Amazon.com
Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? Why do financially sensible people jump lemming-like into hare-brained speculative frenzies--only to jump broker-like out of windows when their fantasies dissolve? We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and over-valued high-tech stocks of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but Mackay's classic--first published in 1841--shows that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds. These are extraordinarily illuminating,and, unfortunately, entertaining tales of chicanery, greed and naivete. Essential reading for any student of human nature or the transmission of ideas.
In fact, cases such as Tulipomania in 1624--when Tulip bulbs traded at a higher price than gold--suggest the existence of what I would dub "Mackay's Law of Mass Action:" when it comes to the effect of social behavior on the intelligence of individuals, 1+1 is often less than 2, and sometimes considerably less than 0.
Book Description
First published in 1841, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is often cited as the best book ever written about market psychology. This Harriman House edition includes Charles Mackay's account of the three infamous financial manias - John Law's Mississipi Scheme, the South Sea Bubble, and Tulipomania.Between the three of them, these historic episodes confirm that greed and fear have always been the driving forces of financial markets, and, furthermore, that being sensible and clever is no defence against the mesmeric allure of a popular craze with the wind behind it.In writing the history of the great financial manias, Charles Mackay proved himself a master chronicler of social as well as financial history. Blessed with a cast of characters that covered all the vices, gifted a passage of events which was inevitably heading for disaster, and with the benefit of hindsight, he produced a record that is at once a riveting thriller and absorbing historical document. A century and a half later, it is as vibrant and lurid as the day it was written.For modern-day investors, still reeling from the dotcom crash, the moral of the popular manias scarcely needs spelling out. When the next stock market bubble comes along, as it surely will, you are advised to recall the plight of some of the unfortunates on these pages, and avoid getting dragged under the wheels of the careering bandwagon yourself.
Customer Reviews:
It's only a slice of the book!.......2007-06-27
I first discovered this book 40 years ago, and especially loved its description of the witchcraft hysteria. This is a lovely little edition, but it is only a small subset of the entire work, dealing specifically in three economic bubbles. It would have been good reading in 2000.
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.......2007-05-18
Years ago, in one of my MBA courses the Prof. mentioned this book and alluded to sections within the text how events which occured years ago are still applicable and effective today. My curiosity was picked so I searched for a copy and was able to obtain one at a local library. The reading was engrossing to say the least. The book deal with mass hysteria and mass public manipulation for political and financial gains. The events described are of massive proportions with world wide application and implication. After reading the book a big question mark floats over society where it allows itself over and over to fall on mass to charlatans, liars and deceivers who manage to lure the public to believe and trust their sordid tales and flim-flam to the point of selling their souls for a piece of the allusive dream. I recently found an old copy of the term paper I wrote on the book and decided to add a copy to my personal library. Rereading the book brought back the memories of class discussions and the interesting events mentioned. The books givs the reader a better understanding of how major world events take shape from rumors and minor incidents. A very easy read with a great and event filled story line. Should be read by all.
The Book that proved the importance of the CROWD - READ IT BEFORE INVESTING!!!!!.......2007-03-15
If you are a stock market investor, than this book must appear as one of your top 10 books to read. Investors really have no choice but to read this book because unlike any book you will ever read, this book teaches you about the CROWD. What motivates the crowd, and what causes people to join the crowd. If you were to ask any of the famous investors you have read about, every one of them is aware of the importance of CROWD PSYCHOLOGY. Warren Buffett has always talked about Mr. Market, which he learned from Benjamin Graham.
Now having said this let me tell you quickly what this book is about. MacKay in a brilliant, and in an interesting manner takes you through 700 pages of mass buying panics from centuries ago. These include The Witch Mania (100 pages) in the 15th and 16th century. The Crusades (100 pages), Alchemy (160 pages), and the Poisoners- hey, poisoning people was a big thing centuries ago- remember Napoleon.
The big buying binge that most people recognize is the South Sea Tulip Craze, where the participants bid up the price of tulips, yes tulips to the equivalent cost of houses and more. We're not done, MacKay goes through many, many more crazes, panics, and buying binges. All of these stories involve the CROWD. Extraordinary Popular Delusions... has survived the test of time. We do not know if anything being written today, or any studies being researched currently will be able to stand the time test? We only know that MacKay's book has.
