Thorstein veblen brief biography of william

Thorstein veblen conspicuous consumption

Thorstein Bunde Veblen July 30, — August 3, was an American sociologist and economist who applied the evolutionary approach to the study of economic institutions. His first book The Theory of the Leisure Class , embodying his main ideas, became a classic that continues to be popular. Despite this success, Veblen did not achieve academic respect. His critical, often contemptuous, approach to university life, his marital problems, together with his lack of popularity as a teacher drove him out of academia.

Veblen's pessimism prevented him from participating in social or political action, even though he had creative and valuable insights into social and economic problems. His nephew, Oswald Veblen became a famous mathematician. The Veblens spoke only Norwegian at home and Thorstein did not learn English until he was a teenager. The family moved to Wheeling, Minnesota in , and he received his elementary education there.

He obtained his B. He studied under one of the leading neoclassical economists of the time, John Bates Clark , but rejected his ideas. Later he did his graduate work at Johns Hopkins University , under Charles Sanders Peirce , the founder of the pragmatist school in philosophy. He graduated in , and transferred to the doctoral program at Yale University.