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Foreword
Although scholars disagree about the significance of his work, interest in Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) has not decreased. Born in 1857 in Wisconsin, Veblen was the fourth child of Norwegian immigrant farmers who raised a large family, most of whom received higher education. The Veblen children went to Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota; there Thorstein obtained his training in economics and philosophy under the tutelage of John Bates Clark, who later became a prominent neoclassical economist. After receiving his bachelor’s degree at Carleton, Veblen taught for a year and then enrolled at Johns Hopkins for graduate study. After a short stay, he transferred to Yale, where he obtained his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1884, while studying under such noted academicians as Noah Porter and William Graham Sumner.
Veblen was then idle for seven years, most of which was spent on the farms of relatives or in-laws in the Midwest. His agnosticism made him unemploy-able in schools with religious affiliations, and he had not yet established a reputation in economics. Finally, in 1891 he obtained a graduate position at Cornell University, where he once again became a doctoral student. The economist James Laurence Laughlin was impressed by him, and in 1892, when Laughlin moved to the newly founded University of Chicago, he took Veblen with him. Veblen soon became editor of the Journal of Political Economy and began publishing in the field of economics. In 1899 his most famous book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, appeared and achieved a notoriety all its own. But Veblen’s personal idiosyncrasies and his failure to properly “advertise” the university offended the administration at Chicago, and he was forced to move. His next job was at Stanford where, in a few short years, he encountered similar difficulties. He was compelled to move again, this time to the University of Missouri.
Veblen was then idle for seven years, most of which was spent on the farms of relatives or in-laws in the Midwest. His agnosticism made him unemploy-able in schools with religious affiliations, and he had not yet established a reputation in economics. Finally, in 1891 he obtained a graduate position at Cornell University, where he once