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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 mean by esoteric knowledge?

2. What is education's relationship with the supernatural, according to Veblen?

3. What happens as the lower classes are educated and depend on the leisure class?

4. What promotes the predatory aptitudes and predatory animus?

5. What does Veblen see as evidence of the martial spirit in the leisure class?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the ethnic types Veblen defines, and how does he describe them?

2. How does education form the leisure class?

3. How does one move from the industrial class to the leisure class?

4. Where does Veblen believe the desire to gamble originates?

5. How do sports demonstrate belief in luck, or semireligious sentiment?

6. How does Veblen's book reveal Darwin's influence?

7. How does the workman manifest his animistic view about luck?

8. What is martial spirit, and which classes demonstrate it?

9. How do the leisure classes change over time?

10. How does the study of the classics and classical languages change over time?

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

How do Veblen's definitions hold up in contemporary society? Are his definitions of the classes accurate? Are his definitions of the behaviors accurate? Have the times changed since he wrote "The Theory of the Leisure Class"? How have they changed? How have they remained the same?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the role Darwinian thinking plays in "The Theory of the Leisure Class." Is Veblen simply applying Darwin's ideas to society, or is he using Darwin's ideas as tools to show things Darwin's theories would not have described?

(see the answer keys)

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