Extraordinary Popular Delusions: Selections from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds - Softcover

Mackay, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1684220742 ISBN 13: 9781684220748

Publisher: Martino Fne Books, 2017

Synopsis

2017 Reprint of 1852 Edition.  Being selections from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.  Mackay’s work, first published in 1841, chronicles the various fallacies and delusions that have afflicted human thinking during the modern period.  Though the scope of the first edition was wide ranging--including alchemy, fortune-telling, haunted houses and other forms of philosophical delusion—the present editions reprints only those portions of the original work that pertain to economic bubbles.  Present-day writers on economics, such as Michael Lewis and Andrew Tobias, laud Mackay’s three chapters on the Tulipomania, the South Sea Bubble, and on the Mississippi Scheme.

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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.

From the Publisher:

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About this edition

• Publisher: Martino Fne Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1684220742
• ISBN 13: 9781684220748
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 106