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ENORMOUSLY INFLUENTIAL ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SCIENCE CLASSIC 

MACKAY, CHARLES.

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds.”

"Every age has its peculiar folly- some scheme, project, or phantasy into which it plunges, spurred on either by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation. Failing in these, it has some madness, to which it is goaded by political or religious causes, or both combined.”

RARE FIRST EDITION of Charles MacKay's classic study of mass behavior. Generally considered the most important book on market psychology, its vast influence extends to such diverse disciplines as stock market analysis and religious studies.

"There are fewer than a dozen books written more than a century ago that could be called classics of the social sciences. Charles Mackay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is one of them, and it is probably the oldest. First published in 1841, Mackay's work... has probably never been long out of print in the past one hundred fifty years. The book includes quite a cast of characters: ghost hunters, alchemists, prophets, economic speculators, witches, crusaders, and faith healers, among others, all hold center stage in what amounts to a catalogue of beliefs gone awry and mass behaviors turned goofy (if not dangerous)... The range of topics Mackay covers is wide and in some cases deep. One reason Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds has become such a classic is that irrational behavior has never been in short supply, and modern examples of crazes, speculative bubbles, and mass hysteria continue to amuse, frustrate, and provoke us today" (David J. Schneider).

London: Richard Bentley, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty, 1841. Octavo, late nineteenth/early twentieth-century three quarter morocco over marbled boards, raised bands, marbled endpapers. Three volumes.  Some foxing to frontispieces, title pages with some foxing and a little offsetting (from frontispieces). Text generally very clean with only occasional light foxing. A beautiful set. RARE. $5400.