Thorstein VeblenThorstein Veblen shook the complacency of America in the early twentieth century with his incisive criticisms of our social and economic systems. Discarding the classical view of "eternal" economic laws that conveniently justified the nineteenth-century predatory practices of "big business" in terms of rational self-interest, Veblen cast a fresh, merciless eye on America's money-making passion. In glittering prose, Veblen exposed our social system as one designed to block man's natural "instinct of workmanship." He demonstrated that our leisure-class culture fostered the myth that work was inherently irksome to man. Veblen was also fascinated by the machine and the new science of technology. He saw businessmen basically at war with engineers and scientists because making exorbitant profits did not necessarily jibe with making better goods. In his study of this intriguing personality, Thorstein Veblen, Douglas Dowd reveals that Veblen was unsuccessful in his university career and his two marriages, and in his private life was strange, bitter, and detached. But in his books, Veblen shone as one of America's most penetrating thinkers whose theories proved a potent force in the moderniation of economics as a science. Dowd's sympathetic approach to Veblen's nature and problems places this giant in the field against a contemporary background in powerful and lively fashion. In his new introduction, Michael Keaney breathes new life into this unjustly neglected primer on Veblen. A new generation of students will undoubtedly benefit from this comprehensive guide to the thought of someone whose intellectual endeavor was non-doctrinaire and constantly -changing. Douglas Dowd was professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. He was Guggenheim Fellow. His writings include, Modern Economic Problems in Historical Perspective, America's Role in the World Economy, Step by Step, Thorstein Veblen: A Critical Reappraisal, and numerous articles for scholarly journals and encyclopedias. Michael Keaney is a lecturer in economics at Glasgow Caledonian -University. |
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Contents
| 1 | |
| 31 | |
| 55 | |
| 85 | |
The Strengths and Weaknesses of Veblen | 119 |
On the Higher Learning | 159 |
Veblenisms | 173 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 191 |
INDEX | 197 |
Common terms and phrases
achieve aims American analysis appear approach assumed attempt become behavior business enterprise businessmen called capitalism century characteristics civilization combined competition concerned consequences consumption continuing corporation countries course critical cultural direction earlier economic economists effect emulation existence expected fact factors force function gain Germany given growth hand higher hope human ideas important increase industrial instinct institutions interests labor lead learning least leisure class less lines living Marx material matters means ment methods military movement nature neo-classical organization ownership past patriotism peace political position possible practical present principles problems production profits question reasons relationship requires respect result scientists sense situation social society substantial taken theory things thought tion took turn understanding United values Veblen waste writings
Popular passages
Page 66 - The hedonistic conception of man is that of a lightning calculator of pleasures and pains, who oscillates like a homogeneous globule of desire of happiness under the impulse of stimuli that shift him about the area, but leave him intact.
Page 16 - With the exception of the instinct of self-preservation, the propensity for emulation is probably the strongest and most alert and persistent of the economic motives proper.
Page 29 - The popular reprobation of waste goes to say that in order to be at peace with himself the common man must be able to see in any and all human effort and human enjoyment an enhancement of life and well-being on the whole.
Page 57 - The mode of production in material life determines the general character of the social, political and spiritual processes of life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness.
Page 189 - It would be extremely difficult to find a modern civilized residence or public building which can claim anything better than relative inoffensiveness in the eyes of anyone who will dissociate the elements of beauty from those of honorific waste. The endless variety of fronts presented by the better class of tenements and apartment-houses in our cities is an endless variety of architectural distress and of suggestions of expensive discomfort.
Page 30 - But history records more frequent and more spectacular instances of the triumph of imbecile institutions over life and culture than of peoples who have by force of instinctive insight saved themselves alive out of a desperately precarious institutional situation, such, for instance, as now faces the peoples of Christendom.
Page 14 - In order to gain and to hold the esteem of men it is not sufficient merely to possess wealth or power. The wealth or power must be put in evidence, for esteem is awarded only on evidence.
Page 147 - Patriotism is of a contentious complexion, and finds its full expression in no other outlet than warlike enterprise; its highest and final appeal is for its death, damage, discomfort and destruction of the party of the second part.
Page 179 - He either fears his fate too much. Or his deserts are small, Who dare not put it to the touch, To win or lose it all.
Page 23 - The forces which have shaped the development of human life and of social structure are no doubt ultimately reducible to terms of living tissue and material environment; but proximately, for the purpose in hand, these forces may best be stated in terms of an environment, partly human, partly non-human, and a human subject with a more or less definite physical and intellectual constitution. Taken in the aggregate or average, this human subject is more or less variable ; chiefly, no doubt, under a rule...
Bibliographic information
| Title | Thorstein Veblen |
| Author | Douglas F. Dowd |
| Publisher | Transaction Publishers, 1958 |
| ISBN | 1412839963, 9781412839969 |
| Length | 205 pages |
| Subjects | › Biography & Autobiography / General Biography & Autobiography / Historical |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |