Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.

MACKAY, Charles.

$13,500.00

Item Number: 129387

London: Richard Bentley, 1841.

First edition of this classic study of crowd psychology, a compilation of human folly throughout the ages. Octavo, three volumes, illustrated. Bound in three quarter calf over marbled boards, gilt titles to the spine, raised bands. With an autographed letter signed by Charles MacKay in 1867 laid in. In near fine condition with light rubbing to the extremities.

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is divided into three broad categories, including 'National Delusions,' 'Peculiar Follies,' and 'Philosophical Delusions.' The author discusses a wide variety of subjects and events, which include economic bubbles like the tulip craze of Holland in 1637 and the Mississippi Company financial bubble of 1719; alchemy, which was of particular interest to individuals who wanted to create gold out of lesser-valued materials; the Crusades, also known as the Middle Ages mania; witch hunts, the persecution of thousands of innocent victims that arose from either supernatural ill fortune or neighbors with a score to settle; duels; the political and religious influence on beards; and several others. The impact of Mackay’s work has been remarkably far-reaching, influencing such fields as popular psychology and the stock market— as noted by The New York Times, wrote: "Any investor who has not read Charles Mackay’s "Tulipomania," from his classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions, first published in 1841, should grab this book for that exercise alone."