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Trained in critical philosophy and versed in the emerging modern anthropology and social sciences, Thorstein Veblen initiated a new approach to economic theory that took account of evolving social and institutional contexts and considered their human ramifications. In dense, nuanced prose laced with irony, Veblen in early works set forth theories and critical concepts that laid bare the predation and pretense at the heart of privileged postbellum society. He showed, for example, how the "conspicuous consumption," "conspicuous emulation" and "conspicuous waste" practiced by the leisure class bequeathed society with negative values, broadly setting "predatory" exploit over and above "productive" workmanship. In later works he extended these basic insights, as in contrasting the economic functions of business and industry, identifying the tendency of business to sabotage production, showing that boom-and-bust cycles are norms rather than aberrations, identifying as positive human instincts workmanship, the parental bent and idle curiosity, and so forth. Veblen's ideas and theories have exerted a strong and far-reaching influence on critical views of economics, government, sociology, education, and literature.
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