Thorstein Veblen
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Thorstein Bunde Veblen was an American economist and sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known critic of capitalism. In his best-known book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen
Veblen 3a
The Thorstein Veblen Farmstead in 2014
The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions, by Thorstein Veblen, is a treatise of economics and sociology, and a critique of conspicuous consumption as a function of social cla
Thorstein Veblen
…3, 1929) was an American economist and sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known critic of capitalism. In his best-known book, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Veblen coined the concepts of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure. Veblen laid the foundation for the perspective of institutional…
Title page of the first edition
In a stratified society, the profession of arms (military officer) is a leisure-class occupation.
Manufacturing is an economically productive occupation for skilled-labor worker in a stratified society. (Un patron, by Jean-Eugène Buland, 1888)
Conspicuous leisure: The devout observance of religious ritual is an activity for the leisure-class woman. (L'offrande, by Jean-Eugène Buland, 1885)