Great Mirror of Folly

Finance, Culture, and the Crash of 1720

Goetzmann William N., Labio Catherine, Rouwenhorst K. Geert, Young Timothy G., Shiller Robert J.

The world's first global stock market bubble suddenly burst in 1720, destroying the dreams and fortunes of speculators in London, Paris and Amsterdam virtually overnight. Their folly and misfortune inspired the publication of an extraordinary Dutch collection of satirical prints, plays, poetry, commentary and financial prospectuses entitled "Het groote Tafereel de Dwaasheid" ("The Great Mirror of Folly"), a unique and lavish record of the financial crisis and its cultural dimensions. The current book adopts the title. It is a book a bout the book, a wide-ranging interdisciplinary collaboration that uncovers the meaning and influence of the Tafereel and the profound, lasting and multifaceted impact of the crash of 1720 on European cultures and financial markets.

About the Author

William N. Goetzmann is the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management at the Yale School of Management.

Catherine Labio is associate professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder.

K. Geert Rouwenhorst is Robert B. & Candice J. Haas Professor of Corporate Finance at the Yale School of Management.

Timothy G. Young is curator of modern books and manuscripts at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.

Reviews

"Will we ever grasp that a dynamic society sometimes flops? Judging from this ravishing display of financial folly from three centuries ago, and the illuminating modern commentary, it doesn't look like it" – Deirdre N. McCloskey, author of "Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World" (2010)

Back to the list of books