Is the book interesting?
Yes it's fascinating, but you have to be interested in this subject. If you are in the financial markets you have no to STUDY, NOT READ this book. I say this because I have been a money manager and history buff for 35 years. If I did not live through the modern equivalent of MacKay's book, frankly I wouldn't believe half the stuff that is in this book, which is presented as truth.
The reality is I have seen MacKay's explanations work out in my own lifetime, and so have you. A few 20th century equivalents are in order:
1) INTERNET STOCK MAREKT CRAZE: 1999 - 2000
Wow, I did an analysis of the market value, of a major Internet stock in play at the time of the craze. The stock was representative of hundreds of other companies participating in the run-up in value. One day, I discovered that this Internet stock's market value was the equivalent of ten major corporations combined. These companies included IBM, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Electronic Data Processing, JC Penny, Sears, and others, all combined. It couldn't be. Did I calculate wrong? It was true, and the number was getting bigger every day.
Over $1.4 trillion dollars had been committed to Internet stocks by some of the smartest savviest people in the world. When it was over, that $1.4 trillion was reduced to under $100 billion. Over 90 plus percent of the value had simply disappeared. This was Extraordinary Popular Delusions all over again, and you lived through it too.
2) Personal Note: During the Internet Craze, I was re-tooling by taking courses at Harvard University. Every five years, I try to do this. I would drive up once a week and spend eight hours in financial classes with some of America's truly outstanding teaching professors to see what's new in academia that hasn't hit the money management industry yet. These world-renowned professors all got swept into the Internet stock market craze. They personally lost substantial pieces of their net worth. Every one of them was claiming that we were in a new age. They were throwing out their financial training out the window.
These were Professors who had read every page of MacKay's book, underlined it, annotated it, and even memorized sections. This is what you need to know. The first words that come out of a person's mouth involved in mass hysteria are - THIS TIME IT WILL BE DIFFERENT. It's a dead giveaway that we are in a POPULAR DELUSION.
3) The American Invasion of Iraq: Forget whether the President was right or wrong. Every intelligence agency in the world believed that the Iraqi's had weapons of mass destruction. David Kay, perhaps the smartest man in government believed it. This again, is an example of the crowd psychology in action.
4) Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba- President Kennedy as smart a man as they come got swept up into the crowd psychology believing along with everyone else that 1500 poorly trained Cubans could land on a beach in Cuba, and then suddenly without support, walk their way into Havana picking up ordinary people on the countryside who would swell their ranks and allow these expatriates to overthrow the Castro regime. These were the smartest men in government that believed this.
The list goes on and on, and if you the reader live long enough, you will see yourself swept up in these instances of mass hysteria. If two Presidents of the United States can get caught up in crowd psychology, we all better be on the lookout for it. Good luck.
Richard Stoyeck
Why our kids MUST still study European History a.k.a. 'The History of Dead White Males' .......2007-03-08
While I agree with several reviewers who comment that this book is a bit uneven--several chapters are much weaker than others--overall, this was an eye-popping book for me, for several reasons. A reader of some key chapters in this book, hears that most vital history lesson of all time with a rarely experienced degree of punch. The lesson? (One whose punchline goes way beyond its utility to investors and speculators...the part of the book many reviewers here hone in on). That mankind repeats its past mistakes, atrocities, and stupidities with amazing regularity and amnesia. Why does this book stand out in driving this lesson home? Because it catalogues in exquisitely gory detail, a long list of lessons we never learn from. Each sorry chapter of human history is replayed in a vivid blow by blow account. Each tale immediately reminds the reader of a similar one that preceded or followed it in time. Each tale has a pivotal turning point, which signals a shift from mob hysteria to mob self awareness. Following this turning point is a series of communal actions and avowals meant to cleanse the community in which the folly occurred of all its remnants, and immunize it from a re-infection by the same disease....But then comes the next chapter, and the next, and the next. The lesson that's driven home is--we keep going back over and over.
There are two chapters in this book that stood out in particular-- the one on the Witch Hunt fever that swept Puritan New England in the 18th century, and the one describing the Christian Crusades of the late Middle Ages. The first is the quintessential case in point of historical amnesia. The very men who barely a generation before fled to America to escape religious persecution, become the ridiculous kangaroo court inquisitors of helpless women accused of "witchcraft", and carry on their kangaroo proceedings without a trace of insight into their glaring hypocrisy, paganism, or fascism. Men barely done with thanking their new land for its gift to them of tolerance and due process, decide their fellow humans' fate by the famous test: "if she drowns she's innocent...if she doesn't we burn her as a witch". The second tale, of the Crusades, stands out in its subject matter, as particularly salient to modern Christians who (justly) cringe at the mob fanaticism overtaking many Muslim lands. We are forced to look in the mirror and see...there went we. The message is: THEY who terrorize us are being dangerously "washed" in the brain. But we too were for well over a century the inflamed cannon fodder of craven pseudo-holy cleric imposters and politicians. The CONTENT that drives current terror is religion, but the PURPOSE is that timeless human motive--greed and power.
The author recounts these sorry tales with a dispassionate prose, relentlessly unsparing of detail. Though dense at times as reviewers pointed out, I found his style really quite eloquent and effective. He appeals to his readers in an intimate and trusting tone, as a historian speaking to readers who are enlightened men--who share his ironic verdicts on past stupidities, and join him in affirming that, finally, enabled by unvarnished full accountings of our past, "we modern men will never be such fools again!" He occasionally adds a reality check: ".....will we?" Of course, the book's 160 year age gives us the answer of time......The answer? Well, as so nicely put by a contemporary social commentator named Borat (whose movie has a theme similar to MacKay's, applied to mob fanatics of the present day) ...."NOOOOOOT !!!!"
First 100 pages good, but the rest of the book was slow.......2006-09-27
I recommend Edward Chancellor's "Devil Take the Hindmost" instead of this book. I enjoyed this book for first hundred pages (financial speculation), but I was not interested in the later sections of the book.
Amazon.com
Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? Why do financially sensible people jump lemming-like into harebrained speculative frenzies -- only to jump broker-like out of windows when their fantasies dissolve? We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and overvalued high-tech stocks of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but the excerpts of these two classics--first published in 1841 and 1688, respectively--show that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds. These are extraordinarily illuminating and, unfortunately, entertaining tales of chicanery, greed, and naivete.
Essential reading for any student of human nature or the transmission of ideas.
In fact, cases such as Tulipomania in 1624--when tulip bulbs traded at a higher price than gold--suggest the existence of what I would dub "Mackay's Law of Mass Action": when it comes to the effect of social behavior on the intelligence of individuals, 1+1 is often considerably less than 1, and sometimes less than 0.
Book Description
"The market never ceases to befuddle and beguile. These two venerable works are fixtures on the short lists for most valuable books on the securities markets, and investors continue to cherish them." -From the Introduction by Martin S. Fridson Managing Director, Merrill Lynch & Co. Author of Investment Illusions
Exploring the sometimes hilarious, sometimes devastating impact of crowd behavior and trading trickery on the financial markets, this book brilliantly combines two all-time investment classics. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and Confusión de Confusiones take us from Tulipmania in 1634-when tulips actually traded at a higher price than gold-to the South Sea "bubble" of 1720, and beyond. Securities analyst and author Martin Fridson guides you on a quirky, entertaining, and intriguing journey back through time.
Chosen by the Financial Times as Two of the Ten Best Books Ever Written on Investment
Critical Praise . . .
