VEBLEN (Thorstein).
The Theory of the Leisure Class. An Economic Study of Institutions.
The first British edition of Veblen’s seminal first book, originally published in America in 1899, in which he developed his theory of consumption and status emulation as a ‘conspicuous’ and social process. ‘Through consumption, humans signal status and social position, and thereby stimulate the desires of others. Accordingly, individual tastes are malleable and the idea of unalloyed ‘consumer sovereignty’ is a myth. Although this is an original and sophisticated theoretical work, its mockery of the wasteful rich turned it into a bestseller’ (New Palgrave)
