Misplaced Pages

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 07:22, 24 July 2022 editTextorus (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users21,984 edits clarify← Previous edit Latest revision as of 20:18, 28 December 2024 edit undoEmesz (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users792 editsm →See also 
(21 intermediate revisions by 19 users not shown)
Line 24: Line 24:
] ]


'''''Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds''''' is an early study of ] by Scottish journalist ], first published in 1841 under the title ''Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mackay |first=Charles |year=1841 |title= Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds |publisher= Richard Bentley|place=London |edition= 1 |volume=I |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ufoLAAAAYAAJ&q=inauthor%3A%22Charles%20Mackay%22&pg=PR1 |access-date=29 April 2015}}{{Cite book |last=Mackay |first=Charles |year=1841 |title= Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds |publisher= Richard Bentley|place=London |edition= 1 |volume=II |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hiMOAAAAYAAJ&q=editions%3AUDOphQOmg4cC&pg=PP13 |access-date=29 April 2015}}{{Cite book |last=Mackay |first=Charles |year=1841 |title= Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds |publisher= Richard Bentley|place=London |edition= 1 |volume=III |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=J2JXTONN3O4C&q=editions%3AUDOphQOmg4cC&pg=PP11 |access-date=29 April 2015}}</ref> The book was published in three volumes: "National Delusions", "Peculiar Follies", and "Philosophical Delusions".<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mackay|first1=Charles|title=Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds|date=1841|url=http://www.litrix.com/madraven/madne001.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040623130633/http://www.litrix.com/madraven/madne001.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2004-06-23|access-date=23 March 2018}}</ref> Mackay was an accomplished teller of stories, though he wrote in a journalistic and somewhat sensational style. '''''Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds''''' is an early study of ] by Scottish journalist ], first published in 1841 under the title ''Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mackay |first=Charles |year=1841 |title= Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds |publisher= Richard Bentley|place=London |edition= 1 |volume=I |isbn=978-1-4142-2016-1 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ufoLAAAAYAAJ&q=inauthor%3A%22Charles%20Mackay%22&pg=PR1 |access-date=29 April 2015}}{{Cite book |last=Mackay |first=Charles |year=1841 |title= Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds |publisher= Richard Bentley|place=London |edition= 1 |volume=II |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hiMOAAAAYAAJ&q=editions%3AUDOphQOmg4cC&pg=PP13 |access-date=29 April 2015}}{{Cite book |last=Mackay |first=Charles |year=1841 |title= Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds |publisher= Richard Bentley|place=London |edition= 1 |volume=III |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=J2JXTONN3O4C&q=editions%3AUDOphQOmg4cC&pg=PP11 |access-date=29 April 2015}}</ref> The book was published in three volumes: "National Delusions", "Peculiar Follies", and "Philosophical Delusions".<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mackay|first1=Charles|title=Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds|date=1841|url=http://www.litrix.com/madraven/madne001.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040623130633/http://www.litrix.com/madraven/madne001.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2004-06-23|access-date=23 March 2018}}</ref> A second edition appeared in 1852, reorganizing the three volumes into two and adding numerous engravings.<ref>
* {{Cite book |last=Mackay |first=Charles |year=1852 |title= Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds |publisher= Office of the National Illustrated Library|place=London |edition=2nd |volume=I |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nUoPAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover}}
* {{Cite book |last=Mackay |first=Charles |year=1852 |title= Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds |publisher= Office of the National Illustrated Library|place=London |edition=2nd |volume=II |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nBQ3AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover}}
</ref> Mackay was an accomplished teller of stories, though he wrote in a journalistic and somewhat sensational style.


