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mey's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
This book is more about the "conspicuous" part than the "consumption" bits, which I thought would be the other way around before reading it. Veblen's theory on the leisure class and leisure (and the waste of money and time that it necessarily contains) is very interesting, but his language is so verbose and bloated that I had a difficult time reading through the 100 pages.
alanffm's review against another edition
5.0
Veblen's classic analysis on how and why we expose wealth makes for a great read. His writing is witty, clear, and - most importantly - accurate. Conspicuous Consumption details the evolution of 'showing off'. It chronicles the transition of living conspicuously, beginning in the 'barbaric' times and ending in modernity. Hunting trophies collected by Kings who wish to relive and expose highlights of their lives (which has partial purpose), to owning miniature and weak inbred dogs in order to show how domestic one is, are two of many funny examples used to underline the gradual loss of purpose in exposing one's wealth. Veblen makes very clear how absurd things have become. In order for one to show off his or her wealth, he or she must invest it in something incredibly impracticable and useless.
cryo_guy's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
So this book, like the Hoffer I just read, is best considered as a historical document. But before I get into that, I'll say that I've been reading books in this series for a while now (Penguin's Great Ideas). I'm a fan of them because I like the cover arts, I like the slimness, and it's an easy way to get a brief idea about conventionally important thinkers. However, many of them are comprised of excerpts from a much larger text. I can't help but feel in this case, there is a lot more context and argumentation in Veblen's The Leisure Class that would clarify the topic. Nevertheless, I think it's fair attempt to give the average reader an idea of what Veblen was up to. That being said, I'll comment on a few things...
1. As satire
So the back of the book calls this a "wrt portrayal" and a "withering satire" and I think its worth reflecting on the nature of satires...normally i'd consider them to be a bit more lively. But Veblen's is not just doing satire, its very truly wry in that its exclusively (as far as I know) academic satire. There's no ironic narrative, its just logical argumentation about why the upper class values the things it does, and why they do. E.g. The Leisure Class values ornate clothing because its useless and spending money is a means of demonstrating exactly that. Don't expect to get a good laugh out of this otherwise dry take on how useless the habits of the upper classes are, however withering it may be.
2. As economics
I had been under the impression that the book might delve more into the economics of things. And while it most definitely is economics, its far more suitably described as sociology. Of course, in this period, the two are nigh inseparable (and naturally in other periods, they are not unrelated either). I merely find it worth mentioning that there's not a whole lot of economics, per se, going on in these excerpts (unsure if there's more in the full book).
3. As an actual argument
While I found the satire of it to be less funny but eventually coherent as an argument for how the upper class functions and why-and this is not a point to be set aside; he does put a fine point on how the valuing determines how people make moral judgements (this is probably my fav aspect of the book/argument)-he unfortunately, as far as I can tell, doesn't quite fully explain how his argument works, instead leaving his satire to stand on its own. That is, although he describes the state of affairs of the leisure class and how they value things, he doesn't particularly make an argument that convinces you of that fact. So I guess I was ultimately expecting a little convincing and less laborious describing. I understand that the laborious prose was the style of such things at the time.
4. My misgivings
I've gone over the main issues, but the big one he throws down at the end is that...OF ALL THINGS...learning dead languages, and the study of classics in general, is the most useless and therefore the most valued of all pursuits. Sadly this is an assertion that the humanities struggle with even now. While it's interesting to note in passing that the more things change the more they stay the same, there are plenty of useful and applicable sets of knowledge to be gained from such study. Being a self-professed classicist myself, I'll not bore you with all my various rants on the subject. And I will note that such concessions would be against the grain of Veblen's satire. Nevertheless, I'm compelled to speak out in defense of my hobby horse, as it were. (I guess I did have a laugh about this after all, so you win with your satire here Veblen!)
An otherwise interesting and edifying read, a peculiarly unique academic satire, informative, but perhaps lacking in some respects.
1. As satire
So the back of the book calls this a "wrt portrayal" and a "withering satire" and I think its worth reflecting on the nature of satires...normally i'd consider them to be a bit more lively. But Veblen's is not just doing satire, its very truly wry in that its exclusively (as far as I know) academic satire. There's no ironic narrative, its just logical argumentation about why the upper class values the things it does, and why they do. E.g. The Leisure Class values ornate clothing because its useless and spending money is a means of demonstrating exactly that. Don't expect to get a good laugh out of this otherwise dry take on how useless the habits of the upper classes are, however withering it may be.
2. As economics
I had been under the impression that the book might delve more into the economics of things. And while it most definitely is economics, its far more suitably described as sociology. Of course, in this period, the two are nigh inseparable (and naturally in other periods, they are not unrelated either). I merely find it worth mentioning that there's not a whole lot of economics, per se, going on in these excerpts (unsure if there's more in the full book).
3. As an actual argument
While I found the satire of it to be less funny but eventually coherent as an argument for how the upper class functions and why-and this is not a point to be set aside; he does put a fine point on how the valuing determines how people make moral judgements (this is probably my fav aspect of the book/argument)-he unfortunately, as far as I can tell, doesn't quite fully explain how his argument works, instead leaving his satire to stand on its own. That is, although he describes the state of affairs of the leisure class and how they value things, he doesn't particularly make an argument that convinces you of that fact. So I guess I was ultimately expecting a little convincing and less laborious describing. I understand that the laborious prose was the style of such things at the time.
4. My misgivings
I've gone over the main issues, but the big one he throws down at the end is that...OF ALL THINGS...learning dead languages, and the study of classics in general, is the most useless and therefore the most valued of all pursuits. Sadly this is an assertion that the humanities struggle with even now. While it's interesting to note in passing that the more things change the more they stay the same, there are plenty of useful and applicable sets of knowledge to be gained from such study. Being a self-professed classicist myself, I'll not bore you with all my various rants on the subject. And I will note that such concessions would be against the grain of Veblen's satire. Nevertheless, I'm compelled to speak out in defense of my hobby horse, as it were. (I guess I did have a laugh about this after all, so you win with your satire here Veblen!)
An otherwise interesting and edifying read, a peculiarly unique academic satire, informative, but perhaps lacking in some respects.
seedwa's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I enjoyed it and think it a worthwhile read for criticisms of the rich that evades centring Marxism. It could be tiring and very repetitive, and I’m not sure I’d make it through the full theory of the leisurely class text easily, but it was worth pulling through and there was a lot of humour and personality in parts. Many aspects of this text I think about in the time since reading it.
rosekk's review against another edition
2.0
I was surprised when, upon searching for the book on goodreads, I was assured that this is a satire. Perhaps I'm being slow (I have been ill lately), but I just thought this was impenetrable waffle. Maybe that was deliberate, and all part of the satire? Which, in turn, might be proof that it's satire gone wrong. I don't feel strongly enough about the book to unpack all it's possible layers of questionable meaning. Occasionally I thought I glimpsed some suggestion of an argument, but such things were gone long before they could be satisfactorily identified.
raoionna's review
5.0
This book helps place our capitalist culture and our norms of consumption into perspective.
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