Thorstein Bunde Veblen, born
Torsten Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American economist and sociologist, and a leader of the so-called
institutional economicsInstitutional economics focuses on understanding the role of the evolutionary process and the role of institutions in shaping economic behaviour. Its original focus lay in Thorstein Veblen's instinct-oriented dichotomy between technology on the one side and the "ceremonial" sphere of society on the...
movement. Besides his technical work he was a popular and witty critic of capitalism, as shown by his best known book
The Theory of the Leisure ClassThe Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions is a book, first published in 1899, by the Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen while he was a professor at the University of Chicago....
(1899).
Veblen is famous in the
history of economic thoughtThe history of economic thought deals with different thinkers and theories in the subject that became political economy and economics from the ancient world to the present day...
for combining a Darwinian evolutionary perspective with his new institutionalist approach to economic analysis. He combined sociology with economics in his masterpiece, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), arguing there was a basic distinction between the productiveness of "industry," run by engineers, which manufactures goods, and the parasitism of "business," which exists only to make profits for a leisure class. The chief activity of the leisure class was "
conspicuous consumptionConspicuous consumption is spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status....
", and their economic contribution is "waste," activity that contributes nothing to productivity. The American economy was therefore made inefficient and corrupt by the businessmen, though he never made that claim explicit. Veblen believed that technological advances were the driving force behind cultural change, but, unlike many contemporaries, he refused to connect change with progress.
Although Veblen was sympathetic to
state ownershipState ownership, also called public ownership, government ownership or state property, are property interests that are vested in the state, rather than an individual or communities....
of industry, he had a low opinion of workers and the labor movement and there is disagreement about the extent to which his views are compatible with
MarxismMarxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
1. As a leading intellectual of the
Progressive EraThe Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism and political reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political...
, his sweeping attack on production for profit and his stress on the wasteful role of consumption for status greatly influenced socialist thinkers and engineers seeking a non-Marxist critique of capitalism. Fine (1994) reports that economists at the time complained that his ideas, while brilliantly presented, were crude, gross, fuzzy, and imprecise; others complained he was a wacky eccentric. Scholars continue to debate exactly what he meant in his convoluted, ironic and satiric essays; he made heavy use of examples of primitive societies, but many examples were pure invention.
Biography
Veblen was born in
Cato, WisconsinCato is a town in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,616 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated communities of Cato, Clarks Mills, Grimms, Madsen, North Grimms, and Taus are located within the town...
, of
Norwegian AmericanNorwegian Americans are Americans of Norwegian descent. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the later half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 million Norwegian Americans according to the most recent U.S. census, and...
parents who had immigrated from Norway. He spent the majority of his youth on his family farm in
Nerstrand, MinnesotaNerstrand is a small town in Rice County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 295 at the 2010 census.Minnesota State Highway 246 serves as a main route in the community. Minnesota State Highways 56 and 60 are nearby.- History :...
;
the farmsteadThorstein B. Veblen , economist, social scientist, and critic of American culture, lived on this farm as a youth and returned often as an adult. The product of an austere agrarian upbringing, Veblen has often been called one of America's most creative and original thinkers...
is now a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
. Although Norwegian was his first language, he learned English from both neighbors and at school, which he began at the age of 5. His family was highly successful and placed great emphasis on education and hard work, all of which undoubtedly contributed to his later scorn for what he termed “
conspicuous consumptionConspicuous consumption is spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status....
” and waste of the gilded age. These settlements were little Norways, oriented around the religious and cultural traditions of the old country . He broke away by attending a Yankee school, Carleton College Academy (now
Carleton CollegeCarleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...
) in Northfield, Minnesota; he was lucky to study with young
John Bates ClarkJohn Bates Clark was an American neoclassical economist. He was one of the pioneers of the marginalist revolution and opponent to the Institutionalist school of economics, and spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University.-Biography:Clark was born and raised in Providence, Rhode...
(1847–1938), who later became the nation's foremost economist and was a leader in the new field of
neoclassical economicsNeoclassical economics is a term variously used for approaches to economics focusing on the determination of prices, outputs, and income distributions in markets through supply and demand, often mediated through a hypothesized maximization of utility by income-constrained individuals and of profits...
.
