The Theory of the Leisure Class
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Narrated by:
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John Lescault
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By:
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Thorstein Veblen
About this listen
In this, his best-known work, the controversial American economist and social critic Thorstein Veblen appropriates Darwin's theory of evolution to analyze the modern industrial system. For Veblen, the shallowness and superficiality observed in society results from the tendency to believe that true accomplishment lies in arriving at a condition of ostentatious wealth and status. In developing his thesis, Veblen traces the origins and development of ownership and property, offering extraordinary insights into consumerism, the evolution of class structure, the rise of leisure time, and how modern societal goals are grounded in monetary aspirations and achievements.
With a cool gaze and devastating wit, Veblen examines the human cost paid when social institutions are founded on the consumption of unessential goods for the sake of personal profit. Fashion, beauty, sports, the home, the clergy, scholars - all are assessed for their true usefulness and found wanting. Indeed, Veblen's critique covers all aspects of modern life from dress, class, industry, business, and home decoration to religion, scholarship, education, and the position of women, laying bare the hollowness of many cherished standards of taste and culture.The targets of Veblen's brilliant, scathing satire are as evident today as they were when this classic of economic and social theory was first published, and his book still has the power to shock and enlighten.
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- Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Is socialism desirable? Is it even possible? In this concise book, one of the world's leading political philosophers presents with clarity and wit a compelling moral case for socialism and argues that the obstacles in its way are exaggerated. There are times, G. A. Cohen notes, when we all behave like socialists.
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Not compelling, but OK
- By Angel D. on 01-17-12
By: G. A. Cohen
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The End of History and the Last Man
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since its first publication in 1992, The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. Francis Fukuyama's prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the end of the Cold War. Now updated with a new afterword, The End of History and the Last Man is a modern classic.
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An important discussion expertly narrated
- By Kevin Teeple on 06-27-19
By: Francis Fukuyama
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World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction
- A John Hope Franklin Center Book
- By: Immanuel Wallerstein
- Narrated by: Fred Filbrich
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In World-Systems Analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein provides a concise and accessible introduction to the comprehensive approach that he pioneered 30 years ago to understanding the history and development of the modern world. Since Wallerstein first developed world-systems analysis, it has become a widely utilized methodology within the historical social sciences and a common point of reference in discussions of globalization.
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Uneven, but Ambitious
- By Logical Paradox on 08-27-14
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How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
- By: Walter Rodney, Angela Y. Davis - foreword
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. In his magnum opus, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the West and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the repercussions of European colonialism in Africa remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.
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A Superb must read for everyone
- By Joy on 04-16-19
By: Walter Rodney, and others
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The Great Degeneration
- How Institutions Decay and Economies Die
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Paul Slack
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author and world-renowned historian Niall Ferguson has won widespread acclaim for thought-provoking works such as Civilization and High Financier. The Great Degeneration tackles nothing less than the decline of Western civilization. Ferguson posits that slowing growth, outrageous debt, and antisocial behavior are contributing to the erosion of the West’s once rock-solid foundations. Ferguson excavates the causes and shows how heroic leadership and radical reform are needed to right the course.
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Superb as always!
- By Ivanhoe on 08-28-17
By: Niall Ferguson
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The Sovereign Individual
- Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
- By: James Dale Davidson, Peter Thiel - preface, William Rees-Mogg
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Two renowned investment advisors and authors of the best seller The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization.
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Unfortunately distopian for mosty of humanity
- By Phil on 09-29-20
By: James Dale Davidson, and others
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On Liberty
- By: John Stuart Mill
- Narrated by: Alastair Cameron
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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On Liberty is a book by John Stuart Mill, one of the most celebrated philosophers on the subject of leadership and governing ideals. The book focuses on Mill's philosophy on utilitarianism which is one of his defining principles. The principles of the book are focused on developing a relationship between the ruling authority and liberty.
