Jump to content

Thorstein Veblen: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→‎Biography: tweaks; add cites
Line 23: Line 23:
==Biography==
==Biography==


Veblen was born in [[Cato, Wisconsin]], of Norwegian immigrant parents. He spent the majority of his youth on his family farm in [[Nerstrand, Minnesota]]; [[Thorstein Veblen Farmstead|the farmstead]] is now a [[National Historic Landmark]]. Although Norwegian was his first language, he learned English from both neighbors and school, which he began at the age of 5.<ref>Bartley 1997</ref> His family was highly successful and placed great emphasis on education and hard work, all of which undoubtedly contributed to his later scorn for what he termed “[[conspicuous consumption]]” and waste of the gilded age.<ref name=dorf>{{cite book |last=Dorfman |first=Joseph |authorlink=Joseph Dorfman |coauthors= |title=Thorstein Veblen and His America |year=1934 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location= |isbn=0678000077 }}</ref>
Veblen was born in [[Cato, Wisconsin]], of Norwegian immigrant parents. He spent the majority of his youth on his family farm in [[Nerstrand, Minnesota]]; [[Thorstein Veblen Farmstead|the farmstead]] is now a [[National Historic Landmark]]. Although Norwegian was his first language, he learned English from both neighbors and school, which he began at the age of 5.<ref>Bartley 1997</ref> His family was highly successful and placed great emphasis on education and hard work, all of which undoubtedly contributed to his later scorn for what he termed “[[conspicuous consumption]]” and waste of the gilded age.<ref name=dorf>{{cite book |last=Dorfman |first=Joseph |authorlink=Joseph Dorfman |coauthors= |title=Thorstein Veblen and His America |year=1934 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location= |isbn=0678000077 }}</ref> These settlements were little Norways, oriented around the religious and cultural traditions of the old country . He broke away by attending a Yankee school, Carleton College Academy (now Carleton College) in Northfield, Minnesota; he was lucky to study with young [[John Bates Clark]] (1847-1938), who later became the nation�s foremost economist and was a leader in the new field of [[neoclassical economics]].


He obtained his [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in economics at [[Carleton College]] (1880), under [[John Bates Clark]], a leading economist in the emerging body of thought now identified as [[neoclassical economics]]. He then undertook graduate work at [[Johns Hopkins University]] under [[Charles Sanders Peirce]], the founder of the [[pragmatism|pragmatist school]] in [[philosophy]], and subsequently received his [[Ph.D.]] in 1884 at [[Yale University]], under the direction of [[William Graham Sumner]], a proponent of laissez-faire economic policies. His dissertation won the [[John Addison Porter#John Addison Porter Prize|John Addison Porter Prize]] for that year.<ref name=dorf/> Perhaps the most important intellectual influences on Veblen were [[Charles Darwin]] and [[Herbert Spencer]], whose work in the last half of the 19th century sparked an enormous interest in the evolutionary perspective on human societies.<ref>Eff 1989. Hodgson 1998, 2004.</ref>
Veblen did graduate work at [[Johns Hopkins University]] under [[Charles Sanders Peirce]], the founder of the [[pragmatism|pragmatist school]] in philosophy; he took his [[Ph.D.]] in 1884 at [[Yale University]], taking a PhD in philosophy in 1884, with a dissertation on "Ethical Grounds of a Doctrine of Retribution." He was a student of philosopher [[Noah Porter]] (1811-1892) and economist/sociologist [[William Graham Sumner]] (1840-1910). Perhaps the most important intellectual influences on Veblen were [[Charles Darwin]] and [[Herbert Spencer]], whose work in the last half of the 19th century sparked an enormous interest in the evolutionary perspective on human societies.<ref>Eff 1989. Hodgson 1998, 2004.</ref>