Veblen did graduate work at
Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
under Charles Sanders Peirce, the founder of the
pragmatist schoolPragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...
in philosophy; he took his
Ph.D.A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in 1884 at
Yale UniversityYale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
with a dissertation on "Ethical Grounds of a Doctrine of Retribution." He was a student of philosopher
Noah PorterNoah Porter, Jr. was an American academic, philosopher, author, lexicographer and President of Yale College .-Biography:...
(1811–1892) and economist/sociologist
William Graham SumnerWilliam Graham Sumner was an American academic and "held the first professorship in sociology" at Yale College. For many years he had a reputation as one of the most influential teachers there. He was a polymath with numerous books and essays on American history, economic history, political...
(1840–1910). Perhaps the most important intellectual influences on Veblen were
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and
Herbert SpencerHerbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
, whose work in the last half of the 19th century sparked an enormous interest in the evolutionary perspective on human societies.
Veblen married fellow Cornellian Ellen Rolfe in 1888; it was a very unhappy marriage that finally ended in divorce in 1911.
He married secondly, Ann Bradley, in 1914. Veblen became the step father to her two girls, Becky and Ann. After his wife's death in 1920, Veblen became very active in the care of the girls. Becky went with him when he moved to California, and looked after him there. She was with him at his death in 1929.
Academic career
Upon graduation from Yale, Veblen was unable to obtain an academic job, partly due to prejudice against Norwegians, and partly because most universities considered him insufficiently educated in Christianity — most academics at the time held divinity degrees. Veblen returned to his family farm — ostensibly to recover from malaria — and spent six years there reading voluminously. In 1891 he left the farm, to study economics as a graduate student at
Cornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
under
James Laurence LaughlinJames Laurence Laughlin was an American economist who helped to found the Federal Reserve System.Born in Deerfield, Ohio, Laughlin received his PhD from Harvard University. His thesis regarded "Anglo-Saxon Legal Procedure". A conservative, he generally subscribed to the economic theories of John...
.
He obtained his first academic appointment at the new
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, which overnight had become a world class university in many fields. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1900 and edited the prestigious Journal of Political Economy, while conversing with such intellectuals as
John DeweyJohn Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
,
Jane AddamsJane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace...
and
Franz BoasFranz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
. He published two of his best known books, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), and The Theory of Business Enterprise (1904). The books made him famous overnight for their ridicule of businessmen. In 1906, he moved to
Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. He soon left, perhaps because of adultery, or because the faculty and administration distrusted a man they saw as a poor teacher, a nasty colleague and a political radical.
Veblen reflected many of his views in his personal habits. Veblen's house was often a mess, with unmade beds and dirty dishes; his clothes were often in disarray; he was an agnostic; and he tended to be blunt and rude while dealing with other people.
In 1911, Veblen joined the faculty of the
University of MissouriThe University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
, where he had support from Herbert Davenport, the head of the economics department. Veblen disliked the local town but remained until in 1918 he moved to New York to begin work as an editor of
The DialThe Dial was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. In the 1880s it was revived as a political magazine...
. In 1919, along with
Charles A. BeardCharles Austin Beard was, with Frederick Jackson Turner, one of the most influential American historians of the first half of the 20th century. He published hundreds of monographs, textbooks and interpretive studies in both history and political science...
,
James Harvey RobinsonJames Harvey Robinson was an American historian.Robinson was born Bloomington, Illinois. He taught history at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University , becoming a full professor in 1895...
and
John DeweyJohn Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
, he helped found the New School for Social Research (known today as
The New SchoolThe New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
). From 1919 through 1926 Veblen continued to write and be involved in activities at The New School. The Engineers and the Price System was written during this period.
Veblen proposed a soviet of engineers in one chapter in The Engineers and the Price System. According to Yngve Ramstad, this work's view that engineers, not workers, would overthrow capitalism was a "novel view". Veblen invited Guido Marx to the New School to teach and to help organize a movement of engineers, by such as Morris Cooke; Henry Laurence Gantt, who had died shortly before; and
Howard ScottHoward Scott was a controversial engineer who had an interest in technocracy, and helped to form the Technical Alliance, Committee on Technocracy, and Technocracy Incorporated.-Early life:...
. Cooke and Gantt were followers of
Taylor'sFrederick Winslow Taylor was an American mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. He is regarded as the father of scientific management and was one of the first management consultants...
Scientific ManagementScientific management, also called Taylorism, was a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. Its main objective was improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes and to management...
. Scott, who listed Veblen as on the temporary organizing committee of the
Technical AllianceTowards the end of 1919, American engineer Howard Scott formed the Technical Alliance, a group of engineers, scientists, and technicians based in New York. The Technical Alliance started an Energy Survey of North America, aimed at documenting the wastefulness of the capitalist system...
, perhaps without consulting Veblen or other listed members, later helped found the
Technocracy movementThe technocracy movement is a social movement which arose in the early 20th century. It put forth a plan for operating the North American continent as a non-monetary society. Technocracy was highly popular in the USA for a brief period in the early 1930s, when it overshadowed many other proposals...
. Veblen had a penchant for
socialismSocialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and believed that technological developments would eventually lead toward a socialistic organization of economic affairs. However, his views regarding socialism and the nature of the evolutionary process of economics differed sharply from that of Karl Marx; while Marx saw socialism as the ultimate goal for civilization and saw the working-class as the group that would establish it, Veblen saw socialism as one intermediate phase in an ongoing evolutionary process in society that would be brought about by the natural decay of the business enterprise system and by the inventiveness of engineers.
Daniel BellDaniel Bell was an American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor emeritus at Harvard University, best known for his seminal contributions to the study of post-industrialism...
sees an affinity between Veblen and the
Technocracy movementThe technocracy movement is a social movement which arose in the early 20th century. It put forth a plan for operating the North American continent as a non-monetary society. Technocracy was highly popular in the USA for a brief period in the early 1930s, when it overshadowed many other proposals...
. Janet Knoedler and Anne Mayhew demonstrate the significance of Veblen's association with these engineers, while arguing that his book was more a continuation of his previous ideas than the advocacy others see in it.
In 1927 Veblen returned to the property that he still owned in Palo Alto and died there in 1929. His death came less than three months before the momentous crash of the U.S. stock market, which heralded the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
.
Veblen’s writing
Veblen developed a 20th century
evolutionary economicsEvolutionary economics is part of mainstream economics as well as heterodox school of economic thought that is inspired by evolutionary biology...
based upon Darwinian principles and new ideas emerging from
anthropologyAnthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
,
sociologySociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, and
psychologyPsychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
. Unlike the
neoclassical economicsNeoclassical economics is a term variously used for approaches to economics focusing on the determination of prices, outputs, and income distributions in markets through supply and demand, often mediated through a hypothesized maximization of utility by income-constrained individuals and of profits...
that was emerging at the same time, Veblen described economic behavior as socially determined and saw economic organization as a process of ongoing evolution. Veblen strongly rejected any theory based on individual action or any theory highlighting any factor of an inner personal motivation. Such theories were according to him "unscientific." This evolution was driven by the human instincts of emulation,
predationIn ecology, predation describes a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey . Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of its prey and the eventual absorption of the prey's tissue through consumption...
, workmanship, parental bent, and idle curiosity. Veblen wanted economists to grasp the effects of social and cultural change on economic changes. In
The Theory of the Leisure ClassThe Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions is a book, first published in 1899, by the Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen while he was a professor at the University of Chicago....
, the instincts of emulation and predation play a major role. People, rich and poor alike, attempt to impress others and seek to gain advantage through what Veblen coined "
conspicuous consumptionConspicuous consumption is spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status....
" and the ability to engage in “conspicuous leisure.” In this work Veblen argued that consumption is used as a way to gain and signal status. Through "conspicuous consumption" often came "conspicuous waste," which Veblen detested.
In
The Theory of Business EnterpriseThe Theory of Business Enterprise is an economics book by Thorstein Veblen published in 1904 that looks at the growing corporate domination of culture and the economy....
, which was published in 1904 during the height of American concern with the growth of business combinations and trusts, Veblen employed his evolutionary analysis to explain these new forms. He saw them as a consequence of the growth of industrial processes in a context of small business firms that had evolved earlier to organize craft production. The new industrial processes impelled integration and provided lucrative opportunities for those who managed it. What resulted was, as Veblen saw it, a conflict between businessmen and engineers, with businessmen representing the older order and engineers as the innovators of new ways of doing things. In combination with the tendencies described in
The Theory of the Leisure ClassThe Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions is a book, first published in 1899, by the Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen while he was a professor at the University of Chicago....
, this conflict resulted in waste and “predation” that served to enhance the social status of those who could benefit from predatory claims to goods and services.