The subjects of Mackay's debunking include ], ], ]s, ]s, ], ]s, the ], the influence of politics and religion on the shapes of ]s and ], magnetisers (influence of imagination in curing disease), murder through ]ing, ], popular admiration of great thieves, popular follies of great cities, and ]s. Present-day writers on economics, such as ] and ], laud the three chapters on economic bubbles.<ref name=lewis>{{Cite book | title=The Real Price of Everything | author=Lewis, Michael | year=2008}}</ref> The subjects of Mackay's debunking include ], ], ]s, ]s, ], ]s, the ], the influence of politics and religion on the shapes of ]s and ], magnetisers (influence of imagination in curing disease), murder through ]ing, ], popular admiration of great thieves, popular follies of great cities, and ]s. Present-day writers on economics, such as ] and ], laud the three chapters on economic bubbles.<ref name=lewis>{{Cite book | title=The Real Price of Everything | author=Lewis, Michael | year=2008}}</ref>
Line 55: Line 58:
=== Crusades === === Crusades ===
{{See also|Crusades}} {{See also|Crusades}}
Mackay describes the history of the ] as a kind of mania of the ], precipitated by the pilgrimages of Europeans to the ]. Mackay is generally unsympathetic to the Crusaders, whom he compares unfavourably to the superior civilisation of Asia: "Europe expended millions of her treasures, and the blood of two millions of her children; and a handful of quarrelsome knights retained ] for about one hundred years!" Mackay describes the history of the ] as a kind of mania of the ], precipitated by the pilgrimages of Europeans to the ]. Mackay is generally unsympathetic to the Crusaders, whom he compares unfavourably to the superior civilisation of Asia: "Europe expended millions of her treasures, and the blood of two millions of her children; and a handful of quarrelsome knights retained ] for about one hundred years!"


=== Witch mania === === Witch mania ===
Line 83: Line 86:
The book remains in print, and writers continue to discuss its influence, particularly the section on financial bubbles. (See Goldsmith and Lewis, below.) The book remains in print, and writers continue to discuss its influence, particularly the section on financial bubbles. (See Goldsmith and Lewis, below.)
* Financier ] credited the lessons he learned from ''Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds'' with his decision to sell all of his stock ahead of the ].<ref>{{Cite book|author=Baruch, Bernard|author-link=Bernard Baruch|title=My Own Story|location= New York|publisher= Henry Holt|date= 1957|pages=242–245}}</ref> * Financier ] credited the lessons he learned from ''Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds'' with his decision to sell all of his stock ahead of the ].<ref>{{Cite book|author=Baruch, Bernard|author-link=Bernard Baruch|title=My Own Story|location= New York|publisher= Henry Holt|date= 1957|pages=242–245}}</ref>
* Kurt Vonnegut's seminal novel, '']'', references the book.<ref>{{cite book | last=Bloom | first=H. | last2=Vonnegut | first2=K. | last3=Bloom | first3=S.P.H.H. | title=Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five | publisher=Facts On File, Incorporated | series=Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations | year=2009 | isbn=978-1-4381-2874-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gc_SLksZVB4C&pg=PA26 | access-date=September 15, 2024 | page=23}}</ref>
* Kurt Vonnegut's seminal novel, '']'', references the book.
* The book was the initial inspiration for ]'s ] ] short film ''John Law and the Mississippi Bubble'' (1978).<ref name="Ohayon">{{Cite web|last=Ohayon|first=Albert|title=John Law and the Mississippi Bubble: The Madness of Crowds|url=http://blog.nfb.ca/2011/06/22/john-law-and-the-mississippi-bubble-the-madness-of-crowds/|work=NFB.ca Blog|date=22 June 2011|publisher=]|access-date=22 June 2011}}</ref> * The book was the initial inspiration for ]'s ] ] short film ''John Law and the Mississippi Bubble'' (1978).<ref name="Ohayon">{{Cite web|last=Ohayon|first=Albert|title=John Law and the Mississippi Bubble: The Madness of Crowds|url=http://blog.nfb.ca/2011/06/22/john-law-and-the-mississippi-bubble-the-madness-of-crowds/|work=NFB.ca Blog|date=22 June 2011|publisher=]|access-date=22 June 2011}}</ref>
* '']'' magazine compared Mackay's descriptions of financial bubbles to the ], claiming that the "]" that drove the Chinese market was very similar to what Mackay described.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.forbes.com/2007/05/30/china-bubble-wachovia-pf-ii-in_rs_0530soapbox_inl.html | title=China Bubble Mania | work=Forbes | access-date=2009-10-30 | date=2007-05-30}}</ref> * '']'' magazine compared Mackay's descriptions of financial bubbles to the ], claiming that the "]" that drove the Chinese market was very similar to what Mackay described.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.forbes.com/2007/05/30/china-bubble-wachovia-pf-ii-in_rs_0530soapbox_inl.html | title=China Bubble Mania | work=Forbes | access-date=2009-10-30 | date=2007-05-30}}</ref>
* ] borrows from the title in an issue of his popular comic series, '']'', in a story featuring a writer whose novel is titled "...&nbsp;And the Madness of Crowds".<ref>{{Cite book | title=] | author=Gaiman, Neil | year=1991}}</ref> * ] borrows from the title in an issue of his popular comic series, '']'', in a story featuring a writer whose novel is titled "...&nbsp;And the Madness of Crowds".<ref>{{Cite book | title=] | author=Gaiman, Neil | year=1991}}</ref>
* Author and executive coach ] discussed the book in depth in '']'', drawing extensive parallels between the financial bubbles Mackay wrote about and financial bubbles today.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/dec2008/ca20081216_263901.htm | title=The Madness of Crowds, Past and Present | work=BusinessWeek | access-date=2009-10-01 }}</ref> Other writers also frequently point to the book to explain recent financial bubbles.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-books-cashing-in-on-the-crash-1823810.html | title=The books cashing in on the crash | work=The Independent | access-date=2009-11-23 | location=London | date=2009-11-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/business/economy/29econ.html | title=Phoenix Leads the Way Down in Home Prices | work=] | access-date=2009-11-23 | first1=David | last1=Streitfeld | first2=Jack | last2=and Healy | date=2009-04-29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/IC16Dj04.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317201501/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/IC16Dj04.html | url-status=unfit | archive-date=2007-03-17 | title=The subprime dominoes in motion | work=Asia Times | access-date=2010-11-15 | first1=Julian | last1=Delasantellis | date=2007-03-16}}</ref> * Author and executive coach ] discussed the book in depth in '']'', drawing extensive parallels between the financial bubbles Mackay wrote about and financial bubbles today.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/dec2008/ca20081216_263901.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222094540/http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/dec2008/ca20081216_263901.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=22 December 2008 | title=The Madness of Crowds, Past and Present | work=BusinessWeek | access-date=2009-10-01 }}</ref> Other writers also frequently point to the book to explain recent financial bubbles.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-books-cashing-in-on-the-crash-1823810.html | title=The books cashing in on the crash | work=The Independent | access-date=2009-11-23 | location=London | date=2009-11-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/business/economy/29econ.html | title=Phoenix Leads the Way Down in Home Prices | work=] | access-date=2009-11-23 | first1=David | last1=Streitfeld | first2=Jack | last2=and Healy | date=2009-04-29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/IC16Dj04.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317201501/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/IC16Dj04.html | url-status=unfit | archive-date=2007-03-17 | title=The subprime dominoes in motion | work=Asia Times | access-date=2010-11-15 | first1=Julian | last1=Delasantellis | date=2007-03-16}}</ref>
* Financial writer ] includes the financial mania chapters in his book ''The Real Price of Everything: Rediscovering the Six Classics of Economics'' as one of the six great works of economics, along with writings by ], ], ], ], and ].<ref name=lewis /> * Financial writer ] includes the financial mania chapters in his book ''The Real Price of Everything: Rediscovering the Six Classics of Economics'' as one of the six great works of economics, along with writings by ], ], ], ], and ].<ref name=lewis />
* Author and journalist ] writes a column for '']'', "Madness of Crowds", which Self says takes its title from Mackay's book.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2009/10/random-mackay-phrase-masses | title=To be honest, it's totally random | work=New Statesman | access-date=2009-10-12 }}</ref> * Author and journalist ] writes a column for '']'', "Madness of Crowds", which takes its title from Mackay's book.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2009/10/random-mackay-phrase-masses | title=To be honest, it's totally random | work=New Statesman | access-date=2009-10-12 }}</ref>
* ], in '']'' (2004), takes a different view of crowd behavior, saying that under certain circumstances, crowds or groups may have better information and make better decisions than even the best-informed individual.<ref>{{Cite book | title=The Wisdom of Crowds | url=https://archive.org/details/wisdomofcrowdswh00suro | url-access=registration | author=Surowiecki, James | year=2004| isbn=978-0385503860 }}</ref> * ], in '']'' (2004), takes a different view of crowd behavior, saying that under certain circumstances, crowds or groups may have better information and make better decisions than even the best-informed individual.<ref>{{Cite book | title=The Wisdom of Crowds | url=https://archive.org/details/wisdomofcrowdswh00suro | url-access=registration | author=Surowiecki, James | year=2004| publisher=Doubleday | isbn=978-0385503860 }}</ref>
* Canadian author ] used MacKay as an inspiration for her 2021 novel "The Madness of Crowds." * Canadian author ] used MacKay as an inspiration for her 2021 novel ''The Madness of Crowds''.<ref>{{cite web | title=How the ongoing pandemic inspired Louise Penny's latest mystery novel The Madness of Crowds | website=CBC | date=December 30, 2021 | url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thenextchapter/full-episode-jan-1-2022-1.6300832/how-the-ongoing-pandemic-inspired-louise-penny-s-latest-mystery-novel-the-madness-of-crowds-1.6300837 | access-date=September 15, 2024}}</ref>
* American synthpop band ] released a song titled after the book in 2021.<ref>{{cite web |title=Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds - Information Society |url=https://informationsociety.bandcamp.com/track/extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds |website=Bandcamp |access-date=3 August 2022}}</ref> Its vocals are mostly samples of cult leader ].