Veblen married fellow Cornellian Ellen Rolfe in 1888; it was a hateful marriage that finally ended in divorce in 1911.<ref>Elizabeth Watkins Jorgensen and Henry Irvin Jorgensen. ''Thorstein Veblen, Victorian Firebrand.'' 1999</ref>
Veblen married fellow Cornellian Ellen Rolfe in 1888; it was a hateful marriage that finally ended in divorce in 1911.<ref>Elizabeth Watkins Jorgensen and Henry Irvin Jorgensen. ''Thorstein Veblen, Victorian Firebrand.'' 1999</ref>
==ACademic career==

Upon graduation from Yale, Veblen was unable to obtain an academic job, partly due to prejudice against Norwegians,<ref>(Dorfman 1934: 55)</ref> and partly because most universities considered him insufficiently educated in Christianity — most academics at the time held divinity degrees.<ref>(Dorfman 1934: 54-55)</ref> Veblen returned to his family farm — ostensibly to recover from malaria — and spent six years there reading voluminously.<ref>(Dorfman 1934: 56)</ref> In 1891 he left the farm, to study economics as a graduate student at [[Cornell University]] under [[James Laurence Laughlin]].<ref name=dorf/>
Upon graduation from Yale, Veblen was unable to obtain an academic job, partly due to prejudice against Norwegians,<ref>(Dorfman 1934: 55)</ref> and partly because most universities considered him insufficiently educated in Christianity — most academics at the time held divinity degrees.<ref>(Dorfman 1934: 54-55)</ref> Veblen returned to his family farm — ostensibly to recover from malaria — and spent six years there reading voluminously.<ref>(Dorfman 1934: 56)</ref> In 1891 he left the farm, to study economics as a graduate student at [[Cornell University]] under [[James Laurence Laughlin]].<ref name=dorf/>


In 1892, he became a professor at the newly opened [[University of Chicago]], simultaneously serving as managing editor of the ''[[Journal of Political Economy]]''. In 1906, he received an appointment at [[Stanford University]], which he left, it is often written{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}}, because of “womanizing.” It is possible that these rumors were used as a reason to terminate the employment of a man who was widely regarded as a poor teacher and a radical critic.<ref>Jorgensen and Jorgensen 1999</ref>
In 1891 after years of working on the farm he finally obtained his first academic appointment at the new [[University of Chicago]], which overnight became a world class university in many fields. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1900 and edited the prestigious ''Journal of Political Economy'', while conversing with such intellectuals as [[John Dewey]], [[Jane Addams]] and [[Franz Boas]]. He published two of his best known books, ''The Theory of the Leisure Class'' (1899), and ''The Theory of Business Enterprise'' (1904). The books made him famous overnight for their ridicule of businessmen. In 1906, he moved to [[Stanford University]]. He soon left perhaps because of blatant adultery, or because the faculty and administration distrusted a man they saw as a poor teacher, a nasty colleague and a political radical.<ref>Jorgensen and Jorgensen (1999) pp 105-6, 115, 132</ref>


Veblen reflected many of his views in his personal habits. To wit: Veblen's house was often a mess, with unmade beds and dirty dishes; his clothes were often in disarray; he was an agnostic; and he tended to be extremely blunt and rude while dealing with other people.<ref>John Kenneth Galbraith, in the Introduction of
Veblen reflected many of his views in his personal habits. To wit: Veblen's house was often a mess, with unmade beds and dirty dishes; his clothes were often in disarray; he was an agnostic; and he tended to be extremely blunt and rude while dealing with other people.<ref>John Kenneth Galbraith, in the Introduction of
Line 44: Line 44:
|quote= |ref= |bibcode= |laysummary= |laydate=}}</ref>
|quote= |ref= |bibcode= |laysummary= |laydate=}}</ref>


In 1911, Veblen joined the faculty of the [[University of Missouri]], where he had support from [[Herbert Davenport]], the head of the economics department. Veblen was not fond of [[Columbia, Missouri]], but remained there through 1918. In that year, he moved to New York to begin work as an editor of ''[[The Dial]]'', and then in 1919, along with [[Charles Beard]], [[James Harvey Robinson]] and [[John Dewey]], helped found the New School for Social Research (known today as [[The New School]]). From 1919 through 1926 Veblen continued to write and be involved in activities at The New School.<ref name=dorf/> ''The Engineers and the Price System'' was written during this period.<ref>[http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/%7Eecon/ugcm/3ll3/veblen/Engineers.pdf ''The Engineers and the Price System'', 1921.]</ref>
In 1911, Veblen joined the faculty of the [[University of Missouri]], where he had support from [[Herbert Davenport]], the head of the economics department. Veblen disliked the local town but remained until in 1918 he moved to New York to begin work as an editor of ''[[The Dial]]''. In 1919, along with [[Charles Beard]], [[James Harvey Robinson]] and [[John Dewey]], he helped found the New School for Social Research (known today as [[The New School]]). From 1919 through 1926 Veblen continued to write and be involved in activities at The New School.<ref name=dorf/> ''The Engineers and the Price System'' was written during this period.<ref>[http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/%7Eecon/ugcm/3ll3/veblen/Engineers.pdf ''The Engineers and the Price System'', 1921.]</ref>


Veblen proposes a soviet of engineers in one chapter in ''The Engineers and the Price System''.<ref>Rick Tilman, ''Thorstein Veblen and His Critics, 1891-1963'', Princeton University Press (1992)</ref> According to Yngve Ramstad,<ref>"Veblen, Thorstein", Yngve Ramstad, in ''The Elgar Companion to Institutional and Evolutionary Economics'' (edited by G. M. Hodgson, W. J. Samuels, and M. R. Tool), Edward Edgar (1994)</ref> this work's view that engineers, not workers, would overthrow capitalism was a "novel view". Veblen invited Guido Marx to the New School to teach and to help organize a movement of engineers, by such as Morris Cooke; [[Henry Laurence Gantt]], who had died shortly before; and [[Howard Scott]]. Cooke and Gantt were followers of [[Frederick Winslow Taylor|Taylor's]] [[Scientific Management]]. Scott, who listed Veblen as on the temporary organizing committee of the [[Technical Alliance]], perhaps without consulting Veblen or other listed members, later helped found the [[Technocracy movement]].<ref>David Adair, ''The Technocrats 1919-1967: A Case Study of Conflict and Change in a Social Movement'', a Master's thesis, Simon Fraser University (1970)</ref><ref>Daniel Bell (1963), "Veblen and the Technocrats: On the Engineers and the Price System" (in ''The Winding Passage: Sociological Essays and Journeys'', 1980)</ref> Veblen had a penchant for [[socialism]] and believed that technological developments would eventually lead toward a socialistic organization of economic affairs. However, his views regarding socialism and the nature of the evolutionary process of economics differed sharply from that of Karl Marx; while Marx saw socialism as the ultimate goal for civilization and saw the working-class as the group that would establish it, Veblen saw socialism as one intermediate phase in an ongoing evolutionary process in society that would be brought about by the natural decay of the business enterprise system and by the inventiveness of engineers.<ref>The life of Thorstein Veblen and perspectives on his thought,
Veblen proposes a soviet of engineers in one chapter in ''The Engineers and the Price System''.<ref>Rick Tilman, ''Thorstein Veblen and His Critics, 1891-1963'', Princeton University Press (1992)</ref> According to Yngve Ramstad,<ref>"Veblen, Thorstein", Yngve Ramstad, in ''The Elgar Companion to Institutional and Evolutionary Economics'' (edited by G. M. Hodgson, W. J. Samuels, and M. R. Tool), Edward Edgar (1994)</ref> this work's view that engineers, not workers, would overthrow capitalism was a "novel view". Veblen invited Guido Marx to the New School to teach and to help organize a movement of engineers, by such as Morris Cooke; [[Henry Laurence Gantt]], who had died shortly before; and [[Howard Scott]]. Cooke and Gantt were followers of [[Frederick Winslow Taylor|Taylor's]] [[Scientific Management]]. Scott, who listed Veblen as on the temporary organizing committee of the [[Technical Alliance]], perhaps without consulting Veblen or other listed members, later helped found the [[Technocracy movement]].<ref>David Adair, ''The Technocrats 1919-1967: A Case Study of Conflict and Change in a Social Movement'', a Master's thesis, Simon Fraser University (1970)</ref><ref>Daniel Bell (1963), "Veblen and the Technocrats: On the Engineers and the Price System" (in ''The Winding Passage: Sociological Essays and Journeys'', 1980)</ref> Veblen had a penchant for [[socialism]] and believed that technological developments would eventually lead toward a socialistic organization of economic affairs. However, his views regarding socialism and the nature of the evolutionary process of economics differed sharply from that of Karl Marx; while Marx saw socialism as the ultimate goal for civilization and saw the working-class as the group that would establish it, Veblen saw socialism as one intermediate phase in an ongoing evolutionary process in society that would be brought about by the natural decay of the business enterprise system and by the inventiveness of engineers.<ref>The life of Thorstein Veblen and perspectives on his thought,

