This expansive collection gathers Thorstein Veblen's major books with more than fifty essays on business, war, industry, and economic institutions. Across works such as The Theory of the Leisure Class, The Theory of Business Enterprise, and The Engineers and the Price System, Veblen combines satire, anthropological observation, and institutional analysis to expose the habits of status, waste, sabotage, and pecuniary power that shape modern capitalism. His prose is dense, ironic, and exacting, situated between economics, sociology, and cultural criticism. Veblen, born in 1857 to Norwegian immigrant farmers in Wisconsin, became one of America's most original social theorists. Educated at Carleton, Johns Hopkins, and Yale, and later associated with the University of Chicago, Stanford, and the New School, he wrote from the margins of academic respectability. His outsider's eye, skeptical temperament, and experience of industrial America's rise informed his critique of business civilization and militarized nationalism. This volume is recommended for readers seeking the foundations of institutional economics and a bracing account of capitalism's cultural logic. Scholars, historians, economists, and politically alert general readers will find Veblen's analyses strikingly modern, often unsettling, and enduringly illuminating.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
