The Theory of the Leisure Class: Deep Review

Original academic guide to The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen.

• Academic Classics
• 41 min
• Ages 15–99
• 10 chapters

About this audiobook

Veblen's sharp critique of status competition, conspicuous consumption, leisure, waste, social emulation, class performance, and economic institutions.

Why it's worth a listen

Make Veblen feel contemporary without flattening him into a meme: a strange, funny, severe theory of status as an economic force.

Based on the book by Thorstein Veblen, published by Public domain classic

Chapters

1. Introduction: The Anatomy of Status and Waste
2. The Historical and Intellectual Context of 1899
3. The Problem This Book Is Trying To Solve
4. The Central Argument: Emulation and the Instinct of Workmanship
5. Key Concepts: Conspicuous Consumption and Conspicuous Leisure
6. The Satirical Method: Veblen’s Irony as a Scientific Tool
7. Gender, Domesticity, and Vicarious Consumption
8. What Is Brilliant: Why Scholars Still Assign Veblen
9. What Is Dangerous or Dated: The Limits of Evolutionary Sociology
10. How to Read Veblen Today and Who Should Read Him