Author

Books by Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay (1814–1889) was a Scottish journalist, editor, and poet who spent most of his career in London working for major newspapers including the Illustrated London News. He was a prolific writer on popular history and social affairs. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, published in 1841, is by far his most enduring work and was largely neglected until it was rediscovered by financial writers in the twentieth century. Bernard Baruch's enthusiastic introduction to the 1932 reprint gave the book its modern reputation. Mackay's historical methods would not meet current scholarly standards, but his descriptive instincts proved prescient.