The Theory of the Leisure Class

Rating:
Summary: Like Butter, Baby
Review: 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:
Summary: Like Butter, Baby
Review: 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:
Summary: Viva Veblen!!!
Review: This is one of the most thought provoking books I have read in a long time. Veblen leaves no stone unturned in his dissection of America's upper class and the unconscious traditions that lead them, and us. It is not hard to understand the volcano that erupted with this books publication. The Penguin edition is also set in an elegant Caslon typeface that reads beautifully.

Rating:
Summary: Viva Veblen!!!
Review: This is one of the most thought provoking books I have read in a long time. Veblen leaves no stone unturned in his dissection of America's upper class and the unconscious traditions that lead them, and us. It is not hard to understand the volcano that erupted with this books publication. The Penguin edition is also set in an elegant Caslon typeface that reads beautifully.

Rating:
Summary: VERY FRESH 100 YEARS OLD BOOK
Review: 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.