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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. How does Veblen define leisure?

2. What does Veblen say makes wealth desirable?

3. What does Veblen say public lawns have?

4. How do standards of consumption change?

5. How does Veblen say the laboring classes in an agricultural society see work?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the leisure class view work?

2. How does wealth stratify society?

3. How does the clergy demonstrate vicarious leisure?

4. What distinguishes the leisure class from the other classes?

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

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

7. Why do most people spend in excess of what is required for their physical comfort?

8. How does Veblen define leisure?

9. What kinds of feats replace productivity for the leisure class?

10. What is emulation, and how does it function in society?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Veblen describes the leisure class as a development from earlier culture. Is it a form of progress or a form of evolution? How much is Veblen's concept of the leisure class influenced by Darwinian thinking?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

What would a society without conspicuous consumption be like? Is Veblen satirizing leisure class culture? By exposing the excessive consumption, is he urging us to live a somehow more genuine or less luxurious lifestyle?

(see the answer keys)

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