Revision as of 19:01, 16 November 2010

Thorstein Veblen
Born(1857-07-30)July 30, 1857 (Cato, Wisconsin)
DiedAugust 3, 1929(1929-08-03) (aged 72)
NationalityNorwegian-American
Academic career
Fieldevolutionary economics; sociology
School or
tradition		Institutional economics
InfluencesWilliam Graham Sumner, William James, William McDougall, Georges Vacher de Lapouge, Herbert Spencer[1]
Contributionsconspicuous consumption, penalty of taking the lead, ceremonial / instrumental dichotomy

Thorstein Bunde Veblen, born Torsten Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American sociologist and economist and a primary mentor, along with John R. Commons, of the institutional economics movement. Besides his technical work he was a popular and witty critic of capitalism, as shown by his best known book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).

Veblen is famous in the History of economic thought for combining a Darwinian evolutionary perspective with his new institutionalist approach to economic analysis. He combined sociology with economics in his masterpiece, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), arguing there was a basic distinction between the productiveness of "industry," run by engineers, which manufactures goods, and the parasitism of "business," which exists only to make profits for a leisure class. The chief activity of the leisure class was "conspicuous consumption", and their economic contribution is "waste," activity that contributes nothing to productivity. The American economy was therefore made inefficient and corrupt by the businessmen, though he never made that claim explicit. Veblen believed that technological advances were the driving force behind cultural change, but, unlike many contemporaries, he refused to connect change with progress.

Although Veblen was sympathetic to state ownership of industry, he had a low opinion of workers and the labor movement and was hostile toward Marxism. As a leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, his sweeping attack on production for profit and his stress on the wasteful role of consumption for status greatly influenced socialist thinkers and engineers seeking a non-Marxist critique of capitalism. Experts complained his ideas, while brilliantly presented, were crude, gross, fuzzy, and imprecise; others complained he was a wacky eccentric. Scholars continue to debate exactly what he meant in his convoluted, ironic and satiric essays; he made heavy use of examples of primitive societies, but many examples were pure invention.[2]

Biography

Veblen was born in Cato, Wisconsin, of Norwegian immigrant parents. He spent the majority of his youth on his family farm in Nerstrand, Minnesota; the farmstead is now a National Historic Landmark. Although Norwegian was his first language, he learned English from both neighbors and school, which he began at the age of 5.[3] His family was highly successful and placed great emphasis on education and hard work, all of which undoubtedly contributed to his later scorn for what he termed “conspicuous consumption” and waste of the gilded age.[4] These settlements were little Norways, oriented around the religious and cultural traditions of the old country . He broke away by attending a Yankee school, Carleton College Academy (now Carleton College) in Northfield, Minnesota; he was lucky to study with young John Bates Clark (1847-1938), who later became the nation�s foremost economist and was a leader in the new field of neoclassical economics.

