Mackay, Charles. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions. First Edition. Volumes 1 & 2 bound together in one volume. London, Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1841. 21 x 13 cm. Vol.1: vi, (2) [TOC], 400 pages . Vol. 2: (2) [TOC], 406 pages. Each volume with a tissue guarded Frontispiece. Polished dark calf with elaborate gilt and blind decorations to boards and spine. All edges gilt. Marbled end papers. See images. Very good condition. Binding mildly rubbed and bumped. Spine label appears to be missing. Ex Libris of previous owner on front paste down. Small bookbinder label (‘C.C. Wetton, Bookbinder, Egham’) on front paste down. Name of a previous owner in ink on top of Frontispiece of volume 1. Occasional mild foxing, mainly to first and last few pages. Internally bright and clean. A very nice copy, in an attractive leather binding. See images.

Contents of Volume 1 [National Delusions]:
The Mississippi Scheme
The South Sea Bubble
The Tulip Mania
Relics
Modern Prophecies
Popular Admiration for Great Thieves
Influence of Politics and Religion on the Hair and Beard
Duels and Ordeals
The Love of the Marvellous and the Disbelief of the True
Popular Follies in Great Cities
Old Price Riots
The Thugs, or Phansigars

Contents of Volume 2 [Peculiar Follies]:

The Crusades
The Witch Mania
The Slow Poisoners
Haunted Houses

First edition of this highly entertaining and exceptionally influential early study of crowd behavior, a long-standing and classic guide to both popular psychology and the stock market.Charles Mackay, a noted Scottish poet and journalist, attempted in this work to document and explain major “popular delusions” or seemingly irrational instances of mass action and belief. “Men,” the author contends, “think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds.” In developing his theories of mass behavior, Mackay analyzes a breadth of historical examples ranging from witch hunts, alchemists, and famous haunted houses to the South Sea Bubble of 1720 and the Crusades. The impact of Mackay’s work has been remarkably far-reaching, influencing such diverse fields as popular psychology and the charting of the stock market as noted by The New York Times, which urged: “Any investor who has not read Charles Mackay’s ‘Tulipomania,’ from his classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions, first published in 1841, should grab this book for that exercise alone.” With a frontispiece in both volumes. Volume 1 without half titles. Norman 1406. Kress C.5560.

• Keywords: Classical & Old Literature · Economics · Economics & Social Sciences · Fine Bindings & Editions · Fine Bindings & Editions · History · History & Culture · Magic · Occult · Philosophy · Psychology & Psychoanalysis
• Language: English
• First edition
• Inventory Number: 103866AB

Our price: EUR 1.500,--