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Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Hardcover – April 3, 2018
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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.
- Print length440 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSMK Books
- Publication dateApril 3, 2018
- Dimensions6 x 1.13 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101515435733
- ISBN-13978-1515435730
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Product details
- Publisher : SMK Books (April 3, 2018)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 440 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1515435733
- ISBN-13 : 978-1515435730
- Item Weight : 1.75 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.13 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,694,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,755 in Medical Social Psychology & Interactions
- #3,331 in Economic History (Books)
- #3,649 in Popular Social Psychology & Interactions
- Customer Reviews:
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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.
My favourite passages here are the following:
"But the most absurd and preposterous of all, and which showed, more completely than any other, the utter madness of the people, was one (stock company), started by an unknown adventurer, entitled `company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.' Were not the fact stated by scores of credible witnesses, it would be impossible to believe that any person could have been duped by such a project."
And, this one will sound familiar:
"The public mind was in a state of unwholesome fermentation. Men were no longer satisfied with the slow but sure profits of cautious industry. The hope of boundless wealth for the morrow made them heedless and extravagant for to-day."
2.) The Witch Mania
This one struck home because it shows just how cruel humans can be when roused by superstition. Mackay, at one point, refers to other more comprehensive works on the subject, but demurs:
"He will gain nothing by lifting the veil which covers their obscenities, unless, like Sterne, he wishes to gather fresh evidence of `what a beast man is.' In that case, he will find plenty there to convince him that the beast would be libelled by comparison."
And, a few pages further on, he asseverates:
"That the malice of a few could invent such a charge, is a humiliating charge for the lover of his species; but that millions of mankind should credit it, is still more so."
3.) The Alchemists
This is a rather long chapter interlarded with biographies of famous and obscure practitioners of this daft enterprise. This chapter is mild and amusing. Mackay particularly has a soft spot for the Rosicrucians - still reviled by conspiracy theorists today, because of the debt which literature owes to them - most eminently Shakespeare's Ariel in The Tempest.
"Having these obligations to the Rosicrucians, no lover of poetry can wish, however absurd they were, that such a sect of philosophers had never existed."
I have just touched on the few sections which were of interest to me in this truly classic work which explodes so many follies of mankind, yet does not make a misanthrope of the reader. In the last chapter, The Magnetisers, Mackay adverts to one practitioner's, one M. Deleuze's, instruction to his followers, "Have an active desire to do good; a firm belief in the power of magnetism, and an entire confidence in employing it. In short, repel all doubts; desire success, and act with simplicity and attention." Mackay renders it thusly, "That is to say, `be very credulous; be very persevering; reject all past experience, and do not listen to reason'..."
In this line we have all that is necessary to become a dupe and/or a fanatic. Hopefully, this book, as well as providing information and enjoyment, will make readers think twice before adopting such a course.
It's all here in Mackay's book, laid out with a kind of detached amusement that leaves no doubt as to where the author stands.
Market craziness got you down? It may cheer you up to read about the Mississippi scheme that wrought such havoc on the French treasury in the 18th century, while the South Sea Bubble engulfed the English, or to refresh your memory on Holland's infamous Tulipomanic excesses.
Three of the longer sections of the book are devoted to alchemy, the crusades, and witch-hunting. By the accumulation of examples and anecdotes across the geographical and historical spectrum (i.e. from different times and places), Mackay demonstrates that human folly remains a constant down the ages. He doesn't beat us over the head with this message - he simply assembles the data, with no overt analysis, and leaves us to draw the inevitable conclusion.
Most of your favorite targets are discussed in the book: eschatological prophets, fortune tellers, spiritualists, mediums, and the good Dr Mesmer and his imitators. The anecdotes are often hilarious, even more so because of Mackay's tone of dry amusement. But he knows when to administer the coup de grace, as for example, when he shows how easy it is to attribute post hoc meaning to the notoriously vague quatrains of Nostradamus. One can only wish that the folks at The History Channel would read these sections and take them to heart.
Shorter chapters are interspersed on topics as diverse as the wave of spouse-poisoning that swept through the courts of Europe in the 17th century, the influence of politics and religion on men's hair and beard styles, haunted houses, popular admiration of great thieves, duels, relics, and the sudden rise and fall of certain catchphrases or songs in big cities. (Yadda yadda yadda, anyone?)
This book is ideal for browsing. It's all pretty interesting stuff, presented clearly and wittily. You can learn quite a bit and enjoy yourself doing so - what's not to like?
Its classic status is well-deserved.
However, Mackay has his point of view. His thesis overwhelms him, and his misanthropy is present at every turn. This blinds him to politics and local occasions. Walpole, for example, gets off scot-free in the Bubble. The European wars are no part of John Law's failures. The witch mania is unconnected to the new king, James I, having a personal interest in witches. The information, therefore, in Mackay is vital, but the thesis is a bit tendentious.
This particular edition is quite compact, and that is its problem. Since what is best about Mackay today is the reproductions of original woodcuts, the tables and lists and ads that Mackay offered, the cramped octavo printing abridges some of that. Further, the font is inelegant and similarly cramped. The book is not abridged, but it feels that way, simply due to the reduction to such a light weight and small size.
Top reviews from other countries
I was expecting it.
All is well.
