Charles MacKay

An important, engaging, shrewd historical treatise - Charles Mackay's highly recommended Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds was first published in 1841 and studies the psychology of crowds and mass mania throughout history. Mackay included accounts of classic scams, grand-scale madness, and deceptions. Some of these include the Mississippi scheme that swept France in 1720, the South Sea bubble that ruined thousands in England at the same time, and the tulip mania of Holland when fortunes were made and lost on single tulip bulbs. Other chapters deal with fads and delusions that often sprang from valid ideas and causes -- many of which still have their followers today: alchemy and the philosopher's stone, the prophecies of Nostradamus, the coming of comets and judgment day, the Rosicrucians, and astrology. Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds is an important historical treatise that modern readers will find fascinating, engaging, and shrewd as they see how history repeats itself, but that disastrous pitfalls can be avoided by understanding the cycles and patterns of greed based ignorance plays in promoting and perpetuating group hysteria in the fields of business and finance, politics and superstitions. When you are done with the book, I also hope you will also consider where else mania take over. These occur in consumption patterns (not unlike tulip bulbs), activities (remember disco?), businesses (franchised door-to-door selling), and entertainment (quiz shows will come and go many times). Be sure you watch out for your exposure to these mania as well. Avoiding wastes of time and resources are an important part of achieving true growth. An excellent book. It should be required reading for everyone. I hope you will buy and read this book, and share it with your children when they start to invest.

The Original Classic Edition

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is written in two volumes, and presents itself as an objective account of a history of Scottish folly. The author, Charles Mackay, was a famous Scottish journalist, poet, novelist, and songwriter with an incredible legacy of scholarship and activism. Mackay's personal beliefs and strong oppositional voice flow easily through the pages as he takes the reader on a journey to explore Scottish history and societal foibles. This volume also contains a litany of detailed engravings, designed to help the reader to better understand the context and import of the written content. The book series discusses three subjects of folly: National Delusions, Peculiar Follies, and Philosophical Delusions. Volume one highlights economic bubbles such as the Mississippi Company bubble, and the South Sea Company bubble; the practice of alchemy and notable alchemists; and turn-of-the-century mystic beliefs. Mackay doesn't pull any punches and lambastes alchemic practice as "hazardous" and "not scientific at all." He is also incredibly direct on his thoughts around the spiritualist movement, lumping modern prophecies, fortune-telling, and the magnetizers into one group wrought with superstition and willful duplicity. Mackay takes particular offense to the long standing belief that politics and religion accompany hygiene choices -- influencing the length and style of hair and beards. While the book has a strong sensational tone to its style, it is interesting to note that the content of the series garnered academic support due to its input on the history of psychopathology and social psychology. Ultimately, the book Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds works as a social commentary and critique on not only Scottish society but also European society as a whole. This book provides an entertaining look at social beliefs and their criticisms. This is an interesting read for individuals who want to know more about Scottish history, social psychology, and historic sociology. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

And the Madness of Crowds (Classic Reprint)

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, Vol. 1

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And the Madness of Crowds

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions

This is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the original versions are generally quite old, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!

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... -from the Preface The satanic child-abuse mania of the 1980s. The dotcom craze of the 1990s. The housing bubble of the 2000s. It may seem like we today invented mass insanity, but it's always been with us, as this classic expose of the madness of humanity demonstrates in a way that's both disturbing and highly entertaining. First published in 1841 across multiple volumes but presented here in one omnibus volume, this enlightening work explores such societal delusions and aberrations as: [ the Mississippi Scheme, in which an 18th-century Scottish financier created a stock bubble in France for land in the New World [ the infamous tulip mania that seized Holland in the 1600s [ the grip that alchemists, with their claims of turning lead to gold, held over the European imagination during the Enlightenment [ the centuries-long Crusades of the Middle Ages [ the witch hunts that plagued both sides of the Atlantic in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries [ and many more. A powerful study of human psychology on a cultural scale, this important work is startlingly relevant today... as it's sure to still be centuries from now. Scottish journalist CHARLES MACKAY (1814-1889) held an honorary law degree from Glasgow University, as well as a doctorate in literature. A renowned poet and songwriter, he also authored a Dictionary of Lowland Scotch.

Joseph de la Vega

Das Finanzmagazin Forbes nannte Charles MacKays Werk das "wichtigste Buch, das je über Investments geschrieben worden ist". Der Leser erfährt authentisch und äußerst unterhaltsam alles über den Tulpenwahn in Holland von 1634–1637, John Laws großes Mississippi-Projekt von 1719–1720, das ganz Frankreich ruinierte, und die englische Südseeblase von 1720, die durchaus Ähnlichkeiten mit der Technologieblase von 1997–2000 und der Emission der Aktie der Deutschen Telekom aufweist. Charles MacKay setzte es sich zum Ziel, massenhafte Selbsttäuschung und Herdenverhalten zu entlarven, um deutlich zu machen, wie bei Massenphänomenen nur allzu oft die Rationalität aussetzt. Bei Joseph de la Vega stehen das Tagesgeschäft und die Manipulationen an der Amsterdamer Börse im Vordergrund. Nach de la Vega kämpfen verschiedene Gruppen – Bullen und Bären, Aktienbesitzer, Kaufleute und Spekulanten – miteinander und versuchen, durch List und Verwirrung Vorteile zu erlangen. Diese einzigartigen Klassiker der Finanzgeschichte erscheinen erstmals in einem Werk vereint und zeigen dem Leser, dass sich gerade in Krisen die Ereignisse stetig wiederholen.

Warum der Crash immer wieder kommt...

Gier und Wahnsinn

Gustave Le Bon

The Crowd & Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Charles MacKay's groundbreaking examination of a staggering variety of popular delusions, crazes and mass follies is presented here in full with no abridgements. The text concentrates on a wide variety of phenomena which had occurred over the centuries prior to this book's publication in 1841. Mackay begins by examining economic bubbles, such as the infamous Tulipomania, wherein Dutch tulips rocketed in value amid claims they could be substituted for actual currency. As we progress further, the scope of the book broadens into several more exotic fields of mass self-deception. Mackay turns his attention to the witch hunts of the 17th and 18th centuries, the practice of alchemy, the phenomena of haunted houses, the vast and varied practices of fortune telling and the search for the philosopher's stone, to name but a handful of subjects. Today, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds is distinguished as an expansive, well-researched and somewhat eccentric work of social history.

Charles MacKay

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