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

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.

This Kindle edition consists of two long volumes, published in 1852. It details various mass delusions and obsessions, varying from hair styles to the crusades to financial crises to the burning of witches - and much more.I enjoyed this book immensely, despite its length, but found it to be unsettling. The details of each of the many events covered are different, but there is an underlying theme that should be a warning to modern man. The author points out that the madness that periodically breaks out among the masses would, hopefully, be less in the future. If only he knew that these follies would continue up to the present day.Each of the events he described had the same pattern:Firstly, some individual or small circle of individuals would make a claim. The purpose could be profit, vengeance, or superstition.Secondly, some larger segment of society (such as the Church, stock jobbers, etc.) would proclaim a societal emergency or, even, a great opportunity.Thirdly, the masses would adopt, unquestioningly and illogically, the truth of the original claim, often twisting the claim in a manner the originators would not have imagined or possibly approved.Fourthly, more reasonable men or organizations would be shunned or punished as heretics for failing to accept the popular delusion.Lastly, the folly would become so reprehensible or unsustainable that it would fade away, only (regrettably) to be replaced by another.In our times, we consider ourselves modern and rational. Many readers might look on the examples described in this book to be so absurd as to irrelevant to our times. However, our follies follow the same pattern - sometimes more subtle but often just as costly and often more deadly.I am old enough to remember the great DDT scare. DDT was considered to be the greatest possible threat to mankind, even causing birds to lay thin-shelled eggs that would lead to the extinction of entire species. Those who pointed out the absurdity of these assertions were called "cranks" or worse. No public official or academic dared to challenge the mass appeal of junk science. As a result, deaths from malaria (which due to DDT had been almost eliminated) skyrocketed to millions per year - mostly little brown or black children for whom the Western masses had little concern. And the original claims are now known to be incorrect.Or the great ozone hole hoax. Since the late 1800s scientists have known that the ozone hole opens and closes in sync with the 11-year sunspot cycle. However, they were cursed and ignored. The mass delirium resulted in many useful products being banned or replaced with less efficient and more costly substitutes. When the hole closed and we did not all die of skin cancer, these regulations were considered the proximate cause and remain in place.I served as an elected official for a major water agency when the big scare was carcinogens. Great quantities of different chemicals were fed to rats. Those that allegedly caused cancer were banned, even though critics pointed out that great masses of chemicals can cause cancer when small amounts would not. Of course, these critics were decried and abused. When we were forced to spend a billion dollars to remove the last miniscule traces of carcinogens from the water supply, we tried to point out to the environmental agencies that carcinogens occur naturally, especially as defensive mechanisms in plants. In fact, if one were to drink 50 gallons of water per day for his entire life, he would have consumed fewer carcinogens than occur in a level teaspoon of peanut butter.I could go on with many other current delusions (such as global warming or electric automobiles that allegedly defy Newton's laws by using no energy!). By definitions, mass delusions are accepted in their time by almost all people - people who consider themselves rational and caring. Reading this book will, perhaps, reduce the numbers of the deluded

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.

I found the start of the book talking about market bubbles good for financial education. All the book is a nice story and probably historically accurate it's just that the topic is repeated all the time. Fools are taken for a ride by scammers in many different ways but the stories are almost all the same just as the topic is a bit different. I stopped reading in the middle of the book because I knew how it will continue. Overall nice book to read before bed it takes you for a trip back to those ages.

Una mica repetitiu i amb poques dades concretes.

A distillation of some of the most humiliating, terrifying and confusing things humans have done in collectivity. The book treats many topics, ranging from economic bubbles, pseudoscience, religious deliria and more.Sad but illuminating read.

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.

Do not advise, bit outdate history