Details

Subject(s)

• Leisure class [Browse]

Editor

• Banta, Martha [Browse]

Writer of introduction

• Banta, Martha [Browse]

Series

• Oxford world's classics (Oxford University Press) [More in this series]
• Oxford world's classics

Summary note

In this scathing book, the author produced a landmark study of affluent American society that exposes, with brilliant ruthlessness, the habits of production and waste that link invidious business tactics and barbaric social behavior. Veblen's analysis of the evolutionary process sees greed as the overriding motive in the modern economy, and with an impartial gaze he examines the human cost paid when social institutions exploit the consumption of unessential goods for the sake of personal profit. Fashion, beauty, animals, sports, the home, the clergy, scholars--all are assessed for their true usefulness and found wanting. Indeed, this critique covers all aspects of modern life from dress, class, the position of women, home decoration, industry, business, and sport, to religion, scholarship, and education.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references (pages 260-263).

ISBN

• 9780199552580
• 0199552584

OCLC

318409864

Statement on language in description

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