Veblen did graduate work at Johns Hopkins University under Charles Sanders Peirce, the founder of the pragmatist school in philosophy; he took his Ph.D. in 1884 at Yale University, taking a PhD in philosophy in 1884, with a dissertation on "Ethical Grounds of a Doctrine of Retribution." He was a student of philosopher Noah Porter (1811-1892) and economist/sociologist William Graham Sumner (1840-1910). Perhaps the most important intellectual influences on Veblen were Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer, whose work in the last half of the 19th century sparked an enormous interest in the evolutionary perspective on human societies.[5]

Veblen married fellow Cornellian Ellen Rolfe in 1888; it was a hateful marriage that finally ended in divorce in 1911.[6]

ACademic career

Upon graduation from Yale, Veblen was unable to obtain an academic job, partly due to prejudice against Norwegians,[7] and partly because most universities considered him insufficiently educated in Christianity — most academics at the time held divinity degrees.[8] Veblen returned to his family farm — ostensibly to recover from malaria — and spent six years there reading voluminously.[9] In 1891 he left the farm, to study economics as a graduate student at Cornell University under James Laurence Laughlin.[4]

In 1891 after years of working on the farm he finally obtained his first academic appointment at the new University of Chicago, which overnight became a world class university in many fields. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1900 and edited the prestigious Journal of Political Economy, while conversing with such intellectuals as John Dewey, Jane Addams and Franz Boas. He published two of his best known books, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), and The Theory of Business Enterprise (1904). The books made him famous overnight for their ridicule of businessmen. In 1906, he moved to Stanford University. He soon left perhaps because of blatant adultery, or because the faculty and administration distrusted a man they saw as a poor teacher, a nasty colleague and a political radical.[10]

Veblen reflected many of his views in his personal habits. To wit: Veblen's house was often a mess, with unmade beds and dirty dishes; his clothes were often in disarray; he was an agnostic; and he tended to be extremely blunt and rude while dealing with other people.[11]

In 1911, Veblen joined the faculty of the University of Missouri, where he had support from Herbert Davenport, the head of the economics department. Veblen disliked the local town but remained until in 1918 he moved to New York to begin work as an editor of The Dial. In 1919, along with Charles Beard, James Harvey Robinson and John Dewey, he helped found the New School for Social Research (known today as The New School). From 1919 through 1926 Veblen continued to write and be involved in activities at The New School.[4] The Engineers and the Price System was written during this period.[12]

Veblen proposes a soviet of engineers in one chapter in The Engineers and the Price System.[13] According to Yngve Ramstad,[14] this work's view that engineers, not workers, would overthrow capitalism was a "novel view". Veblen invited Guido Marx to the New School to teach and to help organize a movement of engineers, by such as Morris Cooke; Henry Laurence Gantt, who had died shortly before; and Howard Scott. Cooke and Gantt were followers of Taylor's Scientific Management. Scott, who listed Veblen as on the temporary organizing committee of the Technical Alliance, perhaps without consulting Veblen or other listed members, later helped found the Technocracy movement.[15][16] Veblen had a penchant for socialism and believed that technological developments would eventually lead toward a socialistic organization of economic affairs. However, his views regarding socialism and the nature of the evolutionary process of economics differed sharply from that of Karl Marx; while Marx saw socialism as the ultimate goal for civilization and saw the working-class as the group that would establish it, Veblen saw socialism as one intermediate phase in an ongoing evolutionary process in society that would be brought about by the natural decay of the business enterprise system and by the inventiveness of engineers.[17] Daniel Bell sees an affinity between Veblen and the Technocracy movement.[18] Janet Knoedler and Anne Mayhew[19] demonstrate the significance of Veblen's association with these engineers, while arguing that his book was more a continuation of his previous ideas than the advocacy others see in it.

