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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What distinguishes devout structures from other buildings?

2. What aspect of culture was a condition for the development of a leisure class?

3. What distinction does Veblen say emerged between types of labor in cultures that had a leisure class?

4. Spending money on ornate buildings is an example of what?

5. What does Veblen say happens to cultures that develop knowledge and tools?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does wealth stratify society?

2. How are lawns and public grounds evidence of pecuniary beauty?

3. How does Veblen define leisure?

4. How did women practice production and consumption in early predatory culture?

5. What began with private ownership?

6. How does the individual consumer think of his conspicuous waste?

7. What do a man's possessions say about the man?

8. How does the clergy demonstrate vicarious leisure?

9. How does the leisure of the leisure class affect the servants?

10. How are the different social classes distinguished?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At what rank does the leisure class end in industrial culture? Is it just the upper classes, or are all people leisure class if they are anywhere above subsistence?

Essay Topic 2

How American is "The Theory of the Leisure Class"? Is it descriptive of industrial economies generally, or is it limited to Veblen's American environment? How does he account for aristocratic or feudal culture or other European social systems?

Essay Topic 3

Are status symbols necessary? If social status is a fact of life for middle-class (leisure-class) people in industrial society, are status symbols necessities, or are they luxuries? Is Veblen being puritanical to see them as luxuries when pragmatically they are requirements for participation in culture?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 780 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample