Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

By Charles Mackay

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is a history of popular folly by Charles Mackay. The book chronicles its targets in three parts: "National Delusions," "Peculiar Follies," and "Philosophical Delusions." Learn why intelligent people do amazingly stupid things when caught up in speculative edevorse.

The subjects of Mackay's debunking include alchemy, beards (influence of politics and religion on), witch-hunts, crusades, and duels. Present day writers on economics, such as Andrew Tobias, laud the three chapters on economic bubbles.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Release date: Dec 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781625585011

Reviews for Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

[jefware · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Covers the Mississippi misadventures, south sea bubble and tulip mania.

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well, ok, I admit I didn't read the whole thing. I'll have to buy it. It's more like a reference, like a themed sampler of an encyclopedia. And it's difficult to read because it's old, from back when they used more big words and complex syntax. But goodness, the curious historian, the careful economist, the conscientous politician, all could learn & benefit from MacKay's collection of examples of historical follies. Bear in mind though that it's not analysis, just presentation.

[radicarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing how applicable a book can be 160 years later

[lawrenh-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Your diligence in slogging through endless, somewhat repetitive passages on the philosopher's stone shall be rewarded with QUOZ.

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

this was one of the first attempts to examine some of the extraordinary public riots, and disinformation successes of Britain, and the European scene, all prior to 1840. It is a good quote collection for epigraphs.

[Mark Kozak · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This belongs on the bookshelf of every critical thinker. The entries are as salient and insightful in 2015 as they were in the 1840s. If you've never read Mackay's magnum opus before, then get cracking. You'll soon realize that there truly is nothing new under the sun.

[russellbittner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“This is the most important book ever written about crowd psychology and, by extension, about financial markets. A serious student of the markets and even anyone interested in the extremes of human behavior should read this book (Ron Insana, writing for CNBC).”

If Mr. Insana’s observation on the rear cover of this compendium of Charles Mackay’s and Joseph de la Vega’s treatises sounds like a bit of hyperbole, let's just remember that Mr. Insana writes for CNBC.

I haven’t read enough primary literature on crowd psychology to know whether “(t)his is the most important book ever written” on that subject. That doesn’t really matter. The fact is, it’s a damned good book, an easy read of 4-5 hours, and a bit of history one never gets in school. Well, maybe in the Business Schools of Harvard, Wharton or Columbia.

A shame that no one’s ever made a movie on the subject of John Law and the “Mississippi Madness” of 1719-1720. Perhaps the French are just a tad embarrassed by this bit of their history. Ditto for the Brits and the “South-Sea Bubble,” which followed almost immediately thereafter. And let’s not omit the Dutch and their “Tulipomania” of 1635-1636. All three events are covered not only adequately and sufficiently, but amusingly, in Charles Mackay’s treatise.

Joseph de la Vega’s treatise, Confusión de Confusiones, on the psychology and behavior of brokers in Amsterdam’s first stock exchange is, of course, a horse of a somewhat different color. Rather than straight exposition, he penned Confusión de Confusiones in dialogue form and first published it, in Spanish, in 1688. Although I’ve spent only limited time on Wall Street or in the company of stock brokers, one might assume that de la Vega’s descriptions are as accurate today as they were 325 years ago. And yes: anyone contemplating a job in the financial services industry — as well as anyone contemplating so much as dinner with a stock broker — should read both treaties. It would be a small investment in time and money — and might save you a lifetime of frustration and disillusionment.

Quite by coincidence, my reading of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds and Confusión de Confusiones coincides with my viewing of “Margin Call”—an excellent film on a related subject. And my own professional career, which survived the one-day drop of over 500 points in the Dow Jones in 1987, but not the dot-com crash of 2000, is a small testament to market madness and the delusions of crowds. As they say in both Predicate and Quantitative Logic, Q.E.D. (quod erat demonstrandum).

RRB
08/29/13
Brooklyn, NY

[bongo_x_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was amazing how relevant this book, written in 1841, was to today. Of all the “popular delusions” covered here, the only thing I can think of that doesn’t still go on today is Alchemy. This would shock and disappoint the author I’m sure. It did me.