In 1927 Veblen returned to the property that he still owned in Palo Alto and died there in 1929.[4] His death came less than three months before the momentous crash of the U.S. stock market, which heralded the Great Depression.

Veblen’s writing

Veblen developed a 20th century evolutionary economics based upon Darwinian principles and new ideas emerging from anthropology, sociology, and psychology. Unlike the neoclassical economics that was emerging at the same time, Veblen described economic behavior as both socially and individually determined and saw economic organization as a process of ongoing evolution. This evolution was driven by the human instincts of emulation, predation, workmanship, parental bent, and idle curiosity. Veblen wanted economists to grasp the effects of social and cultural change on economic changes. In The Theory of the Leisure Class, which is probably his best-known work, because of its satiric look at American society, the instincts of emulation and predation play a major role. People, rich and poor alike, attempt to impress others and seek to gain advantage through what Veblen coined "conspicuous consumption" and the ability to engage in “conspicuous leisure.” In this work Veblen argued that consumption is used as a way to gain and signal status. Through "conspicuous consumption" often came "conspicuous waste," which Veblen detested.

In The Theory of Business Enterprise, which was published in 1904, at the height of American concern with the growth of business combinations and trusts, Veblen employed his evolutionary analysis to explain these new forms. He saw them as a consequence of the growth of industrial processes in a context of small business firms that had evolved earlier to organize craft production. The new industrial processes impelled integration and provided lucrative opportunities for those who managed it. What resulted was, as Veblen saw it, a conflict between businessmen and engineers, with businessmen representing the older order and engineers as the innovators of new ways of doing things. In combination with the tendencies described in The Theory of the Leisure Class, this conflict resulted in waste and “predation” that served to enhance the social status of those who could benefit from predatory claims to goods and services.

Veblen generalized the conflict between businessmen and engineers by saying that human society would always involve conflict between existing norms with vested interests and new norms developed out of an innate human tendency to manipulate and learn about the physical world in which we exist. He also generalized his model to include his theory of instincts, processes of evolution as absorbed from Sumner, as enhanced by his own reading of evolutionary science, and Pragmatic philosophy first learned from Peirce. The instinct of idle curiosity led humans to manipulate nature in new ways and this led to changes in what he called the material means of life. Because, as per the Pragmatists, our ideas about the world are a human construct rather than mirrors of reality, changing ways of manipulating nature lead to changing constructs and to changing notions of truth and authority as well as patterns of behavior (institutions). Societies and economies evolve as a consequence, but do so via a process of conflict between vested interests and older forms and the new. Veblen never wrote with any confidence that the new ways were better ways, but he was sure in the last three decades of his life that the American economy could have, in the absence of vested interests, produced more for more people. In the years just after World War I he looked to engineers to make the American economy more efficient.

In addition to The Theory of the Leisure Class and The Theory of Business Enterprise, Veblen’s monograph "Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution", and his many essays, including “Why Is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science,” and “The Place of Science in Modern Civilization,” remain influential.

Veblen’s intellectual legacy

In spite of difficulties of sometimes archaic language, caused in large part by Veblen’s struggles with the terminology of unilinear evolution and of biological determination of social variation[citation needed] that still dominated social thought when he began to write, Veblen’s work remains relevant, and not simply for the phrase “conspicuous consumption.” His evolutionary approach to the study of economic systems is once again in vogue and his model of recurring conflict between the existing order and new ways can be of great value in understanding the new global economy.

