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This is a book to have in these days. You can clearly see after reading this that many people, countries included did not learn from their failures, and thus are doomed to repeat the same, sad, silly, useless mistakes. I occasionally buy copies of the book to hand out to my students where I work.
One edition I have, when I originally bought the book in the early days of the market boom, before it went bust, had a foreword by Andrew Tobias who said "If you read nothing else in this book, read about the economic bubbles." (the South Sea Company bubble of 1711–1720, the Mississippi Company bubble of 1719–1720, and the Dutch tulip mania of the early seventeenth century). And he was right, when people were rushing off to buy stock at top dollar as they 'went public', I counselled many friends to look at what they were buying. One manager I knew got into the bubble mania and bought several thousand dollars of pre-IPO stock. Day one the stock jumps some 1000% in few hours (roughly it was $5.50 to start and $55 by the end of the day), and is lording it over everyone; 6 months later when he could sell it (according to contract) it was down to $2 and something a share.
This is book that should be on the shelf of every home library. From the Witch trials in Salem, to the Alchemists and other charlatans he shows us that the world is filled with people with who are always with the crowd and utterly mad.
"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." - Charles Mackay
"We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first." - Charles Mackay
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To get something straight off the mark, there is much confusion among reviewers here concerning abridged vs. unabridged editions of this work, 780+ pages vs. 485 pgs. I can only state that my own experience of ordering the book on December 2, 2008 from the webpage on which I'm posting this review resulted in my receiving the 485 page UNABRIDGED version of the book from BN publishing. The reason that there are fewer pages is that the book, along with its pages, is coffee-table size LARGE- fewer, larger pages, same quantity of writing. Rest assured that this edition - in addition to the 1852 Preface - contains all 19 chapters unabridged, from "The Mississippi Scheme" to "The Magnetisers."
That settled, this book was a lark to read. Those who assert that this is not merely about financial matters are quite correct, and I pity those who only read an apparently abridged version, with three few, scant chapters. The author, to my delight, does not talk down to his readers - as many modern writers do. He assumes that they know enough Latin and French to translate phrases and titles and that they have a general knowledge of Western culture. He also has a dry Scottish wit which keeps one turning the (again, very large) pages throughout his far-ranging overview of the credulity of mankind. The parts which I found most striking are the following:
1.) The Mississippi Scheme, The South Sea Bubble, The Tulipomania
These are, of course, the financial crises chapters, which, frankly, make the cads at Enron appear not at all bad fellows by comparison.Read more ›
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Just to be clear, since reviews sometimes seem to get moved around, this refers to the 2008 Wilder paperback edition. The text is complete, but there is no table of contents or index, and the illustrations are missing. I subsequently found a nicer edition used at a flea market.
One way to approach a work like this is to look for relevance to our own times. MacKay's catalog of human folly certainly lends itself to that approach. The chapter on the Mississipi Bubble? Think Enron, or Bernie Madoff. The Crusades? Well, there's the perpetual mess in the Middle East, but we can think of any war which was supposed to set things right in some remote part of the world. Alchemy and fortune telling? The Twentieth and Twenty-First centuries certainly have not given up on new-age nonsense.
Personally, I prefer to enjoy a work like this on its own terms. MacKay's writing style is still robust and highly readable today. His energy, and enthusiasm for the subject matter are contagious, whether the topic is witch hunts, famous poisoners, or changing styles in men's hair and beards.
Each chapter stands pretty much by itself, leaving the impression that this is a collection of essays which may not have been originally meant as parts of a single book. The prose style seems somewhat formal and scholarly in our time, but it gradually dawns that this is actually popular journalism of its era. The author is trying to inform, but also to entertain.
Some sections are stronger than others. The Mississippi Bubble chapter is certainly one of the most interesting, as we watch speculation in a dubious financial scheme spiral out of control. The chapter on the Crusades is a decent introduction to the subject, stressing the sheer irrationality of what happened.Read more ›
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