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Must read
- By Trevor M. on 08-04-21
By: John Stuart Mill
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When China Rules the World
- The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order
- By: Martin Jacques
- Narrated by: Scott Peterson
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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According to even the most conservative estimates, China will overtake the United States as the world's largest economy by 2027 and will ascend to the position of world economic leader by 2050. But the full repercussions of China's ascendancy-for itself and the rest of the globe-have been surprisingly little explained or understood.
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Lucid explanation of global economic trends
- By David Blake on 01-04-10
By: Martin Jacques
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Theory and History
- An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution (LvMI)
- By: Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Like F.A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises moved beyond economics in his later years to address questions regarding the foundation of all social science. But unlike Hayek's attempts, Mises' writings on these matters have received less attention than they deserve. Theory and History, writes Rothbard in his introduction, "remains by far the most neglected masterwork of Mises". Here Mises defends his all-important idea of methodological dualism: one approach to the hard sciences and another for the social sciences.
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Without This Book, You Are Uneducated
- By Michael D. Rubin on 10-03-18
By: Ludwig von Mises, and others
What listeners say about The Theory of the Leisure Class
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- Anonymous User
- 08-20-21
Informative and Engaging
A great listen. It’s detailed and unique perspective of how our modern Western societies have developed.
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- Damon LaBarbera, PhD
- 04-04-22
Brilliant analyis
Veblen was writing not only economic analysis but satire. His interpretations are acute and original. His language may seem anarchistic but is also wry and account for why the book is considered humorous by readers familiar with his work and style. Anyway, I like it. His life was very hard, as it often is with unconventional types who don't fit into academia.
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- Mira Krishnan
- 09-20-19
A lesser read (it seems?) but important classic
Veblen really attempts to demonstrate that the rise of a moneyed (or capital-rich), leisure class gives downward rise to a wide variety of phenomena in modern economies, and that they are really an ultimate driver of stratification, segmentation, and both the positive aspects of the modern, complex economy and its ills. At times, Veblen is not just a little but quite overtly sexist. These aspects of the book weather the most poorly, because in them he makes the model predictions that are most flagrantly erroneous. However, there is some merit to the overall model, and it's worth thinking about in terms of thinking about how the world is evolving, particularly in light of recent predictions (e.g. Piketty) that the world is heading back in the direction of long-term inequality and entrenched moneyed classes. Narration is dry but suitable.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jun
- 02-26-22
Review
Despite the language being archaic, convoluted, and repetitive, the content of Veblen's book is insightful and convincing, although a lot of his conclusions have become relatively common understandings of today. Of course as a 21st century reader, I'm biased against the writing style of a 19th century scholar, but I can't help but feel it ironic when Veblen himself commented on language in the last chapter:
"Elegant diction, whether in writing or speaking, is an effective means of reputability. It is of moment to know with some precision what is the degree of archaism conventionally required in speaking on any given topic. Usage differs appreciably from the pulpit to the market-place; the latter, as might be expected, admits the use of relatively new and effective words and turns of expression, even by fastidious persons. A discriminate avoidance of neologisms is honorific, not only because it argues that time has been wasted in acquiring the obsolescent habit of speech, but also as showing that the speaker has from infancy habitually associated with persons who have been familiar with the obsolescent idiom. It thereby goes to show his leisure-class antecedents. Great purity of speech is presumptive evidence of several successive lives spent in other than vulgarly useful occupations; although its evidence is by no means entirely conclusive to this point."
There, you can see how difficult it is to read him; and, imagine applying this mode of analysis to almost every aspect of our society, you get more or less what he is trying to do in this book: not only do conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption, as ways of demonstrating superiority, permeate our lives, but they also heavily shape our values (both aesthetical and moral).
Veblen defines "leisure" or "waste" in terms of whether it is "useful" or "productive." I think there is some truth in it, but for him such distinction is taken for granted and I think the precise definition can be debated. Would he consider the spiritual or cultural effects on our community of certain works and projects as being "productive"? From my reading it seems he would discredit at least a subset of those. Maybe he could get around this by claiming being "productive" is whatever the community values as being "productive," and thus the reputability of leisure is culturally relativistic. But there's none of that discussion. I guess he might be biased by the industrial revolution of his time.
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- Bruce R
- 04-04-22
An independent mind
Love Thorstein Veblen. A wide intellectual range. Many of his views ring true today.
At times pedantic and occasionally slow, overall very good. I smiled at some arguments because Veblen must have been a grumpy guy. But whatever annoyed him gave rise to an intellectual clarity that is worth a listen
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- Jason Coleman
- 11-13-23
Accurate to the 2000s
Conspicuous consumption. Honorific intent, leisure and labor. Thorstein could have written this book today. Rich and poor are exactly the same.
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- Kindle Customer
- 03-24-22
Insightful and Anachronistic.
Are you ready for some hot hot Gilded Age economic theory? Let's party like it's 1899!
Veblen's influential 1899 "Theory of the Leisure Class" is as dry as grandma's fruitcake and as anachronistic as an old dude at the nightclub but nevertheless is an intriguing and insightful look into the rise of service culture, conspicuous consumption (and waste), and what societies look like when people acquire status without doing much of anything.
Written at the height of the 19th century's Gilded Age, Veblen's basic argument is that as societies transition out of barbarism to an industrial era there rises a leisurely class whose status is derived not from traditional "barbaric" virtues (martial prowess) but rather the conspicuous consumption of good/services and the conspicuous waste that having lots of money entails. This leisurely class (and the service economy that orbits it) differs from the industrial/productive class in that the former doesn't actually produce anything tangible. Think every social media influence sporting Louis Vitton handbags.
While Veblen's examples of conspicuous consumption are a BIT dated -- we get lots of commentary on footmen, livery, and the gentleman's walking stick -- the overall sentiment is accurate and you can just switch out the titles or accoutrements to show what people do for status or clout in the modern era. I found particularly amusing Veblen's example of handcrafted items vs mass/machine produced items. The former are purportedly made with skill and mastery by a craftsman while the latter are cheaply made dross. And Veblen notes how willing people are to accept/forgive imperfections/shoddy work in a more expensive "handcrafted" item (again, to gain status) vs imperfections in a mass-produced and "cheap" product. A thousand "distressed" items on Pinterest just called out in pain and were suddenly silenced.
Again, while dry as a bone and exceedingly quasi-academic, Veblen's theory was prescient and still offers relevant insights for a modern world.
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- Kevin D.
- 07-02-23
A Comprehensive Analysis of the Social and Economic Dynamics within the Leisure Class!
Thorstein Veblen’s book, "The Theory of the Leisure Class," provides a comprehensive analysis of the social and economic dynamics within the leisure class of early 20th-century America.
Veblen explores the concept of conspicuous consumption and argues that the leisure class engages in wasteful and non-productive activities as a means of displaying their wealth and status.
He delves into the origins of this class, tracing it back to the predatory instincts of early human societies.
Veblen also highlights the role of women in the leisure class, asserting that they serve as symbols of wealth and status for men.
Moreover, he criticizes the leisure class for its unproductive and parasitic nature, as they derive their wealth from the labor of the working class.
Veblen’s analysis sheds light on the societal inequalities and the inherent contradictions of the capitalist system, challenging the prevailing notions of social hierarchy and economic value.
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- wbiro
- 02-23-22
Ivory Tower Imaginings
Imagines things that you will not find in reality. Struck me as Ivory Tower (and worse, wishful thinking). If you indeed find someone who actually thinks like the author thinks in the real world, then that person will be certifiably insane.
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- TJV
- 10-20-22
TLDL
The use of large words and Latin makes it sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher
The only fun is to make a drinking game every-time the word invidious is used
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