The handicap principle of evolutionary sexual selection is often compared to Veblen's “conspicuous consumption”. [20]

Veblen, as noted, is regarded as one of the co-founders (with John R. Commons, Wesley C. Mitchell, and others) of the American school of institutional economics. Present-day practitioners who adhere to this school organise themselves in the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) and the Association for Institutional Economics (AFIT). AFEE gives an annual Veblen-Commons (see John R. Commons) award for work in Institutional Economics and publishes the Journal of Economic Issues. Some unaligned practitioners include theorists of the concept of "differential accumulation".[21]

Veblen is cited in works of feminist economists.[22]

Veblen’s work has also often been cited in treatments of American literature.[23]

One of Veblen's Ph.D. students was George W. Stocking, Sr., a pioneer in the emerging field of industrial organization economics.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Veblen, Thorstein. 1898. "Why is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science." The Quarterly Journal of Economics.Volume 12, 1898.
  2. ^ Gary Alan Fine, "The Social Construction of Style: Thorstein Veblen's the Theory of the Leisure Class as Contested Text" Sociological Quarterly 1994 35(3): 457-472. Issn: 0038-0253
  3. ^ Bartley 1997
  4. ^ a b c d Dorfman, Joseph (1934). Thorstein Veblen and His America. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0678000077. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ Eff 1989. Hodgson 1998, 2004.
  6. ^ Elizabeth Watkins Jorgensen and Henry Irvin Jorgensen. Thorstein Veblen, Victorian Firebrand. 1999
  7. ^ (Dorfman 1934: 55)
  8. ^ (Dorfman 1934: 54-55)
  9. ^ (Dorfman 1934: 56)
  10. ^ Jorgensen and Jorgensen (1999) pp 105-6, 115, 132
  11. ^ John Kenneth Galbraith, in the Introduction of Veblen, Thorstein (1973). The theory of the leisure class. introd. John Kenneth Galbraith. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780395140086. OCLC 665985. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month=, |chapterurl=, |laydate=, and |laysummary= (help)
  12. ^ The Engineers and the Price System, 1921.
  13. ^ Rick Tilman, Thorstein Veblen and His Critics, 1891-1963, Princeton University Press (1992)
  14. ^ "Veblen, Thorstein", Yngve Ramstad, in The Elgar Companion to Institutional and Evolutionary Economics (edited by G. M. Hodgson, W. J. Samuels, and M. R. Tool), Edward Edgar (1994)
  15. ^ David Adair, The Technocrats 1919-1967: A Case Study of Conflict and Change in a Social Movement, a Master's thesis, Simon Fraser University (1970)
  16. ^ Daniel Bell (1963), "Veblen and the Technocrats: On the Engineers and the Price System" (in The Winding Passage: Sociological Essays and Journeys, 1980)
  17. ^ The life of Thorstein Veblen and perspectives on his thought, Wood, John (1993). The life of Thorstein Veblen and perspectives on his thought. introd. Thorstein Veblen. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415074878. The decisive difference between Marx and Veblen lay in their respective attitudes on socialism. For while Marx regarded socialism as the ultimate goal for civilization, Veblen saw socialism as but one stage in the economic evolution of society. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month=, |chapterurl=, |laydate=, and |laysummary= (help)
  18. ^ Daniel Bell, "Veblen and the New Class", American Scholar, V. 32 (Autumn 1963) (cited in Rick Tilman, Thorstein Veblen and His Critics, 1891-1963, Princeton University Press (1992))
  19. ^ Janet Knoedler and Anne Mayhew (1999) "Thorstein Veblen and the Engineers: A Reinterpretation", History of Political Economy, V. 31, N. 2: pp. 255-272
  20. ^ Example given here in a talk by evolutionary biologist Professor Amotz Zahavi [1].
  21. ^ See Chapter 2, "Capital as Power" in The Global Political Economy of Israel by Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler.
  22. ^ Anne Mayhew (1999) "Institutional Economics", in The Elgar Companion to Feminist Economics (ed. by J. Peterson and M. Lewis), Edward Elgar
  23. ^ Thorstein Veblen is featured in The Big Money by John Dos Passos. He is also mentioned in Carson McCullers' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