"This is the most important book ever written about crowd psychology and, by extension, about financial markets. A serious student of the markets and even anyone interested in the extremes of human behavior should read this book!" -Ron Insana, CNBC
"In combining 'Extraordinary' with 'Confusion,' the result is not extraordinary confusion. Instead, with clarity, the book sears into modern investor minds the dangers of following the crowd." -Greg Heberlein, The Seattle Times
"You will see between its staid lines (written in ye olde English and as ponderable as Buddha's navel) that, despite what the media says, nothing really important has changed in the financial markets in centuries." -Kenneth L. Fisher, Forbes
Customer Reviews:
17th and 18th Century Speculative Bubbles Look Oddly Familiar. .......2007-07-11
"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" and "Confusion de Confusiones" are both works that address speculation frenzy in early financial markets but which have continued to enjoy a surprising popularity among investors centuries after they were written. Perhaps that is because a certain romanticism and distance comes with age, while at the same time these stories of speculative bubbles tell us that nothing really changes in the markets no matter how sophisticated we get. A foreword by Peter Bernstein sets the stage for the 17th century proliferation of financial instruments and pursuit of wealth. Martin S. Fridson's Introduction comments on the enduring popularity of these works, their differing perspectives on market forces, and their debunkers.
"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" was authored by Scotsman Charles MacKay in 1841. It was a favorite book of Bernard Baruch, who wrote the foreword to the 1932 edition, a much longer work than what we see here. Only chapters relating to financial markets have been included in this Wiley Investment Classics edition. MacKay recounts three speculation frenzies and their aftermaths: The 1717 Mississippi Company of John Law and France's misadventures with paper money under the regent Duc d'Orleans, the 1711 South Sea Company bubble, and, more briefly, the "tulipmania" that overtook Holland in the 1630s. MacKay concentrates on the human behavior that drove these bubbles rather than on financial minutiae. If you're interested in learning more about John Law, father of modern finance, Millionaire by Janet Gleeson is a very readable biography.
"Confusion de Confusiones" author Joseph de la Vega wrote about what he knew personally: the stock market in late-17th century Amsterdam. The 1957 introduction by Hermann Kellenbenz includes a bio of de la Vega and helpful explanations of the types of transactions to which the work refers. The main text is a series of Dialogues between a Shareholder, a Philosopher, and a Merchant, in which the Shareholder explains the stock market, which he describes as "this enigmatic business which is at once the finest and most deceitful in Europe", the "quintessence of academic learning and a paragon of fraudulence." De la Vega uses stock of the Dutch East India Company as an example and lays the blame for price instability on syndicates of bears and bulls who conspire to move prices. I can't say that either of these works is useful -we have plenty of bubbles in our own time, after all- but they are engaging curiosities.
Google at $400.00? Maybe more chapters yet to be written?.......2006-01-19
Keep this book within handy reach for any time that you're getting a bit too smart for your britches. How otherwise intelligent and rational folk get themselves into these troubles is truly fascinating and instructive. The writing here is, of course, rather archaic to modern sensibilities (originally published in 1841) but the stories are interesting and very readable. It's tempting to read the tales as history but when I see Goggle trading at over $400.00 I scratch my head and wonder. And when I hear the president cutting taxes, increasing spending, and still assuring me that my Social Security payments are secure, well, I think there might be a few chapters still waiting to be writing in the book. A good read.
Timeless!.......2005-04-01
This was the warning shot ahead of the internet bubble. Hearing about the Dutch tulip bubble in 1995 (when I first read the book) we should have been well prepared to duck when Amazon, Ebay and their fallen comrades shot to the moon. If only we had listened...
The book clearly articulates why "The more things change, the more they stay the same" and helps us understand when to buck the herd. Perhaps a bit long, it is well written and worth the space on your nightstand.
Overated.......2004-10-08
Based on the previous 5-star rave reviews written here, I decided to give this book a try, especially since it's two books for the price of one. But when I opened up the book, I discovered that you don't even get Mackay's complete book; you get just the chapters relevant to finance/investing. Because I was reading the book primarily for insight into trading/investing I thought I would make do. However there was very little of that to be found, and when it was found, it was typically written in verbose, archaic English, sandwiched between many pages of irrelevant historical minutea such as how exactly transactions were conducted in the 1700's. There are a couple good gems, but nothing which has not been repeated in more modern books in much simpler language. E.g. The Money Game by Adam Smith or Market Wizards, or Mindtraps by Barach or any of Tony Oz's books. There are sooo many good trading books out there to read that reading this was a complete waste of time.
Oh, Yeah!.......2001-12-02
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds has been a favorite of mine for years, so while I'm happy to see it popularized, there's so much I miss! This is the first book of Urban Legends. There's so much to the book, and so much is so funny, and the financial stuff is the driest part of the book.
That said, I understand Fridson has a theme, and by using these two old works, one Victorian, and one Louis XIV, he shows that nothing much changes: people will do very stupid things if that's what everyone else is doing. More to the point, people will do very risky things with their money, if everyone else is doing so. Examples abound in these two great books, and Fridson doesn't miss a chance to make a point, and usually gets a good laugh in as well.
Tulipomania (when the price of tulip bulbs in Holland inflated beyond the ridiculous) is especially revealing, and though Fridson is using it to make a point about price inflation, I couldn't help thinking also about the marketing technique by which the public is convinced it needs something, then that something is doled out like Oreos to a diabetic. I'm thinking specifically of diamonds, but there are lots of examples.
Fridson pulls this altogether, and as big a fan as I am of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, the original work he has created by mating a part of it with the other work, and with his own explanatory text is a great book.
I am not an investor, and generally find economics petrifyingly boring, but this book was a fun romp. Even if you have no interest in finance, read this book just to have a good laugh at our species.
Customer Reviews:
Every thinking man should own a copy.......2007-03-20
If you are a deep thinker and enjoy reviewing the evolution of thought, this book is a must own. I set on top of the toliet, as my "toilet read", which is where I do about 99% of my reading.
This one will allow you to see how thought has evolved from after the dark ages to about 150 years ago or so. That is a large span of time. It also pinpoints just how much society influences the majority of individuals. Hell, that word "individual" has very little meaning for the majority of men and women. Most folks have been run over by the collective and are too afraid to think for themselves from the ground up. I am beginning to understand that very few thinkers have ever existed.
If you are in the club, pick this book up. You are not alone :).
Five stars, excellent book.
Customer Reviews:
Two Classics in ONE VOLUME.......2007-03-27
"The Crowd" & "Estraodinary Popular Delusions (and the madness of crowds) ISBN 0 934380 23 6 Traders Press Greenvill S.C.
THE CROWD by Gustave Le Bon, and EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE MADNESS OF CROWDS are twin classics that can be purchased as separate texts, or purchased combined in this single paperback volume by Traders Press.
The first book, THE CROWD by Gustave Le Bon, was published in 1897. It is a classic study on mass psychology, explaining why large crowds of people seem to sometimes become emotionally "infected" and function without objective thought. This book studies how such crowds become mobs.
The second book, EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE MADNESS OF CROWDS published in 1841, focuses on a notorious stock swindle and also the Holland tulip mania which drove people to fantasic investments in tulip bulbs, driven by greed.
These are both foundation texts in mob or crowd delusion and psychology. Much of the psychological information remains valid today, and these are useful references for those who would understand popular psychology, and what motivates people to act violently, destructively, or merely foolishly.
Looking back upon history, we can ponder the period when the newly formed United States implemented the "Alien & Sedition Acts," which limited freedom of public assembly and speech. In light of the fact that the French revolution spawned a period of mob frenzy engaged in ever more frothy and bloody violence by mobs and national councils, the U. S. Government saw that the same thing occurring on the North American continent would destabilize the fledgling government. the Alien & Sedition Acts limited such activity until the U.S. government was established.
These are very informative books with which all educated persons should be familiar.
Book Description
If you've ever wondered where popular catch phrases and slang comes from or why men's beards go in and out of fashion, then this book is for you. How often do you come across a book that can explain most everything? Much of today's news has a basis in prior historical events. The internet IPO market shares striking similarities to the Dutch "tulip mania" of the 1600's. The conflict in the Middle East can trace its roots to the Crusades. The recent satanic child abuse trials are reminiscent of the European witch trials of the 1400s-1600s. This complete two-volume edition demonstrates that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds.
Here are astonishing and entertaining tales of thievery, greed and madness. This informative, funny collection encompasses a broad range of manias and deceptions from haunted houses and the prophecies of Nostradamus to speculative excess. Charles MacKay explains it all in this classic edition. Enjoy!
