Why read Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds?

Book cover of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

Book description

Charles MacKay's groundbreaking examination of a staggering variety of popular delusions, crazes and mass follies is presented here in full with no abridgements.

The text concentrates on a wide variety of phenomena which had occurred over the centuries prior to this book's publication in 1841. Mackay begins by examining various…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Bill Nash

Author

This isn’t a London book per se, although the city features fairly regularly. Instead, it’s a hybrid examination of how a mob thinks and the ways people behave when they live cheek-by-jowl.

Mackay’s seminal work is still relevant, especially the chapters on financial manias like the Tulipomania and the South Sea Bubble; People Never Learn seems to be his main lesson.

The book is hard to describe but includes some of the weirder urban crazes. In the chapter on Popular Follies of Great Cities, for example, he discusses slang trends. Apparently, asking, ‘Has your mother sold her mangle?’ would reduce…

From Bill's list on The best books for a deeper look at London.