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Charles MacKay

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds Paperback – July 23, 2011

by Charles MacKay (Author)

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Print length

410 pages
Language

English
Publication date

July 23, 2011
Dimensions

8 x 0.93 x 10 inches
ISBN-10

1463740514
ISBN-13

978-1463740511
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Editorial Reviews

Review

As with any true classic, once it is read it is hard to imagine not having known of it--and there is the compulsion to recommend it to others. --<A HREF=/exec/obidos/Author=Tobias%2C%20Andrew/${0}>Andrew Tobias

About the Author

Charles Mackay (1841-1889) was born in Perth Scotland. His mother died shortly after his birth, and his father, who had been in turn a Lieutenant on a Royal Navy sloop (captured and imprisoned for four years in France) and then an Ensign in the 47th foot taking part in the ill-fated Walcheren Expedition where he contracted malaria, sent young Charles to live with a nurse in Woolwich in 1822.

After a couple of yearsÃÂÃÂ education in Brussels from 1828-1830, he became a journalist and songwriter in London. He worked on The Morning Chronicle from1835-1844, when he was appointed Editor of The Glasgow Argus. His song The Good Time Coming sold 400,000 copies in 1846, the year that he was awarded his Doctorate of Literature by Glasgow University.

He was a friend of influential figures such as Charles Dickens and Henry Russell, and moved to London to work on The Illustrated London News in 1848, and he became Editor of it in 1852. He was a correspondent for The Times during the American Civil War, but thereafter concentrated on writing books.

Apart from Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, he is best remembered for his songs and his Dictionary of Lowland Scotch.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; Reprint edition (July 23, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 410 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1463740514
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1463740511
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.78 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8 x 0.93 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #698,108 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #345 in Medical Psychology History
- #377 in Popular Psychology History
- #780 in Trivia & Fun Facts (Books)

Customer Reviews:
283 ratings

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5 star		64%
4 star		14%
3 star		16%
2 star		1%
1 star		5%

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Myopinion

Warning! Do Not Buy the WRONG Version of this Great Book

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2015

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A. Popular Delusions is a truly great book.
B. But be careful which of the many offerings you buy.

First off, many of the editions in Amazon are partial reprints of the original 1841 edition. Anything with 200 or so pages is badly incomplete. The book you want must have all 16 chapters.

Second, most of the print editions, especially those claiming about 400-odd pages, are complete, but have type so small as to severely limit your reading pleasure. You must understand there is no copyright protection for the original English author so anyone can rip it off, and to make the most money many of these "artists" try to print as few literal pages as possible. The two editions I have bought (in 1967 at a bookstore and 2003 on Amazon), both published in London, have about 700 pages, including the dozen or so original hand illustrations. This is the print edition you want.

Third, to solve the type-size problem, acquiring a Kindle edition can be a good answer. It can also be priced as cheaply as 99 cents or even 0. But beware of what it contains as well. When I clicked on the Kindle version of a complete 16-chapter print version (the one on which I am writing this review) it turned out that the free Kindle version was shorted to just a few chapters, which I was able to discover only after I downloaded it
.
Fourth, the completely independent book, Gustave Le Bon's "The Crowd", originally published in 1895 is equally worth reading.

You'll love both books; make sure you actually enjoy them and get the whole things, as well.

531 people found this helpful

Helpful

Ned D Ferguson

Of dubious value

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

These volumes are said to be 400 pages in length, but they must be large pages, as I swear I've read 1,000 page books that seemed shorter.

The work is a basic list of the foolishness of crowds and what are now called fads or fashions into which men up to the mid 1800`s had fallen. Unfortunately, the reasons for humanity's propensities towards foolishness, or means by which we may guard against it, are left unexplored. As such, the books are of little value. We modern men may look with the clarity of hindsight askance at the credulity of past ages, but we would do better to look to our own houses. How is truth determined and a firm foundation for knowledge laid? We are all creatures of our time and seem no better than our forbears. The current LGBT insanity is just the latest example of our vulnerability to mass idiocy.

This quote from the book sums things up nicely; ""Public opinion," said the repentant orator, "is practically the paramount law of the land. Every other law, both human and divine, ceases to be observed; yea, withers and perishes in contact with it. It [is the] paramount law of this nation.

One may bow to public opinion or not but how does one know who are the knaves? I have my own strong opinions on the subject of epistemology, but suffice to say that this wisdom is the critical question. It is the elephant in the book.

15 people found this helpful

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Timerus

5 stars, but not for THIS cut and paste version of the book...

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2021

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This Kindle version I purchased for $1 was obviously cut and pasted from the free, out-of-copywrite book project, Project Gutenberg - the links in this Kindle version don't work well, and their are no "illustrated" pictures - just blank links. I suggest you download the Project Gutenberg version for free. Their version works much better with the Kindle than this one.

