The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (Great Minds Series)
Author: Thorstein Veblen
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ISBN: 1573922196
Publisher: Prometheus Books (June, 1998)
Sales Rank: 197,238
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
Like Butter, Baby
Sad to say, the Dover durables of midcentury and beyond are gone (if not forgotten); but when this value-price line was introduced in the mid-'90s, this book in particular was very welcome. Herein (though not exclusively) we find Veblen supplying an alternative to Nietzsche, specifically *Beyond Good and Evil*. This is a book about morals, or the lack of them; but coming from a man who all-but-assaulted his estranged wife with "notions" one ought not to expect a rousing defense of bourgeois morality. Rather an unstinting defense of some other way of life (such as is provided in his impossibly rare *Instinct of Workmanship*) what we have here is a Grand-Guignol treatment of the "life-lie" Veblen calls conspicuous consumption, which just might happen to exclude Symbolist "vitalism" (and as to the provenance of the concept "dolicho-blond", consult Veblen's essay on the American small town). One of Marx's more assiduous Edwardian readers, such that people who can stand to consider social life in widest compass can stand to plunk down three dollars for this (rather fragile) volume.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Vanitas, vanitatis!!
Mr. Veblen is a refined person in the use of the words he uses to address and explain the economic habits of the refined people of the upper-class of the beginning of the last century. He spares no expenses in detailing in a very polite manner the idiossincracies of the noble and very rich when deciding what to buy, what to use and how to behave, going also to all lenghts explainning how these habits mold and form the habits of the not so rich and noble strata of the society. His theory of the leisure class reachs significance when compared to the rationality which some economists, classics and neo-classics, ascribe to the human being as an economic agent. I was quite surprised by the elegant style of Mr.Veblen and the fine irony (which he does not admit) with which he treats the rich and noble of his time. Sure, this is a book which could be also serve well times ahead and before Veblen's time.
Rating: 5 out of 5
VERY FRESH 100 YEARS OLD BOOK
This opus by Veblen exposes the real meaning of the pecuniary advancement of the working and merchant classes, and the formation of elites based mostly upon money and asset valuation. The transfiguration of the traditional social and individual ethical values that this phenomenon produced, is portraited with clarity and sarcastic intelligence by the author in the book, first published in 1899.
Now a classic of economic theory, as well as a text book of social science, it describes the tendencies of consumerism, leisure and the "materialization" of the ideals of the aspiring new princes (or noveau rich) of society. Veblen's vibrant satire of the tendency of the modern individual to believe that real accomplishment is all about aquiring a condition of ostentatious wealth and status, and his analisis of the inception of modern class structure in America, still stand, a century after, as recommended reading for historians and economists.
If you are a fervent follower of advertisement, fashion, "glamour" and other modern expressions of consumerism , then you will find a surprisingly fresh portrait of yourself in this book. It worries me that the leisure class and its shallow views and values as described by Veblen, may still today represent elites in America and their religion, as analyzed by professor Lash in his last book "The Revolt of the Elites". I highly recommend Veblen's best book, to scholars and sociologists at large. Similar Products
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