Thorstein Veblen [1857-1929] at Maison d'Être Philosophy Bookstore

Thorstein Bunde Veblen was born 30 July 1857 in Wisconsin. The family later moved to a farmstead in Minnesota, adjacent to what is now the Nerstrand 'Big Woods' State Park. Of Norwegian heritage, he spoke all his life with that accent. He attended Carleton College and Johns Hopkins, receiving his PhD at Yale in 1884. But he was unable to find work as a teacher, and lived for a while on his father's farm, reading voraciously. In 1888, he married Ellen Rolfe, niece of the president of Carleton College, against the wishes of her family. He returned to school in 1891, to Cornell, and by 1892 was an assistant professor at newly-founded Chicago University. He was founder & editor of the "Journal of Political Economy" from 1892-1905, writing many essays that attracted major respect. But during that time he was involved in scandal and was forced to resign from the university.

His central work, "The Theory of The Leisure Class" (1899) brought him fame; its theories are still relevant and taught in many universities around the world. This scathing indictment of capitalism describes the class struggle as being not between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (per Marx/Engels), but between businessmen – bankers, lawyers, brokers, managers – and industry: engineers, designers, technicians, and labor; in short, between making money and producing goods. His "Theory of Business Enterprise" (1904) further widened his renown.

He was hired at Stanford University in 1906, which he left under another cloud of scandal in 1909. He was divorced by his first wife in 1911, and became a lecturer at the University of Missouri, to 1918. The year 1914 was busy: he published "Instinct of Workmanship", was involved in further scandal, and married divorcee Anne Fessenden Bradley. While in Missouri, he also published "Imperial Germany" (1915) and "Inquiry Into the Nature of Peace" (1917).

He took his family to Washington D.C. in 1918, but he was ill fit for a job in government. They soon moved to New York City, where Veblen lectured at the New School for Social Research, also continuing to write and publish: "Higher Learning In America" (1918), "Vested Interests" (1919), and "The Industrial System & the Captains of Industry" (1919). His second wife died in 1920. He published "The Engineers & the Price System" (1921). His last book, "Absentee Ownership" was published in 1923, and was below the standard of his prior work.
After leaving the New School in 1926, Veblen stopped teaching. He moved in with his step-daughter, to a cabin in the hills above Stanford, where he lived until his death on 3 August 1929.

Veblen's influence has grown and remains important. Howard Scott's Technocracy movement of the 1930s, the publication of "Essays" (1934), and Wesley Claire Mitchell's collection of more essays, "What Veblen Taught", have been followed by many biographical and critical works, the most recent appearing a hundred years after the publication of Veblen's "The Theory of The Leisure Class".

	"The Legacy of Thorstein Veblen" [2003] Edited by Rick Tilman Edward Elgar Publg hardcover [9/2003] ten volumes for $665.00 [!]
	"Veblen and Modern America: Revolutionary Iconoclast" [2002] by Michael Spindler Pluto Press 8½x5¼ pb [8/2002] for $19.95 Pluto Press 9x5¼ hardcover [8/2002] for $69.95
	"Veblen's Century: A Collective Portrait" [2001] Edited by Irving Louis Horowitz Essays by C. Wright Mills, Max Lerner, David Reisman, Douglas Dowd & others written for reissues by Transaction Publishing of all Veblen's works Transaction Publg 9x6 pb [12/2002] for $29.95 Transaction Publg hardcover [11/2001] for $49.95
	"Veblen In Perspective: His Life & Thought" [2001] by Stephen Edgell M.E. Sharpe 9x6 pb [5/2001] for $25.95 M.E. Sharpe 9.3x6.3 hardcover [5/2001] for $59.95
	"Is Economics An Evolutionary Science?: The Legacy of Thorstein Veblen" [2000] Edited by Francisco Louca & Mark Perlman Edward Elgar Publg hardcover [10/2000] for $101.99
	"Thorstein Veblen: Theorist of The Leisure Class" [1999] by John Patrick Diggins Princeton Univ Press 9x6 pb [5/99] for $23.95 Princeton Univ Press 9½x6½ hardcover [5/99] for $75.00
	"Thorstein Veblen: Victorian Firebrand" [1999] by Elizabeth & Henry Jorgensen M.E. Sharpe 9¼x6¼ hardcover [4/99] for $43.95
	"Dreiser and Veblen: Saboteurs of The Status Quo" [1999] by Clare Virginia Eby Univ MO Press 9½x6¼ hardcover [2/99] for $39.95
	"Thorstein Veblen In The XXth Century: A Commemoration of The Theory of the Leisure Class, 1899-1999" [1998] by Doug Brown Edward Elgar Publg hardcover [12/98] for $96.99

	"The Theory of The Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions" [1899] Dover Thrift 8x5 pb [6/94] for $3.00 Modern Library 8x5¼ pb [11/2001] for $8.76 Penguin Classics pb [3/94] for $9.60 IndyPublish 9x6 pb [12/2002] for $13.99 IndyPublish 9x6 hardcover [12/2002] for $18.99 Career Tapes multi-cassette audio [6/87] for $81.99
	"The Theory of Business Enterprise" [1904] Transaction Publrs pb [6/78] for $29.95 Transaction Publrs hardcover [6/78] out of print/used A.M.Kelley hardcover [6/65] for $46.99
	"The Instinct of Workmanship & The State of The Industrial Arts" [1914] Transaction Publrs pb [12/89] for $29.95

	"An Inquiry Into The Nature of Peace & The Terms of Its Perpetuation" [1917] Transaction Publrs pb [5/98] for $29.95
	"The Higher Learning In America: A Memorandum On The Conduct of Universities By Business Men" [1918] Transaction Publrs pb [11/92] for $24.95
	"The Vested Interests & The Common Man" [1919] Transaction Publrs 9x6 pb [10/2001] for $24.95

	"Absentee Ownership & Business Enterprise In Recent Times" [1923] Transaction Publrs pb [8/96] for $31.94
	"The Laxdaela Saga: An Icelandic Classic" 1925 translation by TBV is out of print Translation by Magnus Magnusson Viking 7¾x5 pb [11/69] for $10.36
	"Essays In Our Changing Order" [1934] Transaction Publrs pb [2/98] for $31.94 A.M. Kelley Publrs hardcover [6/80] for $45.00

	"Thorstein Veblen & The American Way of Life" [2004] by Louis Patsouras Black Rose pb [DUE May 2004] for $17.49 Black Rose hardcover [1/2004] for $53.99
	"Veblen, Dewey and Mills: An Intellectual Relationship" [2003] by Rick Tilman Rowman & Littlefield 9x6 hardcover [12/2003] for $65.00

	"Thorstein Veblen" [1977] by Douglas F. Dowd Transaction Publg 9x6 pb [7/2000] for $15.72 Greenwood Publng hardcover [9/77] for $35.00
	"The Innocents At Cedro: A Memoir - Thorstein Veblen & Some Others" [1972] by Robert L. Duffus A.M.Kelley Publg 8¾x5½ hardcover [1/72] for $36.99

Maison d'Être Philosophy BookstoreThorstein B. Veblen

Maison d'Être Philosophy Bookstore
Thorstein B. Veblen