The Theory of the Leisure Class Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Martha Banta

* Thorstein Veblen's searing indictment of modern consumer society is startlingly relevant in a world of Paris Hiltons and Victoria Beckhams; this edition is a timely reminder of the human cost paid for waste in all its forms.
* Veblen's critique covers all aspects of modern life from dress, class, the position of women, home decoration, industry, business, and sport to religion, scholarship, and education.
* Martha Banta's excellent Introduction places a new emphasis on the literary force of Veblen's writing and its influence on later American writers such as Edith Wharton, Henry James, Dos Passos and Scott Fitzgerald. She also considers his critique of the plight of women and his evolutionary arguments as they relate to modern society.

'Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.'

In The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen sets out 'to discuss the place and value of the leisure class as an economic factor in modern life'. In so doing he produced a landmark study of affluent American society that exposes, with brilliant ruthlessness, the habits of production and waste that link invidious business tactics and barbaric social behaviour. Veblen's analysis of the evolutionary process sees greed as the overriding motive in the modern economy; with an impartial gaze he examines the human cost paid when social institutions exploit the consumption of unessential goods for the sake of personal profit. Fashion, beauty, animals, sports, the home, the clergy, scholars - all are assessed for their true usefulness and found wanting. The targets of Veblen's coruscating satire are as evident today as they were a century ago, and his book still has the power to shock and enlighten. Veblen's uncompromising arguments and the influential literary force of his writing are assessed in Martha Banta's Introduction.