Devil Take the Hindmost
by Edward Chancellor · first published 1999
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Traces the history of financial speculation from tulip mania through the South Sea and dotcom bubbles, covering a broad sweep of manias and crashes for readers interested in market bubbles and financial history.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Many modern economists hold that speculation is a benign economic activity, that it is always rational in motivation and rarely adverse in its effects. The struggles of the United States after the Crash of 1929 and of Japan in the 1990s suggest otherwise. Some commentators, the billionaire financier George Soros among them, believe that growing speculative forces threaten a global financial crisis."--BOOK JACKET. "Devil Take the Hindmost is an original and challenging history of stock-market speculation from the seventeenth century to the present day. Through vivid accounts of the speculati
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1) Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor Everything from the tulip craze to the dotcom boom. 2) If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look On My Face? by Alan Alda Alan Alda of MASH…
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗…Rational Investing in Irrational Times: How to Avoid the Costly Mistakes Even Smart People Make Today - by Larry Swedroe Financial History # Against the Gods and Capital Ideas - by Peter L. Bernstein # Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation - by Edward Chancellor # A Random Walk Down Wall Street - by Burton Malkiel Like others here have mentioned, http://www.bogleheads.org/ is a great forum for Vanguard…
on “Ask HN: Best books/source to learn about investing?” ↗The Devil Take the Hindmost http://www.amazon.com/Devil-Take-Hindmost-Financial-Speculat...
on “Bitcoin HITS $400” ↗…college, surviving through the dot-com boom and bust, through the housing bubble and bust, the financial crisis, etc. In addition, I've read spent a lot of time reading about it, my favorite book being "Devil Take the Hindmost" by Edward Chancellor. It talks about all of the largest bubbles in the past few hundred years. Whenever people say "This time it's different", it never is. BTC is a bubble. But I don't admonish anyone…
…Fluctuations" and "Margin of Safety"): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060555661 * "Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion," by Robert Cialdini: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688128165 Also: * "Devil Take the Hindmost," by Edward Chancellor: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0452281806 * "A Short History of Financial Euphoria," by John Kenneth Galbraith: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140238565 * "Extraordinary Popular Delusions…
on “Ask HN: Non-tech books that have helped you grow professionally?” ↗…https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521457386/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_i-... Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, Seventh Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017J5HBMS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_r.pw... Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation https://www.amazon.com/dp/0452281806/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.a... A History of Interest Rates, Fourth Edition (Wiley Finance) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0471732834/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_-c...…
on “The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business” ↗> Nothing was learned about the 80s, or the 90s, or the 00s (or or or ad infinitum). See the book Devil take the hindmost: a history of financial speculation by Edward Chancellor: * https://bookshop.org/p/books/devil-take-the-hindmost-a-histo... * https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/91360 Starts with 1600s Tulip mania…
on “The end of founder worship, and a reset of toxic startup values” ↗If you want a great book on the history of financial speculation, Devil Take the Hindmost (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0452281806/) is a strong recommendation.
on “Claim: GPT-5-pro can prove new interesting mathematics” ↗They definitely can end up in the streets. Some of the wealthiest people suffered the most during past crashes, most killed themselves before taking the streets. Read Devil Take the Hindmost. Edit: I’m not going to search through this book to find sources that fit some criteria you’re looking for. Get off HN comments, read a book, and learn some financial history lessons.
on “Wall Street’s Latest Love Affair with Risky Repackaged Debt” ↗This has to be one of the most backwards comments I’ve read on HN. Read Devil Take the Hindmost and educate yourself. The wealthiest people in modern history lost the most and some drove themselves to absolute poverty. Many couldn’t even mentally handle the extreme quality of life change so they…
on “Wall Street’s Latest Love Affair with Risky Repackaged Debt” ↗If you find this amusing, you should read the book "devil take the hindmost," particularly the section on the south sea bubble. Tldr: in the south sea bubble it did eventually lead to a stackoverflow
on “Google Will Eat Itself” ↗…was published in 1992 and thus gives a more closer point of view. The author believed there was an imminent and abrupt price correction, it turn out to be worse and drawn out over decades. Secondly, "Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation", published in 2000. The part about Japan's bubble was more concise than the "The Bubble Economy" and has some bits the first missed. One of the best things about…
on “Japan brings negative interest rates era to an end with first hike in 17 years” ↗I read "Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation" last year, and the current AI bubble is like getting a front row seat to the next edition being written. The really stupid bubbles end up getting themselves metastasized…
on “The AI boom is causing shortages everywhere else” ↗The railroad bubble and the dotcom bubble feature prominently as disastrous misallocations of capital in one of my favorite books: "Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation." Pitching AI as in the same vein is a very dark prognostication. As in, probably going to cause a wreck so bad we won't see breakeven in our lifetimes. The railroad…
on “Hetzner Price Adjustment (June 15th, 2026)” ↗there are at least three books on this period, Lefevre, E. (2004). Reminiscences of a stock operator (Vol. 175). John Wiley & Sons. Kramer, C. (2000). " Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation" by Edward Chancellor (Book Review). Finance and Development, 37(1), 53. Mackay, C. (2012). Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds. Simon and Schuster.
on “I'm reading the FT and WSJ from 100 years ago each week leading to 1929” ↗