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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 does Veblen say was lacking in primitive culture?

2. What gives an item its desirability to men of the leisure class?

3. Where did the earliest form of ownership take place?

4. What distinguishes devout structures from other buildings?

5. Where is conspicuous consumption most prevalent?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does the institution of a leisure class appear in the development of culture?

2. What was the earliest form of ownership?

3. How does Veblen define leisure?

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

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

6. How does Veblen describe the differences between the sexes and the effect of those differences on economic life of a society?

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

8. How does the leisure class view work?

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

10. How are habits formed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why does society need to have its industrial efficiency reduced through devout observances and the belief in unseen hands? What would happen if society accelerated toward efficiency? What does reducing efficiency allow for a leisure class? What does it offer for the other classes?

Essay Topic 2

Is Veblen critical of the leisure class, or is his work simply descriptive of their habits? Use the text and any social, biographical, or cultural research to define Veblen's feelings about the leisure class.

Essay Topic 3

Can leisure be said to be a form of labor itself? Is the leisure class obligated to perform its conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption? Is it work? If not, why not?

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