Thorstein Veblen: Theorist of the Leisure Class

by John Patrick Diggins

Overview

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 American intellectual history. In part because he was an eccentric who shunned publicity, he has also been one of our most neglected. Veblen is known to the general public only as coiner of the term "conspicuous consumption," and to scholars primarily as one of many social critics of the reform-minded Progressive Era. This important critical biography--originally published as The Bard of Savagery and now appearing in paperback for the first time--attempts both to unravel the riddles that surround his reputation and to assess his varied and important contributions to modern social theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691223315
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	01/12/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	299
File size:	1 MB

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).

Table of Contents

Preface: Social Theory and the Anthropological Imperative
Introduction to the Paperback Edition
List of Abbreviations
Pt. 1	The Milieu and the Man	1
Ch. 1	Veblen's America	3
Ch. 2	Enter Veblen: "Disturber of the Intellectual Peace"	14
Ch. 3	The Social Scientist as "Stranger"	31
Pt. 2	Theory and History	41
Ch. 4	Economics and the Dilemma of Value Theory	43
Ch. 5	Marx, Veblen, and the "Riddle" of Alienation	59
Ch. 6	Reification, Animism, Emulation: The Cultural Hegemony of Capitalism	83
Ch. 7	Veblen, Weber, and the "Spirit of Capitalism"	111
Pt. 3	Inside the Whale	137
Ch. 8	The Barbarian Status of Women	139
Ch. 9	The Tribes of Academe	167
Ch. 10	America and the World	184
Ch. 11	Disciples and Dissenters: Veblen's Legacy in American Thought and Social Action	208
Ch. 12	Conclusion: Whither Capitalism?	225
Notes	231
Index	253

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A most important, incisive, and readable study of Thorstein Veblen."—John Kenneth Galbraith

John Kenneth Galbraith

A most important, incisive, and readable study of Thorstein Veblen.

Editorial Reviews

"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

From the Publisher

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.

Social Science Quarterly - Warren J. Samuels

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.'

Social Science Quarterly - John Walton

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