About this title: 'Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.' In The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen sets out 'to discuss the place and value of the leisure class as an economic factor in modern life'. In so doing he 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 behaviour. Veblen's analysis of the evolutionary process sees greed as the overriding motive in the modern economy; with an impartial gaze ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780486280622ISBN:0486280624
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. New Unread but has small crease to cover at corner. Not a remainder. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 256 p. Dover Thrift Editions. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: 7th printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books, Harmondsworth
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780140053630ISBN:0140053638
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. xi, 400 pp.; 18 cm. First published, 1899. Tight, clean copy. Sunned spine, browning. The notion of "conspicuous consumption" derives from this influential book. not coincidentally written at the height of the Gilded Age. Classic sociology and economics, originally published in 1899, from "the best critic of America that America has produced. "-C. Wright Mills. "Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) was a Norwegian-American sociologist and economist and a leader of the ... read more
Description: Very Good. 0451627415 Great condition paperback book, clean pages, mild creases to spine, some edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Mentor, New York
Date Published: 1953
Description: VERY GOOD MINUS. Mentor mass market paperback MT609, 253 pages, introduction by C. Wright Mills. Slight cover wear, sticker at base of spine, pen underlining on most pages. **We provide professional service and individual attention to your order, daily shipments, and sturdy packaging. FREE TRACKING ON ALL SHIPMENTS WITHIN USA. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Modern Library, New York
Date Published: 1931
Description: Book: Good. 12mo. 404 pp. 4 7/8 x 7 ¼. Gray cloth covered boards, stamped in blue and gold on spine and front cover. No dj. Lt wear to edges and corners. No ownership markings. read more
"I'm a sucker for anything that attempts to explain why people act the way they do. This book set an early standard for such studies. We buy things to show off. Imagine!"
"The first thing I ever read of any substance about Veblen was his brief biography in Dos Passos' USA trilogy (The Great American Novel!). It was highly complimentary and its subject was Norwegian and neglected just like me.
I actually got around to reading The Theory of the Leisure Class some time after Dave Schweickart's courses in political economy got me interested in the subject and the reading of Kapital and re-reading of On the Wealth of Nations got me less intimidated by the subject area.
Back in '87 Dad and his third wife, Lene, were living in a log cabin, a very fancy log cabin, in "The Galena Territories" outside of the town of that name in NW Illinois. Planning an extended summer visit, I brought Thorstein along, probably thinking the two of them would be impressed. I particulary recall reading it besides the, ah, "territorial" pool, thinking that being stuck there for the day would ensure that the boring tome would be gotten into substantially. What a surprise then to discover that Veblen's most popular and perdurant book is really more sociology, even cultural anthropology, than the usual economics!--and it was fun, even funny, to boot."
"Thorstein Veblen's analysis of economic behavior is indispensable. Both sardonic and insightful, this book rarely falters in engendering a new perspective on the how and why of the annoying everyday behaviors of people in western cultures."
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