Veblen generalized the conflict between businessmen and engineers by saying that human society would always involve conflict between existing norms with vested interests and new norms developed out of an innate human tendency to manipulate and learn about the physical world in which we exist. He also generalized his model to include his theory of instincts, processes of evolution as absorbed from Sumner, as enhanced by his own reading of evolutionary science, and Pragmatic philosophy first learned from Peirce. The instinct of idle curiosity led humans to manipulate nature in new ways and this led to changes in what he called the material means of life. Because, as per the Pragmatists, our ideas about the world are a human construct rather than mirrors of reality, changing ways of manipulating nature lead to changing constructs and to changing notions of truth and authority as well as patterns of behavior (institutions). Societies and economies evolve as a consequence, but do so via a process of conflict between vested interests and older forms and the new. Veblen never wrote with any confidence that the new ways were better ways, but he was sure in the last three decades of his life that the American economy could have, in the absence of vested interests, produced more for more people. In the years just after World War I he looked to engineers to make the American economy more efficient.
In addition to
The Theory of the Leisure ClassThe Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions is a book, first published in 1899, by the Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen while he was a professor at the University of Chicago....
and
The Theory of Business EnterpriseThe Theory of Business Enterprise is an economics book by Thorstein Veblen published in 1904 that looks at the growing corporate domination of culture and the economy....
,
Veblen’s monograph "Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution", and his many essays, including
“Why is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science,” and “The Place of Science in Modern Civilization,” remain influential.
Veblen’s intellectual legacy
In spite of difficulties of sometimes archaic language, caused in large part by Veblen’s struggles with the terminology of unilinear evolution and of biological determination of social variation that still dominated social thought when he began to write, Veblen’s work remains relevant, and not simply for the phrase “
conspicuous consumptionConspicuous consumption is spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status....
”. His evolutionary approach to the study of economic systems is once again in vogue and his model of recurring conflict between the existing order and new ways can be of great value in understanding the new global economy.
The
handicap principleThe handicap principle is a hypothesis originally proposed in 1975 by biologist Amotz Zahavi to explain how evolution may lead to "honest" or reliable signaling between animals who have an obvious motivation to bluff or deceive each other...
of evolutionary
sexual selectionSexual selection, a concept introduced by Charles Darwin in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, is a significant element of his theory of natural selection...
is often compared to Veblen's “conspicuous consumption”.
Veblen, as noted, is regarded as one of the co-founders (with
John R. CommonsJohn Rogers Commons was an American institutional economist and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.-Biography:Born in Hollansburg, Ohio, John R. Commons had a religious upbringing which led him to be an advocate for social justice early in life...
, Wesley C. Mitchell, and others) of the American school of
institutional economicsInstitutional economics focuses on understanding the role of the evolutionary process and the role of institutions in shaping economic behaviour. Its original focus lay in Thorstein Veblen's instinct-oriented dichotomy between technology on the one side and the "ceremonial" sphere of society on the...
. Present-day practitioners who adhere to this school organise themselves in
the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) and the Association for Institutional Economics (AFIT). AFEE gives an annual Veblen-Commons (see
John R. CommonsJohn Rogers Commons was an American institutional economist and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.-Biography:Born in Hollansburg, Ohio, John R. Commons had a religious upbringing which led him to be an advocate for social justice early in life...
) award for work in Institutional Economics and publishes the Journal of Economic Issues. Some unaligned practitioners include theorists of the concept of "
differential accumulationDifferential Accumulation is an approach for analysing capitalist development and crisis, tying together mergers and acquisitions, stagflation and globalization as integral facets of accumulation...
".
Veblen is cited in works of
feminist economistsFeminist economics broadly refers to a developing branch of economics that applies feminist lenses to economics. Research under this heading is often interdisciplinary or heterodox...
.
Veblen’s work has also often been cited in treatments of American literature.
One of Veblen's Ph.D. students was
George W. Stocking, Sr.George W. Stocking Sr. was an American economist who was one of the pioneers of industrial organization and an early writer on international cartels....
, a pioneer in the emerging field of
industrial organizationIndustrial organization is the field of economics that builds on the theory of the firm in examining the structure of, and boundaries between, firms and markets....
economics.
See also
- Affluenza
Affluenza, from affluence and influenza, is a term used by critics of capitalism and consumerism. Sources define it as follows:Proponents of the term consider that the prizing of endless increases in material wealth may lead to feelings of worthlessness and dissatisfaction rather than experiences...
- Anti-consumerism
Anti-consumerism refers to the socio-political movement against the equating of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions...
- Conspicuous consumption
Conspicuous consumption is spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status....
