Veblen in perspective: his life and thought PDF
Preview Veblen in perspective: his life and thought
Veblen 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 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2001, Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notices No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use of operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. 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. This page intentionally left blank 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 This page intentionally left blank 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- ix
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