Extraordinary Popular Delusions

[Page 1] BIO Printable format for http://www.econlib.org/library/Mackay/macEx.html FAQ: Print Hints Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Mackay, Charles (1814-1889) TABLE OF CONTENTS Cover Table of Contents Prefaces 1. Money Mania.—The Mississippi Scheme 2. The South Sea Bubble 3. The Tulipomania 4. The Alchymists 5. Modern Prophecies 6. Fortune-Telling 7. The Magnetisers 8. Influence of Politics and Religion on the Hair and Beard 9. The Crusades 10. The Witch Mania 11. The Slow Poisoners 12. Haunted Houses 13. Popular Follies of Great Cities 14. Popular Admiration of Great Thieves 15. Duels and Ordeals 16. Relics Footnotes Return to top Copyright ©1999 Liberty Fund, Inc. All Rights Reserved Printable format for Mackay, Charles, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular ... http://www.econlib.org/cgi-bin/printarticle.pl 1 of 1 13/10/2008 17:30 [Page 2] BIO Printable format for http://www.econlib.org/library/Mackay/macEx1.html FAQ: Print Hints Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Mackay, Charles (1814-1889) PREFACE to the first edition THE OBJECT OF THE AUTHOR in the following pages has been to collect the most remarkable instances of those moral epidemics which have been excited, sometimes by one cause and sometimes by another, and to show how easily the masses have been led astray, and how imitative and gregarious men are, even in their infatuations and crimes. Some of the subjects introduced may be familiar to the reade