Customer Reviews:
Again Delusions, these volumes are a renamed old classic........2003-08-26
These two volumes, "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" are the text of the original titled "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds".
Notice the addition of the word "Memoirs" in the title. It also has the original and other Prefaces removed.
Notice the difference in the author's name, the above 2 volumes by the Essential Library are by a Charles MacKay, copywrited 2000.
The original was written by Charles Mackay, LL.D., see the difference? It's the K, capitalized or lower case, makes 2 different names.
Also Charles Mackay, LL.D. wrote in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, as the original edition was printed in 1841. He could hardly have changed his name, changed the title and copywrited it in 2000.
In other words, the "Memoirs, etc." is a re-named, re-copywrited older work. Original re-prints are available from Amazon.com.
The original is a very informative and interesting book, illustrating again the admonition "That those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it."
Beware of Other Editions- This is the COMPLETE Version!!!.......2002-12-01
Beware of Other Editions- This is the COMPLETE Version!!!
Please Note: The Essential Library Edition Volume 1 and 2 is the COMPLETE and AUTHORITATIVE EDITION - Accept No Edited, Condensed, or Abridged Versions!! You have been warned....
Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action?
Why do financially sensible people jump lemming-like into hare-brained speculative frenzies--only to jump broker-like out of windows when their fantasies dissolve?
We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and over-valued high-tech stocks of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but Mackay's classic--first published in 1841--shows that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds.
These are extraordinarily illuminating,and, unfortunately, entertaining tales of chicanery, greed and naivete. Essential reading for any student of human nature or the transmission of ideas.
In fact, cases such as Tulipomania in 1624--when Tulip bulbs traded at a higher price than gold--suggest the existence of what I would dub "Mackay's Law of Mass Action:" when it comes to the effect of social behavior on the intelligence of individuals, 1+1 is often less than 2, and sometimes considerably less than 0.
Andrew Tobias said, "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."
ENOUGH SAID- Now Go & Buy Both Volumes (and see what other editions cut out!)
Customer Reviews:
Excellent sequel to the origional!.......2002-08-13
"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" by Charles MacKay is an amazing book that stands the test of time (having been first published in 1841). After all this time we have certainly had our share of more madness. Thankfully, Joseph Bulgatz thought it was time for a sequel.
He does an excellent of job discussing much madness that is critical to understand our world today. There are chapters on Ponzi Schemes, The Florida Land Boom, Soccor, Lotteries, Musical Madness, and an issue seemingly always threatening our world: War. The exploration of cults is especially important in my opinion because Charles MacKay refused to discuss religous madness in the origional book.
Even the chapters that don't seem as relevant to us today: Invaders From Mars (which discusses the famous Orson Welles "War Of The Worlds" broadcast), The Destruction Of The Xhosas, Dowsing, and Perpetual Motion are still critical for understanding how absurd crowds can get.
I especially enjoyed the part of the book that focused on the Tulipmania and a similar madness that went on in the same country just a hundred years later. (Proving that people often do not learn important lessons, even if separated by just a couple generations.) The great thing is that these manias have about 40 pages dedicated to them whereas in the origional book, the Tulipmania only had about 9 pages concerning it. It's a facinating topic and I don't think its too far removed from us as just a few years ago I remember some pundits referring to the "Internetmania", which might be written about in the next sequel a hundred years from now.
We should all realize "There is nothing new under the sun, that which has been will be." We can then begin to open our eyes and realize that things just as strange as these cooky events from the past are going on all around us even if we don't realize it.
Book Description
1852. The object of the author in the following pages has been to collect the most remarkable instances of those moral epidemics which have been excited, and to show how easily the masses have been led astray. Contents: the Mississippi scheme, the south-sea bubble, the tulipomania, the alchemists, modern prophecies, fortunetelling, the magnetizers, influence of politics and religion on the hair and beard, the crusaders, the witch mania, the slow poisoners, haunted houses, popular follies of great cities, popular admiration of great thieves, duels and ordeals, relics. Illustrated with engravings.
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Economic History
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Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation
Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises (Wiley Investment Classics)
Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises (Wiley Investment Classics)
The Great Crash 1929
