by Charles MacKay
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Product Description
First published in 1841, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is often cited as the best book ever written about market psychology. This Harriman House edition includes Charles Mackay's account of the three infamous financial manias - John Law's Mississipi Scheme, the South Sea Bubble, and Tulipomania.Between the three of them, these historic episodes confirm that greed and fear have always been the driving forces of financial markets, and, furthermore, that being sensible and clever is no defence against the mesmeric allure of a popular craze with the wind behind it.In writing the history of the great financial manias, Charles Mackay proved himself a master chronicler of social as well as financial history. Blessed with a cast of characters that covered all the vices, gifted a passage of events which was inevitably heading for disaster, and with the benefit of hindsight, he produced a record that is at once a riveting thriller and absorbing historical document. A century and a half later, it is as vibrant and lurid as the day it was written.For modern-day investors, still reeling from the dotcom crash, the moral of the popular manias scarcely needs spelling out. When the next stock market bubble comes along, as it surely will, you are advised to recall the plight of some of the unfortunates on these pages, and avoid getting dragged under the wheels of the careering bandwagon yourself.
Amazon.com Review
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 of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but Mackay's classic--first published in 1841--shows that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds. These are extraordinarily illuminating,and, unfortunately, entertaining tales of chicanery, greed and naivete. Essential reading for any student of human nature or the transmission of ideas. In fact, cases such as Tulipomania in 1624--when Tulip bulbs traded at a higher price than gold--suggest the existence of what I would dub "Mackay's Law of Mass Action:" when it comes to the effect of social behavior on the intelligence of individuals, 1+1 is often less than 2, and sometimes considerably less than 0.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A fun and easy read on the stupidity of people, 2008-07-29
I really enjoyed this book. Often, people seem to think the problems of the modern world are new and insurmountable issues. This book shows the cycle of life is just that, a cycle. Working on the stock market, I'm constantly assailed with the negative news of the day. This book cites examples of the same issues we now face... only these examples come from roughly 300 years ago.
I am amazed that, as a species, we still cannot seem to learn from our past. This book shows that unregulated markets are rife with corruption, and the ignorant often suffer. Looking at our current housing market crisis, I see many similarities with the corruption and suffering of generations past. Within these pages, unscrupulous people will learn to profit. Of course, those same unscrupulous people will also be the ones crying for deregulation. There is a lesson to be learned here. Pick up the book and enjoy.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 A classic must-read! Very, very insightful!, 2008-06-25
This book identifies and describes phenomena that most would assume to be foreseable and evident when observed as historical event.
However such manic human behavior keeps occuring over and over again, which inevitably (as history observes) have destructive consequences.
As many others have noted, this book is hard to read and it could certainly be written using much simpler vocabulary and probably in a fraction of its length.
However one must keep in mind that this book was initially written almost 200 years ago!
Personally, I value this book for the insights it offers into the history of crowd's delusions.
Consequently, the reader will hopefully be able to identify such manias in the future and act accordingly - assuming that he can remain detached enough from the mania itself.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 This book is a popular delusion, 2008-06-23
The most boring book ever. No theory, no ideas, just page after page of stuff you already know. There is almost 200 pages on Alchemist. Nuff said.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Extraordinary Popular Delusions, 2008-05-09
This book was delayed, and by the time I was notified of the delay, it was too late to cancel the order and reorder somewhere else. It was also the abridged edition. I would have preferred the unabridged edition.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
It's only a slice of the book!, 2007-06-27
I first discovered this book 40 years ago, and especially loved its description of the witchcraft hysteria. This is a lovely little edition, but it is only a small subset of the entire work, dealing specifically in three economic bubbles. It would have been good reading in 2000.
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