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Psychology & SocietyMemoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of CrowdsCharles MackayMemoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Charles Mackay

Psychology & SocietyEnglish
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'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.' The…

Catalogue details

Author
Charles Mackay
Category
Psychology & Society
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

'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.' The Scottish journalist Charles Mackay collects the great follies of history: the Mississippi scheme of John Law in France and the South Sea Bubble in England, when whole nations bought worthless shares; the tulip mania of seventeenth-century Holland, when a single bulb could cost as much as a house; and the alchemists, false prophets, fortune-tellers, witch hunts, poisoners, haunted houses and crusades that carried crowds away.

Context and significance

Mackay published the book in 1841, and it is still read by investors and anyone who wants to understand financial bubbles, panics and mass enthusiasm. It is lively and full of anecdotes, although modern historians think some of its stories, such as the tulip mania, exaggerated. Its lessons for the stock market are retold in Reminiscences of a Stock Operator.

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