== Quotations ==
* "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."
* "Of all the offspring of Time, Error is the most ancient, and is so old and familiar an acquaintance, that Truth, when discovered, comes upon most of us like an intruder, and meets the intruder's welcome."
* "How flattering to the pride of man to think that the stars on their courses watch over him, and typify, by their movements and aspects, the joys or the sorrows that await him! He, less in proportion to the universe than the all-but invisible insects that feed in myriads on a summer's leaf are to this great globe itself, fondly imagines that eternal worlds were chiefly created to prognosticate his fate."
* "We go out of our course to make ourselves uncomfortable; the cup of life is not bitter enough to our palate, and we distill superfluous poison to put into it, or conjure up hideous things to frighten ourselves at, which would never exist if we did not make them."
* "We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first."
* "The obnoxious hat was often snatched from his head and thrown into the gutter by some practical joker, and then raised, covered with mud, upon the end of a stick, for the admiration of the spectators, who held their sides with laughter, and exclaimed, in the pauses of their mirth, 'Oh, what a shocking bad hat!' 'What a shocking bad hat!'"


== See also == == See also ==
* ] ''More Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds'' (2000)
* ] * ]
* ]
* ] * ]
* ] * ]
Line 137: Line 133:
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]

Latest revision as of 20:18, 28 December 2024

1841 book by Charles Mackay

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of CrowdsFront page of the original 1841 edition
AuthorCharles Mackay
LanguageEnglish
SubjectsCrowd psychology, economic bubbles, history
PublisherRichard Bentley, London
Publication date1841
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint
"Night wind hawkers" sold stock on the streets during the South Sea Bubble. (The Great Picture of Folly, 1720)
A satirical "Bubble card"

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is an early study of crowd psychology by Scottish journalist Charles Mackay, first published in 1841 under the title Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions. The book was published in three volumes: "National Delusions", "Peculiar Follies", and "Philosophical Delusions". A second edition appeared in 1852, reorganizing the three volumes into two and adding numerous engravings. Mackay was an accomplished teller of stories, though he wrote in a journalistic and somewhat sensational style.

The subjects of Mackay's debunking include alchemy, crusades, duels, economic bubbles, fortune-telling, haunted houses, the Drummer of Tedworth, the influence of politics and religion on the shapes of beards and hair, magnetisers (influence of imagination in curing disease), murder through poisoning, prophecies, popular admiration of great thieves, popular follies of great cities, and relics. Present-day writers on economics, such as Michael Lewis and Andrew Tobias, laud the three chapters on economic bubbles.

