Thorstein Bunde Veblen: Background information when reading The Portable Veblen

Thorstein Bunde Veblen

This article relates to The Portable Veblen

The economist Thorstein Bunde Veblen, a frequent point of reference (and the main character's namesake) in Elizabeth McKenzie's The Portable Veblen, was born in Wisconsin in 1857. Veblen is famous for the concept of "conspicuous consumption," or spending more on things than they are worth to make a show of one's class.

He was the fourth of twelve children born to Norwegian parents who emigrated to America in the 1840s. Their family farm, which patriarch Thomas Veblen built himself, is now a National Historic Landmark in Nerstrand, Minnesota.

Although Norwegian was Veblen's first language, he quickly learned English through schooling and interaction with neighbors. He and his siblings were educated at local Carleton College; his sister Emily was the first woman to graduate college in Minnesota. Veblen chose to study philosophy and economics. His mentor at Carleton was John Bates Clark, a pioneer of what became known as neoclassical economics. Afterwards Veblen moved on to Yale for a PhD in philosophy and, after seven years of unemployment back on the family farm, did further graduate studies at Cornell in the social sciences.

Veblen finally found work at the University of Chicago in 1892 with the Journal of Political Economy, and later lectured at Stanford and the University of Missouri. He published his first book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, in 1899. Despite an elevation in professional standing, he continued to be unpopular for a number of reasons. His agnostic perspective set him at a disadvantage at a time when most academics taught from a Christian standpoint, and there was perhaps some lingering prejudice related to his foreign background. (Ironically, it was this very outsider status that allowed him to make such piercing critiques of the American economy.) In addition, his teaching style was dull and his behavior outside the classroom questionable: at Stanford he was forced to resign for carrying on extramarital affairs.

Later in life Veblen moved away from academia and into policy work. With the publication of Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution (1915), he set himself up as an expert commentator on how economic and political systems contributed to World War I. In 1917 he moved to Washington, D.C. to join President Wilson's committee on potential peace settlements. This was followed by stints working for the U.S. Food Administration and The Dial magazine. Meanwhile, he was also a part of the group that created the New School for Social Research in New York City (now called The New School) in 1919.

In total he published ten books and numerous articles. He married twice and had two stepdaughters but no biological children. After the death of his second wife, he moved to California and invested in the stock market and some vineyards. However, he lost most of his money and was reduced to living in a shack, with his only income sources being book royalties and the charity of a former student. He died in obscurity in 1929 – just months before the Great Depression he had predicted in his final book.

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This "beyond the book article" relates to The Portable Veblen. It originally ran in January 2016 and has been updated for the November 2016 paperback edition. Go to magazine.