Edward Chancellor's "Devil Take The Hindmost" should be required reading for all stock market investors. For the last 400 years, stock markets the world over have intermmittently gone from boom to bust. The amazing thing about these cycles is how similar each is to those preceding it. For example, the 1990's "bubble" economy was very similar to the 1920's bubble economy. In other words, we just don't seem to learn our lessons very well.

This book is a historical analysis which summarizes the effects of speculation on economies throughout recent history. No particular speculative event is given more emphasis than the others.

Excellent book about financial speculation. A bit sobering, given the fact that the recent internet bubble burst was not the first of it's kind and probably won't be the last. This book offers as much history of business and commerce as it does speculation. The second half of the book, which focuses mostly on American speculation (railroads, the great depression, etc) is much more entertaining than the first half which explains European speculation and is a little harder to relate to.

For anyone serious about being an active participant in any market (stocks, real estate, anything!) this should be a pre-requisite. My favorite quote: "The four most expensive words in the English language are 'This Time It's Different'"

Best finance book that I have ever read. It walks through the history of speculation & the development of the different financial instruments (stocks, derivatives, etc..) Chancellor does a great job in both giving a historical perspective on the financial manias that have occurred and extrapolating out the common characteristics of what created the mania and deflated it. With a lot of evidence, he builds a very compelling case to question the commonly held belief that financial markets are both efficient and rational. Definitely worth a read.