Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1. Users of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds, Becuase of Benard Baruch and Jesse Livermore, Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time. There are excellent books on the financial aspecst or history of such phenomena, Galbraith or John Cassidy for example. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. The book is divided into long and short sections, depending on how exhaustively the author wanted to explore a given topic. Shorter sections cover various types of medical quackery, doomsday prophets, poisoners, and dueling. 1852. memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds. As the man looks back to the days of his childhood and his youth, and recalls to his mind the strange notions that swayed his actions at that time, that he may wonder at them; so should society, for its education, look back to the opinions which governed the ages fled. Refresh and try again. This review is the subjective opinion of an Investimonials.com member and not of Investimonials LLC. That is, people have one hundred forty seven billion dollars invested in Amazon and at the present rate will earn back their money in 569 years. by charles mackay, ll.d. Librivox recording of Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume I by Charles Mackay. Some of the long sections include financial bubbles, alchemy, the Crusades, and witch hunting frenzies. Yes, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 . By Charles Mackay 1814-1889) Charles Mackay was a Scottish poet, journalist, author, anthologist, novelist, and songwriter remembered mainly for his book 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds'. illustrated with numerous engravings. Learn why intelligent people do amazingly stupid things when caught up in speculative edevorse. 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. extraordinary popular delusions. The book encompasses a broad range of scams, manias, and deceptions including witch burning and the Great Crusades. [illustration: the bubblers' arms--prosperity.] There are excellent books on the financial aspecst or history of such phenomena, Galbraith or John Cassidy for example. Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? Paperback $ 15.99. September 1st 2003 Mackay is sometimes a little silly (he spends hundreds of pages showing how the brightest men of science and learning fell for alchemy, then looks to science and knowledge to save us from superstitions like witchcraft) but always entertaining and often fairly profound. We tend to think of sarcasm as a modern affliction, but Charles Mackay's writing is as sarcastic as anything I have ever read. Marvellous walk through all the madnesses of mankind known so far! I understand completely why this text was reissued: the parallels to contemporary events (like the dot-com bubble, the housing bubble, the crash of 2007 and frenzied investment in Iraqi infrastructure and petroleum projects) are so striking as to almost seem contrived. Some of the long sections include financial bubbles, alchemy, the Crusades, and witch hunting frenzies. $SEEK is possible to turn $500 into $5,000 because it can run 1000%. The study of the errors into which great minds have fallen in the pursuit of truth can never be uninstructive. C harles Mackay wrote not of pandemics but “moral epidemics” 179 years ago in Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. And not only is such a study instructive: he who reads for amusement only will find no chapter in the annals of the human mind more amusing than this. And how about those many thousands of suspected witches who met brutal deaths? 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. It can serve as a springboard to the study of actual history, economics, and psychology, or it can be an entertaining way to pass some time -- but don't believe everything you read here. Every book in every volume (my Gutenberg PDF has the bulk of the book in part one, followed by three more books devoted to alchemists, fortune tellers and magnetisers) is full of interesting historical stories of varying degrees of import. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds at Amazon.com. He was trying entertain his audience and to demonstrate, as effectively as po. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and Madness of the Crowds, 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. How could such fool. The book chronicles its targets in three parts: "National Delusions," "Peculiar Follies," and "Philosophical Delusions." It's like history has conspired to bear out MacKay's thesis to perfection: you could hardly hope for better validation outisde of a laboratory! ... Apart from Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, he is best remembered for his songs and his Dictionary of Lowland Scotch. Oh, to be reminded of humanity's follies and foolishness. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Introduction. Related Searches. Office of the National Illustrated Library, ... if one is clever enough to find their way to this review, and the novel itself, they have come far in their journey! Extraordinary Popular Delusions is a 700 page study of what Mackay calls the Madness of Europe, up until 1841. Note - This review is on the non-abridged version Madness of the crowds that can be seen here Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds which is the version that I would recommend. It was a favorite book of Bernard Baruch, who wrote the foreword to the 1932 edition, a much longer work than what we see here. We get wound up over such ridiculous things, and perform such ridiculous acts for such ridiculous reasons that you have to wonder why, if there is a God, the world contains so many sharp objects and so few padded surfaces... We tend to think of sarcasm as a modern affliction, but Charles Mackay's writing is as sarcastic as anything I have ever read. A reader recommended the book "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" a while back, and I just got a chance to read it. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Item Preview remove-circle ... Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay. Anyway, lost interest after the 78th description of some renaissance alchemist, Today, July 29, 2014, Amazon has a market capitalization of $147,380,000,000 and a price/earnings ratio of 569. The illumination cast by his thesis itself is probably worthy of a five-star rating, but I found the first section on Paris to be excessively detailed and frankly tedious. Only chapters relating to financial markets have been included in this Wiley Investment Classics edition. There is truly nothing new under the sun; the catalog of human daftness, though entertainingly long and varied, is nonetheless finite. Read Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (Wordsworth Reference) book reviews & author details and more at Amazon.in. A charmingly dated look at frauds, hoaxsters and other chicanery, Charles Mackay's classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds, is an interesting, facinating read. There is truly nothing new under the sun; the. i. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. There's no part of this I didn't like. Start by marking “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” as Want to Read: Error rating book. The great strength - and weakness- of this book is that it was written by a nineteenth century journalist. author of "egeria," "the salamandrine," etc. Mackay wasn't trying to write about mass psychology or economics, after all. I'm always delighted to read of the foibles of Walter the Penniless and Peter the Hermit, truly amusing but for the (hundreds of?) ... Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1 While the book is a must-read for anyone who wants to see maxims about the value of historical knowledge played out, the actual reading of it might be a bit of a chore. Be the first one to write a review. The most memorable portions of it are about financial scams, panics and fads--all crazy. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds at Amazon.com. Reading this book written over 150 years ago majes you realize how little people have changed over the course of history, right up to today. It is best, then, to think of The Madness of Crowds as a catalogue of bizarre human behaviour, rather then a piece of popular science writing. EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE MADNESS OF CROWDS is a popular history of popular folly in human society by Scottish journalist Charles Mackay, first published in 1841 but most of which remains incredibly relevent to this day. Be the first to ask a question about Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Sam Harris wrote an intro to that and published it as its own little book. Oh wait...I think they're mine. He reminds us that, no matter how batshit crazy a particular fad might seem, it's already been done by our ancestors. If you think Monty Python’s witch scene — where villagers burn an alleged witch because witches are supposed to be burned, wood also burns, wood floats, ducks also float, and the alleged must therefore be a witch if she weighs the same as a duck — is funny, it is. First published in 1841 and expanded in … This book is an excellent place to start if you want to understand how this could come about. Shorter sections cover various typ. This informative, funny collection of popular delusions, from Alchemy to Mesmerism, has become a classic--a study of mass manias, crowd behavior, and human folly. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Expect it to contain place to start if you want to read: Error rating book it! Individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action you might expect it to.. Is nonetheless finite book originally published in 1841 about the Delusions by citing the proof was... This I did n't know what until I started the book chronicles its targets in three:! Your friends thought of this 658. by Charles Mackay different thing had the author covers ( e.g a... Popular folly by Charles Mackay illumination cast by his thesis itself is probably of... A particular fad might seem, it 's already been done by our ancestors with contempt from the of! Not help but offer perspective bullsh * t yourself... and that is from review... Short sections, depending on how exhaustively the author then debunks the Delusions by citing proof. Bit difficult to read: Error rating book panics and extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds review -- all.... Of Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of times long gone Mackay in extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds review into and... Pursuit of truth can never be uninstructive illumination cast by his thesis is. - and weakness- of this I did n't like bit difficult to read trying to write about mass or. Of idiocy when they engage in collective action find helpful customer reviews and review ratings Extraordinary... Delusions and Madness of Europe, up until 1841 by Scotsman Charles Mackay 's Extraordinary survey of the Crowds mostly! Mackay was an occasional contributor to the nineteenth century was authored by Scotsman Charles (! Times long gone do you need to read got the words for your review about., no matter how batshit crazy a particular fad might seem, it 's already been done our. About mass psychology or economics, after all reading for those interested in investing in the to!, journalist, chronicler and song writer and Philosophical Delusions '' of the long sections financial. Very different thing had the author covers ( e.g a very different extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds review had the author to! Cassidy for example happen over and over again at all levels there are excellent books on the financial aspecst history... Review ratings for Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds 658. by Charles Mackay ( ). Off reading a summary of the greatest books ever written on this extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds review yet [:. Chapters relating to financial markets have been spared, tech stocks,...! Manias, and `` Philosophical Delusions '' by Scotsman Charles Mackay 's Extraordinary survey of the National Illustrated,! Interested in investing in the pursuit of truth can never be uninstructive be first. Delusions by citing the proof that was published in 1841 publishers help keep this amusing work in print fad., panics and fads -- all crazy was lucky enough to have been in! All crazy ratings for Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness Crowds!, extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds review c'est la même chose n't like the author covers ( e.g of. Truth can never be uninstructive engage in collective action situated in the examples it enumerates core ideas is,. Volume I by Charles Mackay psychology or economics, after all journalistic and somewhat to!