Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Book

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by: Charles MacKay, Bernard M. Baruch

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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: Rating: - Great history, reminder for society Despite the age of this book, it continues to be current as ever, especially after the dot-com bubble. In different chapters, the author treats separate delusions which, at first sight, the reaction is that it could not happen today, until we see all that does in fact go on in the world. I found the South Sea Bubble and the Dutch Tulipmania the two most outstanding cases. The analysis, given its dated nature, serves more as an image of historical thought. I would recommend one to read the chapter on Social Proof in CIaldini's Influence book, it goes into many of the issues that set off the manias. Rating: - A must-have book Goodness knows how many times this book has been reprinted, but it is a classic, it recounts many of the strange and popular freakish and delusional things that crowds have got up to over history. Tulip-mania, witch-hunts, fortune-telling, south-seas bubble. Its fun, fascinating and easy to dip into for a quick read as each chapter is really independent of the others. I re-read parts of this recently having just read Elaine Showalter's very controversial recent book "Hystories". Showalter's book is as much about modern psychological 'hysteria's' (as she calls them) - things like Recovered Memory Syndrome, and Ritual Abuse accusations which she seems to liken very much to popularist crowd behaviour . And while you may or not agree with her, I think it is interesting to read her book after this one. Still if you just want a bit of light read, then this book is definitely right up there - and it is always so much more fun and comfortable to be able to laugh gently at the patent ignorance of these poor deluded historical crowds! Rating: - Social history of crowd mentality, not only about stocks Most people know this book is a classic -- but it's unfortunate that it's thought of as a book about investments, when investments are really only a small part of the phenomena Mackay covers. We have all heard about Dutch tulips a million times over -- it is therefore much more interesting to read Mackay's chapters about popular slang expressions, or about superstitions, or about quack medicine. There are great micro-histories here about the comings and goings of fads, both those contemporary to Mackay and those that preceded him. While Mackay's points about the irrationality of crowds are useful for the investor, these "lessons" about Dutch tulips and other financial manias are cliches today. You need not read this book to find out about them. This book's true value lies in its comprehensive history and analyses of other fads, hoaxes, and "manias," most of which have, fittingly enough, been forgotten today.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Book

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