Free: Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds eBook [Kindle Edition]

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thecraw on 08/02/2015 - 13:10 amazon.com (415 clicks)
Last edited 08/02/2015 - 13:15 by 1 other user

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AMAZON REVIEW

Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? Why do financially sensible people jump lemming-like into hare-brained speculative frenzies—only to jump broker-like out of windows when their fantasies dissolve? We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and over-valued high-tech stocks of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but Mackay's classic—first published in 1841—shows that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds. These are extraordinarily illuminating,and, unfortunately, entertaining tales of chicanery, greed and naivete. Essential reading for any student of human nature or the transmission of ideas.

In fact, cases such as Tulipomania in 1624—when Tulip bulbs traded at a higher price than gold—suggest the existence of what I would dub "Mackay's Law of Mass Action:" when it comes to the effect of social behavior on the intelligence of individuals, 1+1 is often less than 2, and sometimes considerably less than 0.

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  quarrymaster on 08/02/2015 - 13:32

  Kinda ironic the book got so many positive reviews. Or not.

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  INFIDEL on 08/02/2015 - 13:46

  An interesting subject area (often covered in first year Psychology, and possibly economics), and the price is right ;-)

  Gave this deal a + for the subject matter, not for this sample of the book. Full book is free on public domain.

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  INFIDEL on 08/02/2015 - 13:47

  There are 6 versions of this book by the same author on Amazon. The original was "Mackay's classic—first published in 1841".

  According to a 1 star review of this ebook - it is an abridged version, covering economics, and only 1/7th of original.

  Still can read this & upgrade to full paid version later if you find it interesting.

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    jong on 08/02/2015 - 17:00

    According to a 1 star review of this ebook….

    I don't think it's this edition; this one is 402 pages, and the version digitized from Harvard's library is only 341 images (pages).

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      INFIDEL on 08/02/2015 - 17:32

      You can tell I haven't read it, but have it waiting in the Cloud… (I have studied some of the cases).

      I will read this book… someday.
      So hope you are correct & the reviewer wrong!

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  Merlict on 08/02/2015 - 14:06

  +1

  Giving away books that are freely available / public domain in your choice of formats elsewhere isn't much of a bargain.

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    jong on 08/02/2015 - 17:03

    +2

    Yeah, Project Gutenberg have it for free, in just about every electronic format, including links to store it straight into your Dropbox/Google Drive.

    If you want to read it on your PC, Kobo, random yum-cha e-reader, this is where to get it from.

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  dreamerman on 08/02/2015 - 15:28

  Must read for stock traders.

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    bargaino on 08/02/2015 - 16:31

    And real estate investors.

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      INFIDEL on 08/02/2015 - 17:34

      +1

      And 1624 tulip sellers.

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  rygle on 10/02/2015 - 21:54

  Why do perfectly sane people amass hundreds of free amazon ebooks that they are never going to read?

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    INFIDEL on 11/02/2015 - 00:12

    If you are comparing the behavior of OzBargainers with say Dutch tulip hoarders, OzBargainers are an interesting breed. But the tulip owners were doing it as an investment, assuming they would sell at a profit.

    This is one of the few I will read.