Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
	Front page of the original 1841 edition
Author	Charles Mackay
Language	English
Subjects	Crowd psychology, economic bubbles, history
Publisher	Richard Bentley, London
Publication date	1841
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print

"Night wind hawkers" sold stock on the streets during the South Sea Bubble. (*The Great Picture of Folly*, 1720)

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.^[1] The book was published in three volumes: "National Delusions", "Peculiar Follies", and "Philosophical Delusions".^[2] 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.^[3]

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".^[4]^[5]

^ 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.
^ Mackay, Charles (1841). Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Archived from the original on 23 June 2004. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
^ Lewis, Michael (2008). The Real Price of Everything.
^ 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.
^ Odyyzko, Andrew (2012). Charles Mackay's own extraordinary popular delusions and the Railway Mania (PDF). p. 2.

[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.

[lewis-3] Lewis, Michael (2008). The Real Price of Everything.

[4] 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.

[5] Odyyzko, Andrew (2012). Charles Mackay's own extraordinary popular delusions and the Railway Mania (PDF). p. 2.

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