Now, about the book - It was published a bout 180 years ago. It's dated, and I'm glad for the built in dictionary and Wikipedia features of my Kindle Oasis and Kindle App on the iPad.

It's both Volume I and Volume II. It covers the gamut of human folly covering the subject areas in its table of contents, as recorded up until the time of it's writing, with plenty of references to go check - just hope you can find the books in national archives and read French, Italian, and maybe a bit of Latin if you want to access them!

Honestly, it was a bit of slog getting through the ENTIRE book. But it was worth it, it really was.

It's written in a bit of a sensationalist, gossipy sort of way, with details apparently extracted from the many, many source materials (though probably journalistically-challenged by today's standards.) However, Mackay does try to temper those stories with the application of "modern" mid-1800 European rationality even as he goes in to greater depth and personalization then you would typically from Wikipedia or the History Channel, even.

The thing to understand with Charles Mackay's approach in this book is to understand he is being quite literal about it - Crowds are mindless, stupid, and apt to do terrible things, and people (all people) get carried away with popular delusions, and only the evolution of "civilization" mitigates some of it, but it continues unabated in many ways, and it probably won't stop - ever.

It seems a lot of people pick up this tome just to read about the Mississippi Scheme, the South-Sea Bubble, and Tulipomania - and his personalized stories covering these financial bubbles are, in fact, much more in-depth than you would find in an financial history book that was covering many such events. And eye opening.

But the other stories about other people highlighted in the book are just crazy and almost mind-blowing! He went into some considerable depth regarding actual alchemists, fortune-telling, "modern" prophecies, magnetizers, witch mania, slow poisoners, duels and ordeals, relics, the belief in haunted houses, the Crusades! And more!

He tried very hard NOT to apply "relative" mid-1800's moralism to the subjects of his stories, and tried to make allowances for the specific and general understanding of nature, science, religion, etc. of each person or time period and location. Even with that, he came to a conclusion about people (hence the title of the book) which he very aptly supports.

And, sadly, it seems that much of what he has written could still be applied 180 years later - indeed, it never stopped, in many instances - people are people, and they don't change very fast, if at all.

One person found this helpful

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evaline

eye opener, fascinating and scary

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2016

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Am adding my voice to the chorus of happy readers of this book. Its big and chock a block with more than you want to know about the gullibility, greed and stupidity of people. Ok, its depressing especially knowing how many of these delusions still run rampant. The book does sag a bit in the end when discussing popular lives of great thieves, duels and ordeals and finally relics.However by that time I've been stunned enough by the mania of the Mississippi scheme, South-sea bubble, Tulip mania, the crusades and then the witch mania. The author delves deeply into these episodic outbursts of craziness explaining how they came about, simmered down, but never really dying off. It holds your attention alternately fascinating and frightening you.

14 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer

A fascinating, but worrying, 'dip-in dip-out' read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is an excellent dipping book. Not, at least for most people, something to read from cover to cover. The endless description of people's gullibility and fallibility, the ease with which some can induce inappropriate feelings in others can, after a time, be depressing. The worse part of it is, and the frightening part, is that you can see similar things happening today! OK the context is very different but, and I stress this is only in some of the cases described, the methods and techniques of quiet deception are all too obvious today. People don't change.

2 people found this helpful

Jackie M

Interesting ......... up to a point.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

This was an interesting book. Charles MacKay relates past historical events which show the gulliblity of the human race. But also it depicts the attitude of the population at the time of writing in 1840. I only read about half the book before I lost interest, finding it was becoming rather tedious hence the 4 stars.

Paul McQueen

This book was not quite what I expected, but I was nonetheless pleasantly surprised.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 28, 2021

Verified Purchase

I was expecting more of a discussion or deep dive into the psychology behind groupthink or mob behaviour, but instead found a humorous and insightful look at the various follies that have afflicted mankind (or that mankind has afflicted on itself) throughout history.

Grant P

A fascinating read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2013

Verified Purchase

In the light of modern obsessions that have very wide interest and social impact it is quite fascinating to look back at past examples and to do so from a point in time closer to the events than we are today.

Nothing seems to change, except maybe that Charles Mackay, writing at the time the British Victorian success story was still in its early period in terms of social advancement, is able to offer a more clinical analysis of most of the events of known history up to and including his own times then we seem able to find today.

This should be compulsory reading. Or at least most of its chapter's should. One or two may seem a little dated now, at least in the western world, though they still have relevance in some places. Almost involving enough for a 5 star rating as a read ... but not quite, though most of the content is certainly worthy.

10 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

And if you think things are getting worse because of greedy bankers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

This soft-back book was a lot bigger than I had expected @ 204x254mm . So if you're short of bookshelf space check the size of your delivery before ordering.
And if you think things are getting worse because of greedy bankers, politicians and prospectors, then er... no, things have not changed since 1841. All people can be classified as one or more of: Stupid, Greedy and Lazy.

6 people found this helpful

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