Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds: All Volumes - Complete and Unabridged Paperback – Unabridged, November 1, 2016

This book, written in the 1840s, has an incredible amount of relevance today. People haven't changed a bit throughout the past couple of millennia. The focus of their popular delusions and madness have simply moved on to different subjects. Whereas it used to be crusades to Palestine, witches, and alchemy, today it's climate change, transgenderism, masks, vaccines, etc. And investment bubbles still occur as they always have. The only problem I have with the book is its format. The pages are large (8 1/2 by 11), and the margins are very narrow so that the lines of text are very long. That makes it difficult for one's eyes to move from one line to the next without getting lost. A two-column format for a book this size would be a great improvement. Nevertheless, the subject matter is so engaging and entertaining, I have to give it all five stars.

Never underestimate the stupidity of people in large crowds. Reading this book examines the how and why of peoples reactions to situations that quickly spiral out of control.

The history set forth in these pages proves that nothing ever changes other than technology. Modern man is the same as he has always been. I first bought the Kindle edition and found it very interesting. However, I was somewhat disenchanted when I discovered that it was abridged and the chapters were scrambled. The Table of Contents in the Kindle version indicates 2 volumes but the paperback contains 3.I subsequently bought the paperback and compared the two. As it turned out, there was not that much missing. However, small as they may be, the editor made a poor decision to omit the preface, which explained a lot, to Volume I - National Delusions and to Volume III - Philosophical Delusions. Each of these was only one page so could have easily been included and added a lot to those two sections. Another inexplicable omission was The Love of the Marvelous and the Disbelief of the True, which pertains to mankind’s willingness to deceive himself by swallowing the outrageous and refusing to accept fact and logic.If you choose the Kindle version, the following provides the correct arrangement and listing of the Volumes and chapters as found in the unabridged version:Volume I - National Delusions (missing in the Kindle version)The Mississippi SchemeThe South Sea BubbleThe TulipomaniaRelicsModern PropheciesPopular Admiration for Great ThievesInfluence of Politics and Religion on the Hair and BeardDuels and OrdealsThe Love of the Marvellous and the Disbelief of the True (missing in the Kindle version)Popular Follies in Great CitiesThe O.P. Mania (O.P. And Thugs are missing in the Kindle but you probably won’t care.)The Thugs, or PhansigarsVolume IIThe CrusadesThe Witch ManiaThe Slow PoisonersHaunted HousesVolume III - Philosophical Delusions (missing in the Kindle version)Book I - The AlchymistsPart I - History of Alchymy From the Earliest Periods to the 15th CenturyPart II - Progress of the Infatuation During the 16th and 17th CenturiesBook II - Fortune TellingBook III - The Magnetisers

It is no wonder that this is required reading for classes in modern capitalist economics. The history is breathtaking. The problem I have is with this version's formatting. It has very large pages with long lines that are sometimes hard to follow. Not a bedtime book format. Also there are significant typos, that while not interfering with comprehension, have no place in the reprint of a book that is 180 years old, e.g. "hill" instead of "bill" and "ease" instead of "case".

Terrific

This book provides an interesting account of various times in history when unfounded popular delusions have swept through the populace, and in that respect, it is useful in evaluating current popular ideas. Many of the examples, however, are documented in excruciating detail, which is unnecessary to illustrate the point.

I read this when studying Finance decades ago and found it again and reread it.It makes more sense than ever and completely elucidates the madness everyone lived through from 2020-2022 in the financial markets.One day, there will be another edition of this book, or a future version, and they'll talk about people buying pictures of apes, hoping to go "to the moon" on sh1#coins based on advice from teenagers on tiktok. All of these phenomenons are and were nothing new at all, they have happened over and over again. The same FOMO that caused people to gamble their entire life savings on poorly understood concepts they barely learned about were the same thought patterns that caused people to lose all their guilders or francs hundreds of years ago in various other manias.

I saw this book and thought it is relevant to today’s day and age. The author writes the accounts not in a dry, textbook day and date perspective, in more in an eloquent novel like approach, which holds the readers interest throughout. Excellent vocabulary within the book, your mind will be enriched by it.Bottom line to me; Solomon said " there is nothing new under the sun" and we see that played out throughout the centuries right to the modern day superstitions and ignorance in persecutions, based upon the human heart and mind ( or lack thereof).