- Downshifting
Downshifting is a social behavior or trend in which individuals live simpler lives to escape from the rat race of obsessive materialism and to reduce the “stress, overtime, and psychological expense that may accompany it.” It emphasizes finding an improved balance between leisure and work and...
- Evolutionary economics
Evolutionary economics is part of mainstream economics as well as heterodox school of economic thought that is inspired by evolutionary biology...
- Frugality
Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the use of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance....
- Institutional economics
Institutional economics focuses on understanding the role of the evolutionary process and the role of institutions in shaping economic behaviour. Its original focus lay in Thorstein Veblen's instinct-oriented dichotomy between technology on the one side and the "ceremonial" sphere of society on the...
- Mottainai
is a Japanese term meaning "a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized." The expression "Mottainai!" can be uttered alone as an exclamation when something useful, such as food or time, is wasted, meaning roughly "Oh, what a waste!"...
- Over-consumption
Over-consumption is a situation where resource-use has outpaced the sustainable capacity of the ecosystem. A prolonged pattern of overconsumption leads to inevitable environmental degradation and the eventual loss of resource bases...
- Simple living
Simple living encompasses a number of different voluntary practices to simplify one's lifestyle. These may include reducing one's possessions or increasing self-sufficiency, for example. Simple living may be characterized by individuals being satisfied with what they need rather than want...
- Technocracy Movement
The technocracy movement is a social movement which arose in the early 20th century. It put forth a plan for operating the North American continent as a non-monetary society. Technocracy was highly popular in the USA for a brief period in the early 1930s, when it overshadowed many other proposals...
- The Theory of the Leisure Class
The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions is a book, first published in 1899, by the Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen while he was a professor at the University of Chicago....
- Thorstein Veblen Farmstead
Thorstein B. Veblen , economist, social scientist, and critic of American culture, lived on this farm as a youth and returned often as an adult. The product of an austere agrarian upbringing, Veblen has often been called one of America's most creative and original thinkers...
- Veblen dichotomy
The Veblenian dichotomy is a concept first suggested by sociologist and economist Thorstein Veblen in his 1904 book The Theory of Business Enterprise....
- Veblen good
Books
- full text of books and articles by Veblen, from McMaster University's Archive for the History of Economic Thought
- Theory of Business Enterprise, 1904.
- Theory of the Leisure Class: A Theory of Institutions excerpt and text search ; online edition complete
- The Theory of Business Enterprise excerpt and text search
- The Instincts of Worksmanship and the State of the Industrial Arts, 1914.
- The Engineers and the Price System excerpt and text search
- Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution, 1915., pdf
- The Higher Learning In America: A Memorandum On the Conduct of Universities By Business Men , 1918.
- The Vested Interests and the Common Man, 1919., pdf
- The Instinct of Workmanship: And the State of the Industrial Arts (1922) complete text online
- What Veblen Taught: Selected Writings of Thorstein Veblen edited by Wesley C. Mitchell; (1936) online edition
- The Engineers and the Price System, 1921.
- Absentee Ownership and Business Enterprise in Recent Times: the case of America, 1923.
- Essays in Our Changing Order, 1927.
Articles
- "Kant's Critique of Judgement", 1884, Journal of Speculative Philosophy.
- "Some Neglected Points in the Theory of Socialism", 1891, Annals of AAPSS.
- "Bohm-Bawerk's Definition of Capital and the Source of Wages" , 1892, QJE.
- "The Overproduction Fallacy", 1892, QJE.
- "The Food Supply and the Price of Wheat", 1893, JPE.
- "The Army of the Commonweal", 1894, JPE.
- "The Economic Theory of Women's Dress", 1894, Popular Science Monthly.
- "Review of Karl Marx's Poverty of Philosophy", 1896, JPE.
- "Review of Werner Sombart's Sozialismus", 1897, JPE.
- "Review of Gustav Schmoller's Über einige Grundfragen der Sozialpolitik", 1898, JPE.
- "Review of Turgot's Reflections", 1898, JPE.
- "Why is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science?" , 1898, QJE.
- "The Beginnings of Ownership" , 1898, American Journal of Sociology.
- "The Instinct of Workmanship and the Irksomeness of Labor" , 1898, American Journal of Sociology.
- "The Barbarian Status of Women" , 1898, American Journal of Sociology.
