Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

The free and easy availability of eBooks has pushed a few forgotten classics back into the spotlight. Unlike many, this one has remained more or less in print since its publication, largely because students of economics, history and sociology still read it, or at least parts of it. While it has mostly remained in print, it was not something the average bookseller was likely to stock on a regular basis. Like all of the books on The Overleaf, its public domain status means anyone who wants it can have it. That's a very good thing indeed, because it is a book well ahead of its time--one of those rare works that brings together elements of an original concept, cited research, accessible writing and adept storytelling. How does one begin to describe a book that is so wide ranging? I guess we're about to find out…


Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841) by Charles MacKay

Scottish journalist and author Charles MacKay makes a compelling case for nonconformity in a comprehensive skeptic's almanac that spotlights human gullibility and its widespread effects on the reason and sanity of populations and cultures. MacKay writes, "Three causes especially have excited the discontent of mankind; and, by impelling us to seek for remedies for the irremediable, have bewildered us in a maze of madness and error. These are death, toil, and ignorance of the future—the doom of man upon this sphere, and for which he shews his antipathy by his love of life, his longing for abundance, and his craving curiosity to pierce the secrets of the days to come." 

This passage sums up the book's scope. All of the manias, crises, wars, fads and trends seem to fall into one or more of these categories. He avoids matters of religion, wryly commenting in his introduction that questions of religion and mass delusion would provide enough material "sufficient to occupy a volume" of its own. Indeed. Apart from the Crusades and the craze for relics in the Catholic church, he largely stays away from confronting religion outright.

In the most famous section of this book, he examines two financial booms in England and France in the early eighteenth century that were in both cases quelled by the rampant insider trading of an impossibly corrupt aristocracy driven by their zeal to get rich quick. These two case studies are still read by students of economics, and anyone who lived through the real estate bubble that led to the world economic crisis of 2008 will find it hard to suppress a knowing smirk. He also touches on The Netherlands' Tulip Mania crisis, although the astronomical rise in the price of tulips is now believed by modern historians to have been substantially less disruptive to the Dutch economy than previously thought.

Historically, claiming to circumvent the time-honored existential ills of death, toil and the mystery of the future has proven to be highly lucrative, and there was never a shortage of charlatans who sought to profit from any eager seekers they could dupe. Scores of anecdotes are offered of the men and women who were driven to madness and/or destitution in the desire to manufacture gold, talk to the dead and see into the future. But the most fascinating sketches MacKay draws are those of the world's most accomplished quacks, tricksters and schemers who found ingenious ways to seduce people in high and low places to part with their money for unrealized promises. The intrigues and adventures of rogues and rubes make for some great reading.

As MacKay merrily debunks soothsayers and prophets like Nostradamus, "magnetizers" who sound eerily like bogus New Age "healers", witch hunting, haunted houses, dream interpreters and the insane pastime of deuling to settle petty differences, one begins to see hints of the then emerging discipline of sociology via the work of Auguste Comte, Karl Marx and Herbert Spencer. Unlike the works of those three heavy hitters, MacKay's book was written to entertain, and his language is lively and accessible to modern readers.

The extensive piece that depicts the Crusades as a humanitarian crisis caused by a mass delusion is an excellent piece of writing that is well ahead of its time. Errors in collective judgement often lead to ridiculous, painfully comic results, but MacKay was clearly dismayed and appalled by senseless human suffering and envisioned a day when society would grow beyond its tendency to rashly embrace spurious truths and its capacity to destroy each other in the process. Well, it's 2013 and we're still waiting, Chuck. I feel you, man.

MacKay's anecdotal style means that you don't have to swallow this book whole; it can be read piecemeal without any loss of context or continuity. Truth is, you're better off taking it bit by bit. It's as dense as a cheesecake, touching on many subjects over roughly two thousand years of history--so much good stuff, in fact, that I'm probably not doing this book justice in writing about it. But believe me, It's endlessly fascinating and lots of fun. A chapter of this book can cleanse your literary palette between novels or provide a diversion while riding the train to work or waiting for your plane to land. It's much more fun than the in-flight magazine.

A note on the digital edition: The lack of illustrations in the eBook edition is a bit unsettling, since the captions describing them remain, taunting and frustrating readers with the ghosts of rich and compelling images unseen. Project Gutenberg has done a great job of going back into their catalog to refurbish titles to make them play nice with today's eReader devices, often including complete texts with images. This book is a prime candidate for an overhaul. I want to see those pictures!

Next time, I'll get back to writing about novels.

Download Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds from Project Gutenberg