Major works of Thorstein Veblen

Books

Articles

Secondary sources

  • Adorno, Theodor W. 1967. "Prisms." The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.
  • Banta, Martha. Taylored Lives: Narrative Production in the Age of Taylor, Veblen, and Ford. 1993. 431 pp.
  • Bartley, Russel H. 1997. "In Search of Thorstein Veblen: Further Inquiries into His Life and Work." International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society.11(January):129-173.
  • Brette, Olivier. "Thorstein Veblen's Theory of Institutional Change: Beyond Technological Determinism." European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 2003 10(3): 455-477. Issn: 0967-2567 Fulltext: Ebsco
  • Diggins, John Patrick. Thorstein Veblen (2nd ed. 1999) excerpt and text search; the first edition was titled The Bard of Savagery: Thorstein Veblen and Modern Social Theory. (1978),
  • Dorfman, Joseph. Thorstein Veblen and His America (1934), the standard biography, though it exaggerates Veblen's isolation
  • Dowd, Douglas Fitzgerald. Thorstein Veblen (2000) excerpt and text search
  • Dugger, William M. 2006. "Veblen's Radical Theory of Social Evolution." Journal of Economic Issues.40(September):651-72.
  • Eby, Clare Virginia. "Thorstein Veblen and the Rhetoric of Authority." American Quarterly 1994 46(2): 139-173. Issn: 0003-0678 Fulltext: in Jstor
  • Edgell, Stephen. Veblen in Perspective: His Life and Thought. M. E. Sharpe, 2001. 207 pp.
  • Eff, E. Anthon. 1989. "History of Thought as Ceremonial Genealogy: The Neglected Influence of Herbert Spencer on Thorstein Veblen." Journal of Economic Issues. 23 (September): 689-716.
  • Hodgson, Geoffrey M. 1998. "On the Evolution of Thorstein Veblen's Evolutionary Economics" in Cambridge Journal of Economics. 22(4):415-431.
  • Hodgson, Geoffrey M. 2004 The Evolution of Institutional Economics: Agency, Structure and Darwinism in American Institutionalism. Routledge: London and New York.
  • Jorgensen, Elizabeth Watkins and Henry Irvin Jorgensen. 1999, Thorstein Veblen: Victorian Firebrand, M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-0258-X
  • Knoedler, Janet T. 1997. "Veblen and Technical Efficiency." Journal of Economic Issues. 31(?):???-???.
  • Knoedler, Janet and Mayhew, Anne. "Thorstein Veblen and the Engineers: a Reinterpretation." History of Political Economy 1999 31(2): 255-272. Issn: 0018-2702
  • McCormick, Ken. 2006. "Veblen in Plain English," Cambria Press. ISBN 0-9773567-6-0
  • Maynard, Raymond Anthony. "Thorstein Veblen on Culture, Biology, and Evolution." PhD dissertation U. of Tennessee 2000. 290 pp. DAI 2000 61(6A): 2407-A. DA9973476 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations &Theses
  • Riesman, David. 1960. Thorstein Veblen: A Critical Interpretation. Charles Scribner's Sons.
  • Shannon, Christopher Conspicuous Criticism: Tradition, the Individual and Culture in American Social Thought, from Veblen to Mills (1996) 211 pp.
  • Thomas, Marty Jean. "Thorstein Veblen's Theory of Leisure as Interpreted by Veblen Scholars." PhD dissertation Pennsylvania State U. 1999. 183 pp. DAI 2000 61(1): 393-A. DA9960667 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations &Theses
  • Tilman, Rick. 1992. Thorstein Veblen and His Critics, 1891-1963. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04286-1
  • Tilman, Rick. 1996. The Intellectual Legacy of Thorstein Veblen: Unresolved Issues.Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-29946-3.
  • Vian, Francesca Lidia, "Ithaca transfer: Veblen and the historical profession," History of European Ideas, 35,1 (2009), 38-61.
  • Wood, John Cunningham, ed. Thorstein Veblen: Critical Assessments (1991) excerpts and text search
  • Yonay, Yuval P. The Struggle over the Soul of Economics: Institutionalist and Neoclassical Economists in America Between the Wars. Princeton U. Press, 1998. 290 pp.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thorstein_Veblen&oldid=397151900"