Book Description
Best known as the author of the acclaimed book, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Thorstein Veblen was much more than a one-book wonder. He is in fact a seminal classical sociologist who made many original contributions to the study of culture and society. This inspired selection conveys the full zest and penetrating insights of Veblen's writings.The collection comes with a full-length essay which demonstrates the continuing relevance of Veblen's sociology. ... Read more

Book Description
These volumes provide an in-depth study of Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) whose best-known work, The Theory of the Leisure Class, elaborated the concept of "conspicuous consumption." Veblen's work on institutional economics drew on social Darwinism to emphasize the important role of the social and political non-economic environment in shaping economic activity. Veblen went on to criticize much of orthodox economics for its failure to take account of the structural evolution of this non-economic environment. The papers gathered in these volumes show how Veblen's work has been received and modified from contemporary sources to the present day.

Thorstein Veblen: Critical Assessments is the fifteenth work in the Routledge series of Critical Assessments of Leading Economists and Contemporary Economists. Each set presents a comprehensive selection of the critical literature on the life and works of a leading economist. ... Read more

Book Description
Although Veblen, Dewey, and Mills disagreed on a number of points, Rick Tilman shows how these thinkers forged an authentic, coherent, and original tradition of critical social science in the United States. By comparing their views on a number of timely issues such as aesthetics, feminism, and gambling, the author shows how their tradition is vibrantly relevant in the new millenium. ... Read more

Book Description
Thorstein Veblen is a key figure in early twentieth-century American intellectual history. Variously described as a "revolutionary iconoclast," "the father of technocracy" and "the best critic of America that America has produced," his work is frequently compared with that of Marx, Durkheim and Weber for its breadth and insight.

This study sets Veblen's work in its social and intellectual context, delineating its main concepts and tensions, and re-establishing the extent of his influence. In the process, Spindler evaluates the usefulness and the limitations of Veblen's views for an understanding of American culture by considering Veblen not just as an economist or a sociologist - as has been the case up to now-but as a seminal analyst and critic of modern American culture, whose influence and importance has been underplayed and whose radicalism has been blunted by postwar commentators. ... Read more

Book Description
Most economics programs no longer require the study of the history of economic thought or the philosophical foundations of diverse schools of economics. Introduction to Political Economy brings those ideas back into the economics curriculum.

This second edition covers the works of four of the most influential economists of modern times - Marx, Veblen, Keynes, and Galbraith - who are simply ignored in most graduate and undergraduate economics courses. The authors examine such concepts as social class, misleading mainstream assumptions about human behavior, psychological and other dimensions of human behavior, and the key role of government in taming capitalist economies. The authors also consider the Swedish model as a "middle way" between capitalism and socialism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good intentions, but comes up short
The chapter on Swedish social democracy (I was surprised how much better than manage their economy than the U.S.) is quite informative, and by far the best part of the book; however the chapters on Galbraith, Keynes, and political economy, among others, tend to be a little too short to do their subjects justice.
Having said this, this book is still a good effort, and would go far in a classroom to give an alternative to a subject too often biased toward the right. ... Read more

Book Description
The history of economics is littered with concepts characterized by the multiple ways in which they can be approached and formulated. In essence, this is the thing which makes the history of economic thought so interesting and important.

This volume examines four key subjects in the history of economics: Adam Smith's concept of the division of labor; whether "recent" developments in economic thought are yet worthy of serious examination; the varying approaches to the history of economic though embodied in textbooks; and the legacy of Thorstein Veblen as an economic theorist.

The caliber of the authors of this book make it stand out from the crowd and as such this work will be a valuable and interesting tool for all those economists wise enough to thoroughly study their discipline's history as well as its here now. ... Read more