VEBLEN'S MASTERPIECE. VEBLEN, THORSTEIN. 1857-1929. The Theory of the Leisure Class. An Economic...

VEBLEN'S MASTERPIECE. VEBLEN, THORSTEIN. 1857-1929. The Theory of the Leisure Class. An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions. New York: Macmillan, 1899. 8vo. Publisher's green cloth, gilt, top edge gilt, front hinge strengthened. Provenance: S. Grace Nicholes (1870-1922, social reformer, her bookplate); Hon. Stanley C. Wisniewski (pencil inscription). FIRST EDITION OF VEBLEN'S SEMINAL WORK ON ECONOMICS AND CLASS, the origin of the concepts of 'conspicuous consumption' and 'conspicuous leisure.' A masterpiece of American literature, Veblen's Theory depicts the evolutionary change of culture and uses social science to explain how man's adaptation and survival shaped and then was shaped by institutions. A prominent institutionalist, Veblen explores the evolutionary roots of the modern economic institutions providing insight into a process that has no foreseeable end, and illuminating changes which may be in process with import for future generations. 'Veblen, who purports to tell a tale of how the gradual accumulation of small changes in man's habits of thought is responsible for all achievements of the race, was logically bound to look forward to a future of the same sort; it was a future in which external things might happen to the race which would produce important changes in their way of life – quite possible that climate would change, natural resources get exhausted; things with which man's scientific capacity might not be able to cope, but the outlook is for a continuation of change in culture, world without end – change of a gradual sort' (Mitchell, Types of Economic Theory, pp 605-6). Veblen's radical critique of conventional economics remains vital and relevant today, '... his ideas were seminal and his influence is continuous' (Grolier American 100). For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing