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In this scathing book, the author produced a landmark study of affluent American society that exposes, with brilliant ruthlessness, the habits of ...Show synopsisIn this scathing book, the author produced a landmark study of affluent American society that exposes, with brilliant ruthlessness, the habits of production and waste that link invidious business tactics and barbaric social behavior. Veblen's analysis of the evolutionary process sees greed as the overriding motive in the modern economy, and with an impartial gaze he examines the human cost paid when social institutions exploit the consumption of inessential goods for the sake of personal profit. Fashion, beauty, animals, sports, the home, the clergy, scholars--all are assessed for their true usefulness and found wanting. Indeed, this critique covers all aspects of modern life from dress, class, the position of women, home decoration, industry, business, and sport, to religion, scholarship, and education.Hide synopsis
Description:Fair. Sticker mark on back cover, used book sticker on spine,...Fair. Sticker mark on back cover, used book sticker on spine, rubbing and reading bends to front and back covers, . Book is well read but remains a good reading copy with all of the pages and binding intact. The spine has bends and the cover has wear from readin.
Description:Very Good. Bright & presentable, but some flaws: rear hinge...Very Good. Bright & presentable, but some flaws: rear hinge crack, webbing showing; front hinge partly cracked; 1948 inscription on front endpaper, small owner's name on right endpaper corner; small wear on cloth spine ends & 3 small spots on front cloth; p. 75 has a red stamp across the text "Balderdash." Evidently the owner disagreed with the argument on this page! ; Dark green cloth, top edge gilt, ads in rear; scans available on request; 8vo 8"-9" tall; 400 pages.
Description:An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions. "One Of The...An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions. "One Of The Most Provocative Books Written By An American Intellectual": First Edition Of Veblen's Landmark Theory Of The Leisure Class VEBLEN, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class. An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1899. First edition of the author's first book and one of the masterpieces of American social thought and economic theory. Octavo (7 1/2 x 5 3/16 inches; 190 x 131 mm). viii, 400, [2, publisher's ads], [2, blank] pp. Original dark green cloth. Spine lettered and ruled in gilt. Front board ruled in blind. Top edge gilt, others uncut. A bit of soiling and rubbing to the cloth of front and back boards. A ring spot on back board. Spine slightly darkened. Head and tail of the spine with some minor shelf wear. Overall a very good copy. Housed in a full green morocco clamshell. "Almost a century after its original publication, Thorstein Veblen's work is as fresh and relevant as ever. Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class is in the tradition of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, yet it provides a surprisingly contemporary look at American economics and society. Establishing such terms as 'conspicuous consumption' and 'pecuniary emulation, ' Veblen's most famous work has become an archetype not only of economic theory, but of historical and sociological thought as well. An iconoclastic masterpiece of American social thought. Veblen assails the sacrosanct concepts borrowed from evolutionary biology and used to justify social inequality. The fruit of much lonely study and contemplation, this first book of Veblen's catapulted him to prominence at the age of 42. Thoroughly independent and ornery in his living and thinking, Veblen began here his long and provocative criticism of the business enterprise system...his ideas were seminal and his influence is continuous" (100 Influential American Books). With this work Veblen also launched a radical critique of conventional economics, which he viewed as an assemblage of intellectual fictions, out of touch with economic reality-and worse, used to camouflage injustice in the name of natural laws. In place of traditional theory, Veblen introduced the concept of "Institutionalism, " according to which economic behavior is conditioned by particular cultural value systems. Veblen's challenge to conventional economic analysis achieved immediate and lasting influence. But unlike such Institutionalists as Commons and Ely, Veblen offered no program of practical reform. For Veblen change was at best evolutionary and impersonal, dependent at this historical moment on the rise of a new class of technocrats whose predilection for rational efficiency might replace the pecuniary values of the captains of industry. "One of the most provocative books written by an American intellectual" (Adams, Radical Literature, 59). Grolier, 100 American, 100. HBS 66008. $4000. Theory of the Leisure Class
Description:An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions. "One Of The...An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions. "One Of The Most Provocative Books Written By An American Intellectual": First Edition Of Veblen's Landmark Theory Of The Leisure Class VEBLEN, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class. An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1899. First edition of the author's first book and one of the masterpieces of American social thought and economic theory. Octavo (7 1/2 x 5 3/16 inches; 190 x 131 mm). viii, 400, [2, publisher's ads], [2, blank] pp. Original dark green cloth. Spine lettered and ruled in gilt. Front board ruled in blind. Top edge gilt, others uncut. A bit of soiling to the cloth of the front cover. Spine very slightly darkened. Overall a very good copy. Housed in a full green morocco clamshell. "Almost a century after its original publication, Thorstein Veblen's work is as fresh and relevant as ever. Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class is in the tradition of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, yet it provides a surprisingly contemporary look at American economics and society. Establishing such terms as 'conspicuous consumption' and 'pecuniary emulation, ' Veblen's most famous work has become an archetype not only of economic theory, but of historical and sociological thought as well. An iconoclastic masterpiece of American social thought. Veblen assails the sacrosanct concepts borrowed from evolutionary biology and used to justify social inequality. The fruit of much lonely study and contemplation, this first book of Veblen's catapulted him to prominence at the age of 42. Thoroughly independent and ornery in his living and thinking, Veblen began here his long and provocative criticism of the business enterprise system...his ideas were seminal and his influence is continuous" (100 Influential American Books). With this work Veblen also launched a radical critique of conventional economics, which he viewed as an assemblage of intellectual fictions, out of touch with economic reality-and worse, used to camouflage injustice in the name of natural laws. In place of traditional theory, Veblen introduced the concept of "Institutionalism, " according to which economic behavior is conditioned by particular cultural value systems. Veblen's challenge to conventional economic analysis achieved immediate and lasting influence. But unlike such Institutionalists as Commons and Ely, Veblen offered no program of practical reform. For Veblen change was at best evolutionary and impersonal, dependent at this historical moment on the rise of a new class of technocrats whose predilection for rational efficiency might replace the pecuniary values of the captains of industry. "One of the most provocative books written by an American intellectual" (Adams, Radical Literature, 59). Grolier, 100 American, 100. HBS 65764. $5, 000. Theory of the Leisure Class
Description:An economic study in the evolution of institutions. Octavo....An economic study in the evolution of institutions. Octavo. Original dark-green vertical grain cloth, spine lettered gilt and gilt bands at head and foot, covers with four blind rules at head and three blind rules at foot, top edge gilt, others uncut. Ownership inscription erased from title, ownership inscription dated 1934 to front free endpaper, bookplate with slightly later note. Extremities lightly rubbed, crease to front board, internally clean and fresh, hinges sound, an excellent copy. First edition of the Norwegian-American professor's first published book, his most successful work. Veblen's thesis was a serious economic analysis of contemporary America, but after William Dean Howells gave the book a rave review as a social satire, it became a best-seller. "Into it he poured all the acidulous ideas and fantastic terminology that had been simmering in his mind for years. It was a savage attack upon the business class and their pecuniary values, half concealed behind an elaborate screenwork of irony, mystification and polysyllabic learning" (DAB). "The treatise is essentially an analysis of the latent functions of 'conspicuous consumption' and 'conspicuous waste' as symbols of upper-class status and as competitive methods of enhancing individual prestige. Veblen's term 'conspicuous consumption' has become part of everyday language" (IESS). Modern economists identify Veblen goods, those whose desirability decreases with their price and availability. Einaudi 5851; Grolier, 100 American, 100. CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION
