Table Of ContentVeblen in
Perspective
S E
STUDIES IN INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS
GARDINER C. MEANS
INSTITUTIONALIST AND POST KEYNESIAN
Warren J. Samuels and Steven G. Medema
THE HETERODOX ECONOMICS OF GARDINER C. MEANS
A COLLECTION
Frederic S. Lee and Warren J. Samuels, editors
UNDERGROUND ECONOMICS
A DECADE OF INSTITUTIONALIST DISSENT
William M. Dugger
THE STRATIFIED STATE
RADICAL INSTITUTIONALIST THEORIES OF
PARTICIPATION AND DUALITY
William M. Dugger and William T. Waller, Jr., editors
A VEBLEN TREASURY
FROM LEISURE CLASS TO WAR,
PRICE, AND CAPITALISM
Rick Tilman, editor
ACTIVIST UNIONISM
THE INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS OF SOLOMON BARKIN
Donald R. Stabile
BEYOND DISSENT
ESSAYS IN INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS
Philip A. Klein
THE UNITED NATIONS AT THE CROSSROADS OF REFORM
Wendell Gordon
A MONETARY THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT
Gardiner C. Means
Warren J. Samuels and Frederic S. Lee, editors
VEBLEN IN PERSPECTIVE
HIS LIFE AND THOUGHT
Stephen Edgell
Veblen in
Perspective
His Life and Thought
StephenE dgell
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2001 by M.E. Sharpe
Published 2015 by Routledge
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Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
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The author is pleasedt o acknowledgep ennissiont o usem aterialsf rom the following
sources:M aterial in chapters2 and 3 were taken from "RescuingV eblen from Valhalla:
Deconstructiona nd Reconstructiono f a SociologicalL egend" by StephenE dgell, British
Journal ofS ociology4 7: 627-42; the Web site for which is http://www.tand(co.ukljournals.
Reprintedb y kind pennissiono f Taylor & FrancisL td., P.O. Box 25, Abingdon, Oxfordshire,
OXI4 3UE, England.F rom the papersi n the ThorsteinV eblen Collections,C arletonC ollege
Archives (CCA), Northfield, Minnesota.F rom the papersi n the JosephD orfman Papers,R are
Book and ManuscriptL ibrary, Columbia University, New York (referredt o as CUL), and
from the papersi n the David Starr JordanP apers,S tanfordU niversity Archives, Stanford
University, Stanford,C alifornia (referredt o as SUL).
Library of CongressC ataloging-in-PublicationD ata
Edgell, Stephen
Veblen in perspective: his life and thoughtI StephenE dgell.
p. cm. - (Studiesi n institutional economics)
Includesb ibliographical referencesa nd index.
ISBN 1-56324-116-1( alk. paper)- ISBN 1-56324-117-X( pbk : alk. paper)
1. Veblen, Thorstein, 1857-1929. 2. Economists-UnitedS tates-Biography.
3. Institutional economics. I. Title. II. Series.
HB 119.V4 E34 2001
330'. 092-dc21
[B]
ISBN 13: 9781563241178 (pbk)
00-068767
ISBN 13: 9781563241161 (hbk)
For the inestimablec ontributionso f
Jaffa (1985-99)a nd Megan (1996-)
to my well-being whilst I was writing this book.
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1. The Times, Life, and Works of ThorsteinV eblen (1857-1929) 3
2. The Mistaken Marginalityo f the "Man from Mars" 30
3. Beyondt he Myth of Marginality: Ethnicity and Evolutionism 57
4. EvolutionaryC hange:B ack to the Future? 76
5. The ConspicuousC onservationo f Leisure ClassC ulture 101
6. The Problem: PredatoryI nstitutions 117
7. The Solution: WorkmanshipI nstitutions 137
8. Conclusions 160
References 169
Index 185
About the Author 209
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Preface
I first camea crosst he work ofT horsteinV eblen( 1857-1929)in PeterB erger's
Invitation to Sociology( 1963) nearlyf our decadesa go. In this briefb ut brilliant
advertisemenfto r sociology,B ergerr eferst o justt wo ofV eblen'se ight book-
length studiesa nd describesh im as "one of the early important sociologists
in America" (1963,44).B ergers umsu p Veblen'sd istinctive contributionb y
noting that: "[h]is approacht o sociology is characterizedb y its merciless
debunkingo rientation,i ts concentrationo n economicf actors in sociald evel-
opmenta nda stronga ffinity with radicalc ritiqueso fc apitalists ociety"( 1963,
180-81).A t a time when functionalismw as dominant,I was hooked,a nd I
resolvedt o readt he two booksc ited by Bergera nd all Veblen'sw orks when
the opportunitya rose.
The opportunityt o satisfym y curiosity aboutth is imperspicuouss ociolo-
gist presentedit self when I decidedt o take a breakf rom empirical research
and spentt he 1973 summerv acatione nsconcedin ManchesterC entralP ub-
lic Library with the writings ofT horsteinV eblen. Readingt heb ulk ofV eblen's
intellectualo utputa t one sitting, as it were, revealedth at his social scientific
contributionw as characterizedb y a theoreticalc oherenceth at the vast ma-
jority of scholarsh ade itheru nderratedo r failed to recognize.T his prompted
me to write an article which soughtt o make good this gap in the literature
(Edgell 1975). Specifically, I arguedt hat Veblen's often-malignedg eneral
theory of evolutionaryc hangew as the integratingd imensiono f his socio-
logical project, one that focusedo n a macroeconomica nd sociological ac-
count of Americanc apitalism.
After returningt o andc ompletingm y empiricals ocialr esearcho n middle-
class couples( Edgell 1980), I startedt o teach a Masters-levelc ourse on
Veblen. At this stagei n my careerI was distractedi nitially by seriousi ll
healtha ndt henb y Thatcherism( Edgell and Duke 1991). In betweenc ollect-
ing andr eportingo n a longitudinals urveyr esearchin to the social andp oliti-
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