Charles Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

First published in 1841, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is often cited as the best book ever written about market psychology. Author Charles Mackay chronicles many celebrated financial manias, or ‘bubbles’, which demonstrate his assertion that “every age has its peculiar folly; some scheme, project, or fantasy into which it plunges, spurred on by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation.” This still holds fast today! Among the alleged ‘bubbles’ described by Mackay is the infamous Dutch tulip mania, the South Sea Company bubble and the Mississippi Company bubble. And what do bubbles do? Why they burst of course. Tim Phillips’s interpretation of Mackay’s work is not a substitute for the original; its purpose is simply to illustrate the timeless nature of these inspirational insights by bringing them to life through modern business and political case studies. This brilliant interpretation of Extraordinary Popular Delusions… is an entertaining accompaniment to one of the most famous books ever written.