The tone of the book is a little more anecdotal than scholarly, but he does provide footnotes for much of it. I don’t think I would take it as 100% historical fact though. The author is really funny and sarcastic and writes in a manner very friendly to the modern reader. The only only problem I had was with names of people that I was obviously meant to recognize, but didn’t, and like many books of the time he quotes untranslated French (and Italian if I remember correctly) at times expecting that any educated person should be able to understand.

This is a book I have to recommend every one read. It gives you a bigger perspective on just how ridiculous people can be, especially in groups, and how people aren’t really any different than they’ve ever been. A really great book, the only reason I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is that it could use some editing. He goes on too long about Alchemy (almost 200 pages) giving too many case histories in detail. This happens to a smaller extent in a lot of the book, but you shouldn’t let that put you off. Even though I’m giving it 4 stars for that, it’s a book that made a huge impression on me.

edit; OK, I just discovered the Breatharians, who claim to not have to eat or drink, and will sell you the secret of eternal life. This is a large part of exactly the same scams the Alchemists used, so I guess everything in this book still goes on. Amazing.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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 large groups of young people learned to dance in lemminglike unison." How quaint. And, hilariously, the book's original title was Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Krauts. In our current day there are still "bubbles" and other evidence of the continuing predilection of the masses to follow dim ideas beyond the bounds of reason.

[isabelx_21 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

‘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 possible that the good lady is in her dotage.’ ‘You gave her an elixir, surprising for the effects it produced; for she says, that during a length of time she only appeared to be eighty-four, the age at which she took it. Why don’t you give it to the king?’‘Oh, madame,’ he explained, ‘the physicians would have me broken on the wheel, were I to think of drugging his majesty.’This book, which dates from the middle of the 19th century, is a history of various obsessions and forms of collective madness that have taken hold at various historical periods. Starting with the South Sea Bubble and a similar financial crisis in France a few years earlier, it moves on to sections about tulips, alchemy, the Crusades, witch mania, etc.There were some fascinating facts in the section about alchemists; some men who claimed to have discovered the philosophers' stone were actually using it as a cover to explain away large amounts of money that they had acquired by illegal means, while there were some astrologers who did not believe in the powers of the stars at all and only cast nativities in order to subsidise their scientific studies in astronomy.Towards the end of the book, however, a lighter note was sounded in a section about those phrases which came into vogue amongst Londoners for a period of time before being replaced by something new. This section included phrases that have lasted until today, such as 'flare up' and 'does your mother know you're out?' and others that are long forgotten like 'quoz!' and 'what a shocking bad hat!'.

[hugh_ashton_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

You want to know how the subprime mortgage and CDS crisis came about? How the 2000 tech bubble was blown and collapsed? Read this book written in the 1840s (no, that's not a misprint). Plus ça change… The style is a beautiful early Victorian English, and worth reading for that reason alone, but the content should be compulsory reading for anyone entering an investment bank, or indeed, any kind of business where risks are taken.

[jddunn_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good start towards an encyclopedia of human folly and suggestibility. Also, kind of an interesting exploration of a lot of the dead ends we explored before we came upon the more stable systems of modern science, economics, politics, etc. Very entertaining too, in a schadenfreudenous sort of way.

[teewillis1981_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read the first chapter on John Law and his creation of a paper money supply in France. Of course I was able to draw parallels between the Fiat money creation of 18th Century France to the Federal Reserve system of today. Nothing has changed! I was only able to get through the first story, before I decided to put it down. I think I understand the point and really didn't need to go further. Plus, I hate to say it, the writing style does not really draw me in.

[brett_in_nyc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great one to have around to find little stories to remind you of just how ridiculous and stupid the collective is when it all runs after the same things. I am not minimizing the damage of the phenomenon to the finite lives of individuals. The damage is deadly for many, but you will not be surprised to learn how often these ridiculous financial disasters have happened in the past that defy all Adam Smith et al's notions of "rational expectations". What a joke. Problem is, the numbers keep getting bigger and bigger and the timing is faster and faster, and maybe the disaster is deeper and deeper. If things are working out though, we might be recovering faster too, if not personally destroyed by the melee.

[zenoizen_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

These three chapters, extracted from a much longer work, constitute a good primer for understanding the mechanics of speculative investment crazes. John Law's Mississippi Company is described, along with the Tulip Mania of the Netherlands and the less-well-known South Sea scheme in England.This is an old book (1841) with some anachronistic vocabulary, but still reads as easy as any piece of modern journalism.