first published in 1841 and chronicles a number of irrational ideas that took hold of the public imagination including: stock market bubbles, the tulip-mania that overtook Holland, alchemists, the crusades, witch mania, prophecies/fortune tellers, hair styles, popular sayings, haunted houses, relics and dueling.
Almost 170 years later we have stock market bubbles, beanie baby mania, homeopaths, the war in Iraq, psychics, haunted house...more
Almost 170 years later we have stock market bubbles, beanie baby mania, homeopaths, the war in Iraq, psychics, haunted house...more
Oh boy. I can see why people say this is a classic that "everyone talks about but no one has read." First of all, this book is wildly depressing. It points out how stupid people have been from time immemorial and how stupid we will continue to be. Second, MacKay assumes I know French and Italian. I do not. This is not a fault of the book, per se, and more a fault of my 20th century schooling.
Anyway, I'm sure the sections on Astrology and Witches would interest my sister and if you're interested...more
Anyway, I'm sure the sections on Astrology and Witches would interest my sister and if you're interested...more
I came across this book about twenty years ago and didn't read it then. My loss. At least the first two sections should be basic reading in everyone's education. The first deals with the Mr.Law and fiscal disasters that befell France in the circulation of paper debt in a growing hysteria of greed. The second is similar, dealing with the inflation in value of tulip bulbs in Holland. They might be termed catastrophic adventures in early finance.
I happened to be reading the tulipomania passage duri...more
I happened to be reading the tulipomania passage duri...more
This book was cited in the Wisdom of Crowds, as an illustration of when the group is most definitely not smart, but can whip itself into an irrational frenzy, as individuals no longer make decisions independently, but are goaded into folly by those around them. The Madness of Crowds covers three bubbles - (i) the Mississippi scheme in France in 1716; (ii) the South Sea bubble, which occurred in England almost at the same time as the Mississippi scheme; and (iii) the tulip craze in the Netherland...more
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“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”
—
12 people liked it
“In reading The History of Nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities, their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.”
—
6 people liked it
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Feb 13, 2013 09:18am