Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class"

Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929)

On Monday evening we will talk about two selections from "The Theory of the Leisure Class," first published in 1899 by Thorstein Veblen: the first introductory chapter and the chapter on "Conspicuous Consumption."

The eminent 20th-century economist John Kenneth Galbraith once wrote: "The nearest thing in the United States to an academic legend -- the equivalent of an F. Scott Fitzgerald in fiction or of the Barrymores in the theater -- is the legend of Thorstein Veblen."