- "The Preconceptions of Economic Science", (1899,1900), QJE. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
- "Industrial and Pecuniary Employments", 1901, Publications of the AEA. JSTOR
- "Gustav Schmoller's Economics", 1901, QJE.
- "Arts and Crafts", 1902, JPE.
- "Review of Werner Sombart's Der moderne Kapitalismus", 1903, JPE.
- "Review of J.A. Hobson's Imperialism", 1903, JPE.
- "An Early Experiment in Trusts", 1904, JPE.
- "Review of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations", 1904, JPE.
- "Credit and Prices", 1905, JPE. JSTOR
- "The Place of Science in Modern Civilization", 1906, American J of Sociology. JSTOR
- "Professor Clark's Economics", 1906, QJE.
- "The Socialist Economics of Karl Marx and His Followers", (1906,1907), QJE.
- "Fisher's Capital and Income" , 1907, Political Science Quarterly.
- "The Evolution of the Scientific Point of View", 1908, University of California Chronicle.
- "On the Nature of Capital", 1908, QJE. JSTOR
- "Fisher's Rate of Interest" , 1909, Political Science Quarterly.
- "The Limitations of Marginal Utility" , 1909, JPE.
- "Christian Morals and the Competitive System", 1910, International J of Ethics. JSTOR
- "The Mutation Theory and the Blond Race", 1913, Journal of Race Development
The Journal of Race Development was the first American academic journal of international relations. It was founded in 1910 by George Hubbard Blakeslee, a historian who taught at Clark University. Despite a name which now suggests a journal devoted to eugenics, the journal, in fact, dealt with a...
.
- "The Blond Race and the Aryan Culture", 1913, Univ of Missouri Bulletin
- "The Opportunity of Japan", 1915, Journal of Race Development
The Journal of Race Development was the first American academic journal of international relations. It was founded in 1910 by George Hubbard Blakeslee, a historian who taught at Clark University. Despite a name which now suggests a journal devoted to eugenics, the journal, in fact, dealt with a...
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- "On the General Principles of a Policy of Reconstruction", 1918, J of the National Institute of Social Sciences.
- "Passing of National Frontiers", 1918, Dial.
- "Menial Servants during the Period of War", 1918, Public.
- "Farm Labor for the Period of War", 1918, Public.
- "The War and Higher Learning", 1918, Dial.
- "The Modern Point of View and the New Order", 1918, Dial.
- "The Intellectual Pre-Eminence of Jews in Modern Europe", 1919, Political Science Quarterly. JSTOR
- "On the Nature and Uses of Sabotage", 1919, Dial.
- "Bolshevism is a Menace to the Vested Interests", 1919, Dial.
- "Peace", 1919, Dial.
- "The Captains of Finance and the Engineers", 1919, Dial.
- "The Industrial System and the Captains of Industry", 1919, Dial.
- The Place of Science in Modern Civilization and other essays, 1919., also at Google Books
- "Review of J.M.Keynes's Economic Consequences of the Peace , 1920, Political Science Quarterly. JSTOR
- "Economic theory in the Calculable Future", 1925, AER. JSTOR
- "Introduction" in The Laxdaela Saga, 1925.
Secondary sources
- Adorno, Theodor W. 1967. "Prisms." The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.
- Banta, Martha. Taylored Lives: Narrative Production in the Age of Taylor, Veblen, and Ford. 1993. 431 pp.
- Bartley, Russel H. 1997. "In Search of Thorstein Veblen: Further Inquiries into His Life and Work." International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society.11(January):129-173.
- Brette, Olivier. "Thorstein Veblen's Theory of Institutional Change: Beyond Technological Determinism." European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 2003 10(3): 455-477. Issn: 0967-2567 Fulltext: Ebsco
- Diggins, John Patrick. Thorstein Veblen (2nd ed. 1999) excerpt and text search; the first edition was titled The Bard of Savagery: Thorstein Veblen and Modern Social Theory. (1978),
- Dorfman, Joseph. Thorstein Veblen and His America (1934), the standard biography, though it exaggerates Veblen's isolation
- Dowd, Douglas Fitzgerald. Thorstein Veblen (2000) excerpt and text search
- Dugger, William M. 2006. "Veblen's Radical Theory of Social Evolution." Journal of Economic Issues.40(September):651-72.
- Eby, Clare Virginia. "Thorstein Veblen and the Rhetoric of Authority." American Quarterly 1994 46(2): 139-173. Issn: 0003-0678 Fulltext: in Jstor
- Edgell, Stephen. Veblen in Perspective: His Life and Thought. M. E. Sharpe, 2001. 207 pp.
