Rating: 
Summary: Read it
Review: How can one justify the current market valuations of money-losing Internet ventures, and even of some 'blue-chips' trading at 50+ times earnings? One would be surprised to find some of the most eye-opening answers to this question in the investing behavior of ancient Romans, 17th century Dutch, Victorian Englishmen and Gilded Age Americans. That's why this book is excellent reading for those who believe human nature is remarkably uniform when it comes to greed and financial speculation. On the negative side, the author sounds too 'opinionated' sometimes, as when he implies that the recent rebirth of classic economic thought and monetarism serve merely as intellectual "window-dressing" for a wave of perverse speculation. Were it not for this minor fault, I would certainly rate it a 5-star book. Read it and enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book
Review: I agree with the many positive reviewers here. A superb finance book, and essential reading for any serious investor.
Rating: 
Summary: Devil take this book!
Review: I bought this book because it was on the NY times recommended list and I wanted to review investment history that paralleled the technology surge in the marketplace over the past 5+ years. I can't believe anyone at the Times actually read the book because it does not deliver anything of any interest or value. It is written in a stiff academic style. The substance of which talks about investment exuberance by speculators endlessly and without point. As an example in the 1840's chapter on British Rail mania he quotes over and over again famous people who had nothing to do with the technology, and excerpts from newspapers which talk of this over exuberance. However nothing insightful is written in the way of analysis or the formulation of any kind of synthesis of the material. In the same chapter he spends a third of it describing the rise and fall of the individual who had the greatest financial gain resulting from the excess. But from the year 2000 I could care less to read about someone who got wealthy and then bankrupted over this financial bubble (in dry academic prose no less). In the end I would not recommend the book to anyone for any reason. It does not even titillate with the newspapers excerpts or quotes from the Bronte sisters. Devil take this Book!
Rating:
Summary: Timely & Insightful
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. Chancellor was able to shine some new light on many well discussed topics. The book is well written & researched, the footnotes alone would make for an interesting read. Full of trivia, factoids & other amusing mishaps. For those interested in general finacial history, speculation included, look at Charles Geisst's book, "Wall Street: A History".Timely, insightful & entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, thought-provoking look at financial euphoria.
Review: I will admit, from the beginning, that I am bearish about the current stock market and tend to think that we are in the midst of a bubble which could burst any day now. Nevertheless, while Edward Chancellor's book reaffirms many of my beliefs, it will prove to be equally interesting reading for those who are wholly optimistic about the current state of the stock market. This book provides a comprehensive and fascinating history of stock market speculation from its earliest days. Prior to reading this book, I had a vague knowledge of events such as the "Tulip Bubble" and the "South Sea Bubble" but Chancellor discusses these in fascinating detail, consistently using modern techniques of economic analysis which the reader can then apply to draw their own conclusions about today's financial status quo. Chancellor looks at arguments raised on all sides of academia about the role of stock market speculation to overall economic well-being. This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a book which aims to promote one single view - while trying to persuade readers gently that we currently find ourselves in a period of financial excess, the author leaves readers to make up their own minds. Some people may find some of the author's discussions slightly too technical and I did approach this book from a background of fairly deep knowledge of economic theory and the financial world. Nevertheless, even for the novice, certain technical arguments will not completely overwhelm the interesting subject matter of this book. I would consider this book essential reading for anyone who is involved in the stock market today - not as a warning of things to come but only to reinforce the notion that those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Job
Review: I will say nothing on the subject matter of the book (speculation manias) as all I might have wanted to say has been already said(I've read all reviews). This is what I want to add:
This is one of the best written books out there. I mean in terms of quality of the job done by a book's author regardless of a book's subject. It seems to be labour of love and reads extremely well. A thought that came to my mind while reading (and than checking that there is no other book by this author on Amazon): if only non-fiction writers restricted themselves to 1-2 books per life, going for total value and quality control rather than quantity, for the essence of what they have to share, well - both them and us would be better off in the long run.
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Summary: Buy it or borrow it from someone!
Review: If you are investing, and you HAVEN'T read this book, you deserve to lose your shirt. It's THAT good. I've read "Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" but this is a much easier read and more relevant to today's markets.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting quotes, weak theory
Review: If you want a lot of well-selected quotes covering the history of financial speculations, this is a good book. But if you want a postive story about the historical development of finance and how speculators carry new developments to an extreme, then I would suggest Money, Greed, and Risk by Charles R. Morris. I read Morris' book before this one, and found this relatively disappointing. I have no connection with either author.
