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

The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899), by Thorstein Veblen, is a treatise on economics and a detailed, social critique of conspicuous consumption, as a function of social class and of consumerism, derived from the social stratification of people and the division of labour, which are social institutions of the feudal period (9th-15th c.) that have continued to the modern era.Veblen asserts that the contemporary lords of the manor, the businessmen who own t...