The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions

Thorstein Veblen

In The Theory Of The Leisure Class, His First And Best-Known Work, Thorstein Veblen Challenges Some Of Man S Most Cherished Standards Of Behavior And With Devastating Wit And Satire Exposes The Hollowness Of Many Of Our Canons Of Taste, Education, Dress And Culture. Veblen Uses The Leisure Class As His Example Because It Is This Class That Sets The Standards Followed By Every Level Of Society.The Sign Of Membership In The Leisure Class Is Exemption From Industrial Toil And The Mark Of Success Is Lavish Expenditure Conspicuous Consumption Is The Famous Term He Invented To Describe Spending Which Satisfies No Real Need But Is A Mark Of Prestige.The Process Veblen Criticized Continues Today The Same Worship Of An Empty Scale Of Values, The Same Urge To Prove Oneself Better Than One S Neighbor By The Conspicuous Accumulation Of Useless Objects And By Time And Money-Wasting Activities.

Table of contents

• Titlepage
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• I: Introductory
• II: Pecuniary Emulation
• III: Conspicuous Leisure
• IV: Conspicuous Consumption
• V: The Pecuniary Standard of Living
• VI: Pecuniary Canons of Taste
• VII: Dress as an Expression of the Pecuniary Culture
• VIII: Industrial Exemption and Conservatism
• IX: The Conservation of Archaic Traits
• X: Modern Survivals of Prowess
• XI: The Belief in Luck
• XII: Devout Observances
• XII: Survivals of the Non-Invidious Interests
• XIV: The Higher Learning as an Expression of the Pecuniary