Thorstein Veblen: Theorist of the Leisure Class

Fired by Stanford and the University of Chicago but recommended by his peers to the presidency of the American Economic Association, Thorstein Veblen remains a baffling figure. In part because he was an eccentric who shunned publicity. Veblen is best known to the public as coiner of the term "conspicuous consumption", and known to scholars as one of many social critics of the reform-minded Progressive Era. This is a critical biography, originally published as "The Bard of Savagery". It attempts to unravel the riddles that surround his reputation, and to assess his varied and important contributions to modern social theory.

Table of Contents:
Preface: Social Theory and the Anthropological ImperativeIntroduction to the Paperback EditionList of AbbreviationsPt. 1The Milieu and the Man1Ch. 1Veblen's America3Ch. 2Enter Veblen: "Disturber of the Intellectual Peace"14Ch. 3The Social Scientist as "Stranger"31Pt. 2Theory and History41Ch. 4Economics and the Dilemma of Value Theory43Ch. 5Marx, Veblen, and the "Riddle" of Alienation59Ch. 6Reification, Animism, Emulation: The Cultural Hegemony of Capitalism83Ch. 7Veblen, Weber, and the "Spirit of Capitalism"111Pt. 3Inside the Whale137Ch. 8The Barbarian Status of Women139Ch. 9The Tribes of Academe167Ch. 10America and the World184Ch. 11Disciples and Dissenters: Veblen's Legacy in American Thought and Social Action208Ch. 12Conclusion: Whither Capitalism?225Notes231Index253

About the Author :
John Patrick Diggins is Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His previous books include Mussolini and Fascism: The View from America, The American Left in the Twentieth Century, Up from Communism: Conservative Odysseys in American Intellectual History, and The Liberal Persuasion: Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and the Challenge of the American Past (Princeton).

Review :
"For an understanding of Veblen pivotal importance attaches to Diggins's ... observation that 'Veblen was perhaps the only American social scientist of the nineteenth century who was intellectually prepared to challenge the economic theories of Karl Marx on their own terms.'"--John Walton, Social Science Quarterly "John Diggins ... is exceedingly perceptive in focusing on the role attributed by Veblen to status emulation in the legitimation and reinforcement of power and the hegemony of established institutions and systems."--Warren J. Samuels, Social Science Quarterly