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rather than concentrating on his economic doctrines…have been concerned in a diffuse and episodic way with his ideas in a variety of disciplines, or have reviewed his philosophical and methodological ideas, or have attempted to deal with his background, to place him in the context of American culture, and to discuss his psychological peculiarities. Many articles have been written on Veblen’s sociological ideas…[Walker, 1977, 213].
Walker attempted to fill the void with an article on Veblen’s economic system. While his article has its virtues, it fails to present the full power and sweep of Veblen’s ideas. In Walker’s defense, it is impossible to do so in a single article.
A recent book by Adil Mouhammed, An Introduction to Thorstein Veblen’s Economic Theory [2003], is not for the uninitiated. It requires significant knowledge of the history of economic thought and lays heavy stress on methodology. In addition, the book has a strong Marxian flavor that, in my view, is not appropriate for Veblen.
One could, of course, refer people to Veblen’s own writing. But as anyone who has ever read Veblen knows, reading Veblen is not for the faint of heart. Veblen does provide the occasional sparkling phrase, and his satire is legendary. For the connoisseur, Veblen’s style can sometimes even be a thing of joy. But that cannot mask the fact that his prose is very hard to read and his ideas are not conveniently organized. For most readers, Veblen is simply too much work. As one sympathetic observer put it,
The chief reason why Veblen has not been more widely read is his style, which is so marked with tortuous clauses and involuted phrases that one sometimes