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Summary: Chancellor Delivers Some Deceptively Simple Truths
Review: In the preface, Chancellor begins this interesting and absorbing narrative on financial foolishness throughout the ages by saying that it is human nature to barter, trade and divine (predict) the future, and that these three activities comprise the fundamental essence of speculation. Granted, speculation also has other requirements, such as the willingness to gamble, suspend logic and rational thinking, leverage oneself up to one'fs eyeballs in the hope of inflating potential (capital) gains, and most critically, the compunction to engage in questionable and/or fraudulent behavior for the purpose of taking from the many and giving to the few. Simply stated, Chancellor'fs position is this: there is really nothing new in this speculative behavior. There is a considerable historical precedent for it. Indeed, there is a regular pattern to these speculative events, which are cyclical in nature and come around every ten or twenty years or so. There is always a bubble associated with something- be it a commodity or an industry or a technology, somewhere in the world. The pattern of the behavior is almost always the same. Furthermore, it is never the case that it is different this time around; only the object of the mania differs. Chancellor delivers one deceptively simple, yet critical lesson: history does indeed repeat itself, with shocking regularity and predictability. In support of this premise and his main thesis, he presents a select few cases, each brilliantly researched, from the Roman Age to the present day. He also presents the opposing view to his own and successfully skewers it with clever insight and a preponderance of historical anecdotes. Chancellor ends the book with a chapter devoted to wrestling with this single question: Should the speculator be locked up, or given carte blanche? In his mind, the key roles of a speculator are to first and foremost allocate capital via redistribution of existing wealth, and second, to assume pre-existing risks. Beyond this, the speculator potentially plays a very destructive role, and it is a mistake to think that speculators create wealth. Although the activity of speculation has demonstrated its ability to influence and engender far-reaching consequences, those who engage in it and those who observe and monitor it can not agree on a commonly accepted definition. Financial speculation is conventionally defined as an attempt to profit from changes in market price. However, the dictionary defines speculation as any reflection, reasoning, theorizing or thinking that lacks a firm factual basis. The layperson continuously confuses the speculative activity with investment, and the financial industry has been said (and not without considerable reason) to abet and facilitate this long-standing confusion among consumers. After reading this book, not only do I know what to look for when it comes to bubbles, I also can almost tell which technological innovations will become the next infatuation for the speculators of the future. I have noticed, however, that with each and every cycle of speculation, more and more people participate, with the number of participants being greatest in the latest pass of the speculative mania, which, by the way, went truly global at the close of the 20th century. Innovations in technology, such as the internet, only make it easier for people to participate. Over the course of reading this book, it was not (and still is not) quite clear to me whether or not most people who participate in modern financial markets, from the consumers of the various financial products to the financial 'eprofessionals'f who wield them, actually know what they are doing. Frankly, as I really can not distinguish between stock buying, financial speculation and gambling, after reading this book I have come to regard them all as the same activity. For those looking for history, there are better books. I strongly suggest that interested readers stick to period-specific texts, rather than long, sweeping tomes on the topic of financial speculation that really can not fully explain any one event, period or topic in great detail. For those looking for the underlying market psychology, there are better books. Unfortunately, few if any books on the market do an adequate job of analyzing and explaining this interesting and thoroughly engrossing topic. Finally, for those who have an interest in the topic, and would like to whet their appetites, this is an adequate book which manages to be dead-pan, informative, and at times humorous and witty. In fact, it is the perfect text on the subject of financial speculation and its historical context for the curious but time- pressed financial novice. In the end, when it comes to participatin in our modern financial markets, one would do very well to heed this trite little bit of Latin: caveat emptor- Buyer Beware.
Rating:
Summary: Macro Perspective...Micro Analysis
Review: It is helpful to our understanding of financial speculation early in the 21st century to view it within an historical framework. Chancellor provides such a framework and more...much more. In the the initial chapter ("The Bubble World"), he explains the origins of financial speculation and then shifts his attention to a series of famous (sometimes infamous) situations throughout three centuries. As Chancellor explains, "I concentrate on occurrences of speculation in the leading economic powers of the day, from the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century to Japan in the 1980s, interspersed with the occasional look at speculation in the present day. I believe that speculation can only be understood within a social context and that a history of speculation cannot simply be a description of economic affairs but must also be something of a social history." Joel Mokyr has a similar objective in The Lever of Riches in which he examines various interrelationships between technological creativity and economic progress since classical antiquity. Both he and Chancellor present information and develop their ideas within what could be called an "historical infrastructure." They succeed admirably. In Chapter 7, as Chancellor concludes his examination of "The Gilded Age", he quotes the American economist H.C. Emory who wrote that "whereas gambling consists in placing money on artificially created risks of some fortuitous event, speculation consists in assuming the inevitable risks of changes in value." For Chancellor, speculation in the late-nineteenth century "brought more harm than good and transferred property from the hands of the many into the pockets of the few." This is also a useful perspective on the subsequent "Crash" of 1929 and thereafter, a volatile period which Chancellor also analyzes with eloquence as well as insight. It is an even more useful perspective on the economy of a country such as Russia in the early-21st century. As Chancellor correctly points out in the Epilogue, "The issue of speculation in emerging markets and the unfettered trade in foreign currencies is the most immediate and vexing problem faced by policymakers." For me, Devil Take the Hindmost is an absolutely indispensable guide to more than three centuries of stock market speculation. He focuses on a broad range of speculators (eg Del Defoe, Benjamin Disraeli, Jay Gould, Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, and Hilary Rodham Clinton); in process, he suggests that the primary motives which drive these and other speculators are far more complicated than many of us (I at least) had assumed...and, as often as not, these morives reflect "the national character" of the country in which a speculator succeeds or fails.
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