In later editions, Mackay added a footnote referencing the Railway Mania of the 1840s as another "popular delusion" which was at least as important as the South Sea Bubble. In the 21st century, the mathematician Andrew Odlyzko pointed out, in a published lecture, that Mackay himself played a role in this economic bubble; as a leader writer in The Glasgow Argus, Mackay wrote on 2 October 1845: "There is no reason whatever to fear a crash".

Volume I: National Delusions

Economic bubbles

The first volume begins with a discussion of three economic bubbles, or financial manias: the South Sea Company bubble of 1711–1720, the Mississippi Company bubble of 1719–1720, and the Dutch tulip mania of the early seventeenth century. According to Mackay, during this bubble, speculators from all walks of life bought and sold tulip bulbs and had even declared futures contracts on them. Allegedly, some tulip bulb varieties briefly became the most expensive objects in the world during 1637. Mackay's accounts are enlivened by colorful, comedic anecdotes, such as the Parisian hunchback who supposedly profited by renting out his hump as a writing desk during the height of the mania surrounding the Mississippi Company.

Two modern researchers, Peter Garber and Anne Goldgar, independently conclude that Mackay greatly exaggerated the scale and effects of the Tulip bubble, and Mike Dash, in his modern popular history of the alleged bubble, notes that he believes the importance and extent of the tulip mania were overstated.

Chapters

  • The Mississippi Scheme
  • The South Sea Bubble
  • The Tulip Mania
  • Relics
  • Modern Prophecies
  • Popular Admiration for Great Thieves (cf hybristophilia)
  • Influence of Politics and Religion on the Hair and Beard
  • Duels and Ordeals
  • The Love of the Marvellous and the Disbelief of the True
  • Popular Follies in Great Cities
  • Old Price Riots
  • The Thugs, or Phansigars

Volume II: Peculiar Follies

Witch Hunter, Matthew Hopkins

Crusades

See also: Crusades

Mackay describes the history of the Crusades as a kind of mania of the Middle Ages, precipitated by the pilgrimages of Europeans to the Holy Land. Mackay is generally unsympathetic to the Crusaders, whom he compares unfavourably to the superior civilisation of Asia: "Europe expended millions of her treasures, and the blood of two millions of her children; and a handful of quarrelsome knights retained possession of the Kingdom of Jerusalem for about one hundred years!"

Witch mania

See also: Witch trials in the early modern period

Witch trials in 16th- and 17th-century Western Europe are the primary focus of the "Witch Mania" section of the book, which asserts that this was a time when ill fortune was likely to be attributed to supernatural causes. Mackay notes that many of these cases were initiated as a way of settling scores among neighbors or associates, and that extremely low standards of evidence were applied to most of these trials. Mackay claims that "thousands upon thousands" of people were executed as witches over two and a half centuries, with the largest numbers killed in Germany.

Sections

  • The Crusades
  • The Witch Mania
  • The Slow Poisoners
  • Haunted Houses

Volume III: Philosophical Delusions

An alchemist, from the 1841/1852 editions of Extraordinary Popular Delusions.

Alchemists

See also: Alchemy

The section on alchemysts focuses primarily on efforts to turn base metals into gold. Mackay notes that many of these practitioners were themselves deluded, convinced that these feats could be performed if they discovered the correct old recipe or stumbled upon the right combination of ingredients. Although alchemists gained money from their sponsors, mainly noblemen, he notes that the belief in alchemy by sponsors could be hazardous to its practitioners, as it wasn't rare for an unscrupulous noble to imprison a supposed alchemist until he could produce gold.

Books

  • Book I: The Alchemysts
  • Book II: Fortune Telling
  • Book III: The Magnetisers

Influence and modern responses

The book remains in print, and writers continue to discuss its influence, particularly the section on financial bubbles. (See Goldsmith and Lewis, below.)

