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.
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 and The Madness of Crowds is a work by Charles MacKay now brought to you in this new edition of the timeless classic.
Not to be missed is Mackay's account of the unfortunate Dutch sailor who, having been sent down to a rich man's kitchen for breakfast, and having a particular taste for onions, actually consumed one of the priceless bulbs in error.
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 ...
Tim Phillips’ thoroughly up-to-date interpretation of Charles Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, a classic of popular psychology, illustrates the principles of Mackay’s analysis of financial bubbles ...
158 For several years a small Fifth Monarchist faction, led by a cooper named Thomas Venner, had labored under the delusion their popular support was great enough that they could trigger the Second Coming through armed insurrection.
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
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To Dorie Greenspan for the Gamache lemon cookies and your support as we both finished our books, and commiserated. Her new book, out in October, is called Baking with Dorie. To Chelsea and Marc, for the Zooms with family.
In this fascinating book, New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, ...