Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

When Harriman House announced the publication of the “definitive edition” of Charles Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, I wondered what made it stand out from all the other editions of this classic work. I don’t have the definitive answer myself, but I can say that, unlike many other versions, this one is complete. It contains not just the first three chapters, the ones dealing most directly with markets, but the full 15 chapters. Thus you can learn not only about money mania, the South-Sea bubble, and tulipomania, but about, among other things, modern prophecies, the influence of politics and religion on the hair and beard, the witch mania, haunted houses, popular admiration of great thieves, and duels and ordeals.

When I first read the abbreviated version, I thought I had absorbed everything Mackay had written that was relevant to the phenomenon of manias today. But, as Russell Napier notes in his preface to this new edition, “Not only has the world shown no signs of being immune to the errors within this book almost 180 years on, there are a number of trends today that make it even more pressing. The theme that runs through Mackay’s catalogue of follies is a search by reasonable people for an answer to uncertainty—sometimes, if necessary, by disregarding reason.”

Some of the things Mackay wrote about no longer seem especially relevant, although Donald Trump’s preoccupation with the phrase “witch hunt” might belie this point. Still, even though the specific delusions may change, the phenomenon of the madness of crowds remains in full force. And with social media, it may be even greater than it was in Mackay’s time, which makes his classic a must-read book in 2019.