- Eff, E. Anthon. 1989. "History of Thought as Ceremonial Genealogy: The Neglected Influence of Herbert Spencer on Thorstein Veblen." Journal of Economic Issues. 23 (September): 689-716.
- Hodgson, Geoffrey M. 1998. "On the Evolution of Thorstein Veblen's Evolutionary Economics" in Cambridge Journal of Economics. 22(4):415-431.
- Hodgson, Geoffrey M. 2004 The Evolution of Institutional Economics: Agency, Structure and Darwinism in American Institutionalism. Routledge: London and New York.
- Jorgensen, Elizabeth Watkins and Henry Irvin Jorgensen. 1999, Thorstein Veblen: Victorian Firebrand, M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-0258-X
- Knoedler, Janet T. 1997. "Veblen and Technical Efficiency." Journal of Economic Issues. 31(?):???-???.
- Knoedler, Janet and Mayhew, Anne. "Thorstein Veblen and the Engineers: a Reinterpretation." History of Political Economy 1999 31(2): 255-272. Issn: 0018-2702
- McCormick, Ken. 2006. "Veblen in Plain English," Cambria Press. ISBN 0-9773567-6-0
- Maynard, Raymond Anthony. "Thorstein Veblen on Culture, Biology, and Evolution." PhD dissertation U. of Tennessee 2000. 290 pp. DAI 2000 61(6A): 2407-A. DA9973476 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
- Riesman, David. 1960. Thorstein Veblen: A Critical Interpretation. Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Shannon, Christopher Conspicuous Criticism: Tradition, the Individual and Culture in American Social Thought, from Veblen to Mills (1996) 211 pp.
- Thomas, Marty Jean. "Thorstein Veblen's Theory of Leisure as Interpreted by Veblen Scholars." PhD dissertation Pennsylvania State U. 1999. 183 pp. DAI 2000 61(1): 393-A. DA9960667 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
- Tilman, Rick. 1992. Thorstein Veblen and His Critics, 1891-1963. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04286-1
- Tilman, Rick. 1996. The Intellectual Legacy of Thorstein Veblen: Unresolved Issues.Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-29946-3.
- Vian, Francesca Lidia, "Ithaca transfer: Veblen and the historical profession," History of European Ideas, 35,1 (2009), 38-61.
- Wood, John Cunningham, ed. Thorstein Veblen: Critical Assessments (1991) excerpts and text search
- Yonay, Yuval P. The Struggle over the Soul of Economics: Institutionalist and Neoclassical Economists in America Between the Wars. Princeton U. Press, 1998. 290 pp.
External links
- Veblen’s works, including The Theory of the Leisure Class
The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions is a book, first published in 1899, by the Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen while he was a professor at the University of Chicago....
, The Theory of Business EnterpriseThe Theory of Business Enterprise is an economics book by Thorstein Veblen published in 1904 that looks at the growing corporate domination of culture and the economy....
, and many of his best articles are available from these sites:
- Association for Evolutionary Economics at www.orgs.bucknell.edu and
- http://cepa.newschool.edu/het.
- Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
e-text of The Theory of the Leisure Class
- Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
e-text of An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace and the Terms of its Perpetuation
- Theory of the Leisure Class from American Studies at the University of Virginia
- searchable facsimile An inquiry into the nature of peace and the terms of its perpetuation. Publisher: New York, B.W. Huebsch, 1919
- searchable facsimile The place of science in modern civilisation and other essays. Publisher: New York, B.W. Huebsch, 1919
- searchable facsimile The Vested Interests and the Common Man ("The modern point of view and the new order"). Publisher: New York, B.W. Huebsch, 1919
- e-texts -- The Veblenite -- (Complete Works, as far as not copyright-protected, biography, bibliography and related materials)
- Books and Translations
- Essays in Economics
- War Essays, Memoranda, Suggestions
- Miscellaneous Papers, Reviews
- Thorstein Veblen on the propaganda of the faith
- Thorstein Veblen: The Intellectual Pre-eminence of Jews in Modern Europe
- The Veblen Farmstead where Thorstein Veblen grew up is listed as a National Historical Landmark
- Veblen's summer cabin on Washington Island Wisconsin, where he did much of his writing, is being restored.
- Thorstein Veblen's Web by Harrison Mujica-Jenkins at latephilosophers.com