Rating: 
Summary: Very good history book
Review: I bought this book primarily for the chapters on financial delusions, the first 120 or so pages of 740 page book. The finacial manias are well covered, and provided very valuable historical information for anyone who owns any investmensts of any kind. The themes behind these delusions are very interesting, and you can see these problems repeating today. The rest of the book provides some very good historical information about various other manias. It was interesting, and I read most of the other chapters which were very interesting, but it is a 740 page book and I found myself skipping over portions of some of the later chapters. I really liked that this book was written over 160 years ago. It focused on parts of world history I did not know enough about and I am glad I own this now.
Rating:
Summary: Very good history book
Review: I bought this book primarily for the chapters on financial delusions, the first 120 or so pages of 740 page book. The finacial manias are well covered, and provided very valuable historical information for anyone who owns any investmensts of any kind. The themes behind these delusions are very interesting, and you can see these problems repeating today. The rest of the book provides some very good historical information about various other manias. It was interesting, and I read most of the other chapters which were very interesting, but it is a 740 page book and I found myself skipping over portions of some of the later chapters. I really liked that this book was written over 160 years ago. It focused on parts of world history I did not know enough about and I am glad I own this now.
Rating: 
Summary: VOL I, the 1980 Version is GREAT
Review: I have VOL I from a 1980 re-publication of Mackay's fantastic 1841 original. Would love to get VOL II. But, hey at less than twenty bucks you CAN'T go wrong even if Amazon only provides VOL I. It tells the story of some of the most amazing Mania's of time....man never learns; I expect a DOW 20,000 followed by a DOW 2000 and YOU can see it coming with just VOL I.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting to read...
Review: I picked up this book on the advice of a friend, and have been rewarded for reading it, though it has not been a painless task. It is a pretty challenging read. However, MacKay weaves many interesting historical yarns about various popular investment schemes and how they drove people into delusionary behavior. Some of the stories are amazing, and certainly humorous (for example "patents" being granted for a perpetual motion machine). This book is worth your money, but you're probably not going to read it straight through. It's probably a better "bathroom read"; a few pages at a time over many months.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the Average Reader
Review: I read a lot of history books and I am a big fan of books dealing with the history of science and economics. Yet, I could not bring myself to finish this gargantuan book. Before you buy this book be aware that it was written in 1841, and in my opinion it did not age very well. If you are a casual reader of history books, this book is probably not for you. Of the book's 740 pages, the first 100 or so deal with economic bubbles - these initial chapters are relatively engaging and easy to read. In comparison, the following 150 page are simply a LIST of famous alchemists, with a few brief anecdotes about each one. The other subjects covered later on, prophecies, fortunes telling etc. suffer from the same problem. The book contains no analysis, it merely offers a collection of anecdotes, some amusing some not. The book is written in archaic language, with Latin and French phrases interspersed throughout it. Occasionally, entire Latin paragraphs are used with no English translation. I read a lot, and this is the first book in many years that I was not able to finish. There is one positive thing I can say about this book: it is a fascinating example of 19th century writing. The approach to the subject matter, the narrative tone and the language used were very instructive and interesting for me. Nevertheless, I was only able to make it to page 323 before giving up. For the casual reader I would suggest more modern books on the topics covered. For example: Tulipomania by Mike Dash is a great book about the Tulip trade Bubble of 1636.
Rating:
Summary: Explaining Net Stock Mania
Review: If you want to know why eBay stock was valued at over $25 Billion when the company was only earning $2 million, read this book. If you want to know why America Online stock is valued at over $100 Billion when the company only has sales of $4 billion per year, read this book. If you want to know why someone bid $9 million for a Van Gogh on eBay, which was never verified as a Van Gogh, read this book. (Don't worry though, the bidder can't be found, so it never sold!) If you want to know why amazon.com stock traded at high as $221 a share, when the book value is only 48 cents a share and the company hasn't made a profit yet, READ THIS BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: Truly a classic!
Review: If you're into investing, sooner or later an investment columnist will mention Extraordinary Delusions as required reading. It's that and more... Charles Mackay first details France's Mississippi Scheme & England's South Sea Bubble (from the early 1700's). Then he covers the famous Dutch "tulipomania" of the 1600's. These are all enjoyable reports of financial manias and their aftermaths (though the South Sea Bubble chapter dragged on a bit). But the financial reader will be surprised when she realizes she's still only 100 pages into a 700 page book! Mackay proceeds to cover: Alchemy - 150 pages of exhaustive (& exhausting) detail of hobbyists & serious investors who were convinced they could turn base metals into gold, if only they could find the right ancient recipe & stoke their workshop cauldrons just a little bit hotter. The Crusades - 100 pages that prove that modern Islamic fundamentalists did not invent the idea of a "holy war". I had no idea the Crusades came out of official harassment of Y1K religious pilgrims! Remember this: If your country is being inundated with religious pilgrims, just try to think of them as a tourist opportunity. You don't want to get them angry! The Witch Mania - 100pp. This section was unexpectedly chilling. As I read about European witch trials of the 1400s-1600s, I kept thinking of our recent satanic child abuse trials. It's all been done before: The wild unprovable accusations, including eating dead babies; trusting unreliable witnesses specifically BECAUSE of the severity of the charges; False Memory Syndrome. At least the rack & Trial by Ordeal are no longer recognized as valid forensic techniques. The Slow Poisoners - Murder isn't really murder if you poison the victim slowly enough, is it? Also covered: Animal Magnetism, Prophecies, Fortune-Telling, Hair & beard fashions in men, catch phrases & slang, Relics, Duels & Ordeals, Haunted Houses, & Popular Admiration of Great Thieves. At times the book dragged, especially in the chapters I wasn't interested in. (But hey, that's what skimming is for.) So with that caveat, go ahead & get the book. It'll be a great investment of 12 bucks!
Rating:
Summary: Don't know why it has been revised so much
Review: It was boring so I stopped reading it
Rating:
Summary: This is the classic in the field and a must for your library
Review: Just check the stock price of the site you are on or some of the other internet based firms, then read about the south seas bubble and tulip bulb mania and you will understand the relevance of a book written in the 1840s to now.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read Classic
Review: Kenneth Fischer at Forbes Magazine turned me onto this book some years back, and I quickly gobbled it up over a weekend. It's great to discover "history" books about business and trends that reads like a beach novel alot of the time. While the stories are entertaining and instructive, they are mostly "ancient history" and sometimes difficult to draw parallels to. I try to focuss my time on reading books and materials that I can immediately use to enrich my life and enhance my bank ballance. This book does not provide the instant gratification many people will be looking for in those areas, but is a must-read for anyone interested in creating a comprehensive body of knowledge about the world and the history of making money.
Sincerely,
Clint Arthur
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