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The Crowds Are Still Mad & Delusional
“Charles MacKay's Old English treatise on how seemingly rational individuals somehow manage to turn into totally irrational crowds is a maddenly fascinating piece of work. It's safe to say mankind hasn't progressed all that much in dealing with hype & hysteria since this was first published in the 1840s.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-09-05.
From Hitler mania in Nazi Germany to the perplexing disco fever in the '70s, society---or certain segments of society---continues to behave in strange & most bewildering ways; and I suppose it always will.
The conclusion I've drawn from all this is, people are easily drawn to beliefs or ideologies based on momentum. Momentum pays little or no attention to common sense or justice. It's fueled by human beings' inate desire to do what everybody else seems to be doing. This phenomenom is frequently called the "Bandwagon effect"; and once this wagon gets rolling, it's hard to stop.
Trying to understand the madness is a difficult task; usually, it's best performed after the movement or fad has ceased to exist. Hindsight will always be 20-20; those who are able to anticipate our delusional behavior before the fun begins will stand a chance of thriving in society better than the average lemming.
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1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
We are no different from our ancestors
“I wanted to read this book to learn more about our current financial crisis. And I learned that if you think that the current financial crisis is an extraordinary event and our government will place proper regulations to prevent this from happening again, then you can keep on dreaming, or read this book instead. You will learn that manias such as what we experienced in the housing market and during the internet bubble are nothing new.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-15.
In this book, the author takes readers through the history all types of manias such as The Mississippi Scheme, The South Sea Bubble, and The Tulipomania. I found it amazing that we are no different from people 300 years ago. We are greedy and irrational and looking for quick ways to get rich. And unfortunately, we do not learn very well from history. This book is fabulous and I found it very interesting.
- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market” -
The Definitive History of Manias (Abridged)
“Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action?
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-07-09.
First published in 1841, this Informative and entertaining book is the definitive history of manias. From ancient alchemy, to the crusades at the turn of the first century, witch-hunts during the 1400s to 1600s, tulip mania in 1624, and the Mississippi scheme and South Sea bubble of the 1700s, Mackay provides insights into human behavior which help explain the Great Crash of 1929, the Dot-Com bubble of the 1990s, and the recent global economic meltdown.
"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.", Charles Mackay.” -
Sometime Tedious, But Worth Reading
“I found reading this book a mixed experience. Some chapters: "The Mississippi Scheme","The South Sea Bubble", and "The Tulipomania" were very interesting and describe behavior common with recent financial crises. "The Crusades" describes a time when Christendom waged "jihad" on the muslums of the Holy Lands. "The Witch Mania" describes how this fearful and violent superstition lingered into the eighteenth century, centuries after the Modern Era is considered to have begun. And "Duels and Ordeals" describes the suprisingly destructive effect of dueling on the higher classes of European society into the early nineteenth century. Yet other chapters seemed very tedious to read, with "The Alchymists", 200 pages of repetition, being the most tedious. On balance, though, this is a book worth reading.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-06-07. -
Classic
“Some might find the style and examples a bit dated, when I read in 2001 this was great (and funny) stuff!”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-06-01.