  • Financier Bernard Baruch credited the lessons he learned from Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds with his decision to sell all of his stock ahead of the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
  • Kurt Vonnegut's seminal novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, references the book.
  • The book was the initial inspiration for Richard Condie's National Film Board of Canada animated short film John Law and the Mississippi Bubble (1978).
  • Forbes magazine compared Mackay's descriptions of financial bubbles to the Chinese stock bubble of 2007, claiming that the "emotional feedback loop" that drove the Chinese market was very similar to what Mackay described.
  • Neil Gaiman borrows from the title in an issue of his popular comic series, The Sandman, in a story featuring a writer whose novel is titled "... And the Madness of Crowds".
  • Author and executive coach Marshall Goldsmith discussed the book in depth in BusinessWeek, drawing extensive parallels between the financial bubbles Mackay wrote about and financial bubbles today. Other writers also frequently point to the book to explain recent financial bubbles.
  • Financial writer Michael Lewis includes the financial mania chapters in his book The Real Price of Everything: Rediscovering the Six Classics of Economics as one of the six great works of economics, along with writings by Adam Smith, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, Thorstein Veblen, and John Maynard Keynes.
  • Author and journalist Will Self writes a column for New Statesman, "Madness of Crowds", which takes its title from Mackay's book.
  • James Surowiecki, in The Wisdom of Crowds (2004), takes a different view of crowd behavior, saying that under certain circumstances, crowds or groups may have better information and make better decisions than even the best-informed individual.
  • Canadian author Louise Penny used MacKay as an inspiration for her 2021 novel The Madness of Crowds.
  • American synthpop band Information Society released a song titled after the book in 2021. Its vocals are mostly samples of cult leader Jim Jones.

See also

Notes

  1. Mackay, Charles (1841). Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Vol. I (1 ed.). London: Richard Bentley. ISBN 978-1-4142-2016-1. Retrieved 29 April 2015.Mackay, Charles (1841). Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Vol. II (1 ed.). London: Richard Bentley. Retrieved 29 April 2015.Mackay, Charles (1841). Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Vol. III (1 ed.). London: Richard Bentley. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  2. Mackay, Charles (1841). Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Archived from the original on 23 June 2004. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  4. ^ Lewis, Michael (2008). The Real Price of Everything.
  5. MacKay, Charles (2008). Extraordinary Popular Delusions, the Money Mania: The Mississippi Scheme, the South-sea Bubble, & the Tulipomania. Cosimo, Inc. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-60520-547-2. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  6. Odyyzko, Andrew (2012). Charles Mackay's own extraordinary popular delusions and the Railway Mania (PDF). p. 2.
  7. "Tulips". library.wur.nl.
  8. Garber, Peter M. (2001). Famous First Bubbles.
  9. Dash, Mike (2001). Tulipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused.
  10. Baruch, Bernard (1957). My Own Story. New York: Henry Holt. pp. 242–245.
  11. Bloom, H.; Vonnegut, K.; Bloom, S.P.H.H. (2009). Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five. Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations. Facts On File, Incorporated. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-4381-2874-0. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  12. Ohayon, Albert (22 June 2011). "John Law and the Mississippi Bubble: The Madness of Crowds". NFB.ca Blog. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 22 June 2011.
  13. "China Bubble Mania". Forbes. 30 May 2007. Retrieved 30 October 2009.
  14. Gaiman, Neil (1991). The Sandman Vol. 3: Dream Country.
  15. "The Madness of Crowds, Past and Present". BusinessWeek. Archived from the original on 22 December 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
  16. "The books cashing in on the crash". The Independent. London. 20 November 2009. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  17. Streitfeld, David; and Healy, Jack (29 April 2009). "Phoenix Leads the Way Down in Home Prices". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  18. Delasantellis, Julian (16 March 2007). "The subprime dominoes in motion". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  19. "To be honest, it's totally random". New Statesman. Retrieved 12 October 2009.
  20. Surowiecki, James (2004). The Wisdom of Crowds. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385503860.
  21. "How the ongoing pandemic inspired Louise Penny's latest mystery novel The Madness of Crowds". CBC. 30 December 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  22. "Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds - Information Society". Bandcamp. Retrieved 3 August 2022.

References

External links

The book is in the public domain and is available online from a number of sources:

Categories: