Thorstein Bunde Veblen, born Tosten Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was a Norwegian-American sociologist and economist and a primary mentor, along with John R. Commons, of the institutional economics movement. He was an impassioned critic of the performance of the American economy, and is most famous for his book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).
Veblen was born in Cato, Wisconsin, of Norwegian immigrant parents. Although Norw...
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Thorstein Bunde Veblen, born Tosten Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was a Norwegian-American sociologist and economist and a primary mentor, along with John R. Commons, of the institutional economics movement. He was an impassioned critic of the performance of the American economy, and is most famous for his book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).
Veblen was born in Cato, Wisconsin, of Norwegian immigrant parents. Although Norwegian was his first language, he learned English from both neighbors and school, which he began at the age of 5. His family was highly successful and placed great emphasis on education and hard work, all of which undoubtedly contributed to his later scorn for what he termed “conspicuous consumption” and waste of the gilded age.
He obtained his B.A. in economics at Carleton College (1880), under John Bates Clark, a leading economist in the emerging body of thought now identified as neoclassical economics. He then undertook graduate work at...
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