The Veblenite: Thorstein Veblen

The Veblenite.

BIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES / RESIDUE AND OBITUARIES

BIOGRAPHY

American political economist and sociologist, both theorist and reformer, one of the founders of the so-called Institutionalist school in american sociology. He developed a history of civilization which spread among the English-speaking world, esp. on behalf of its tempting and eloquent critical analysis of the upper-class (conspicuous consumption, pecuniary emulation). * Valders, Municipality of Cato, Manitowoc County, WI, July 30, 1857, as Tosten Bunde Anderson; [but cf. the 1860 Census of Manitowoc County, WI, Cato Township. He was listed at p. 84, family 590, "Terson Anderson" (sex: M, age: 3); [Veblen's first-name was "germanized" to 'Thorstein' in the mid 1870s.] † (near) Menlo Park, California, August 3, 1929.
Father:	Thomas Anderson Veblen (birth-name: "Veflen"; name in U.S: "Anderson") - (* 1818 † Aug., 1906), carpenter, who immigrated in May 1847 with his wife and a large number of other settlers from the Valdres area ('Ryfoss' near 'Vang') of Norway to Ozaukee County, WI, U.S., on the western shore of Lake Michigan, just north of Milwaukee. They lived here and in the nearby counties of Sheboygan and Manitowoc until they moved in 1865 to a farm in Rice County, MI, about fifty miles south of Minneapolis.
Mother:	Kari Thorsteinsdatter Bunde Veblen (i. e. "Caroline Anderson;" cf. the 1860 Census of Manitowoc County, WI, Cato Township, p. 84, family 590). - (* 1825 † 1906), housewife. She and Thomas Anderson Veflen married in 1847 in 'Høre' Stave Church (village of 'Ryfoss').
Siblings:	11; (1845- ) Anders Thomasson Veblen; (1848-1932) Andrew A. Veblen [Prof. of Physics, State University Iowa City, Iowa; famous son: Oswald Veblen (1880-1960), Prof. in Mathematics (Princeton Univ.)]; (1850/12/10 - 1931/01/10) Beret [Betsy] Jane Veblen Viken; (1853-1928) Ostein [Orson] A. Veblen; (1855-1953) Emily Veblen Olsen; (1859- ) Mary Veblen Hougen; (1862-1885) Thomas A. Veblen, Jr.; (1864-65) John Edward Veblen; (1866-1949) John Edward Veblen II.; (1868- ) Hannah Veblen Hanson; (1870- ) Oscar William Veblen).
1. spouse:	1888/04/10	Ellen May Rolfe (1858- May 1926), farmers daughter; 1909 definite separation, 1912/01/20 divorced.
2. spouse:	1914/06/17	Ann Fessenden 'Babe' Bradley (1877/12/27-1920/10/7), divorcee Bevans, lawyers daughter, mother of two children (Becky [Veblen Meyers] (1901 - 94) and Ann Bevans (1903/02/13 - Apr., 1986) [later: Ann B. Sims]).
Confession:	Lutheran.

1857/07/30	Born in Valders, Municipality of Cato, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin (WI), U.S., on the family farm.
1857-1865	Veblen grew up in Valders, WI.
1865-1874	Lived in the Norwegian township of Wheeling (now Nerstrand), Rice County, MN, where his family lived on a farm (near Nerstrand 'Big Woods' State Park) [Veblen Farmstead, Nat.Reg.No. 75001024].
1874-1880	In 1874 Veblen entered Carleton College Academy, Northfield, MN. He graduated in three years after three years of visiting the preparatory school. June, 1880 B.A.
1880-1881, June	Short teaching experiences (in Mathematics!) at Monona Academy, Madison, WI, a Lutheran institution, closed in 1881.
1881-1882	Studies in philosophy and political economy at Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD.
1882-1884	Resuming studies in philosophy at Yale University, New Haven, CT.
1884	Ph.D. (Philosophy); Dissertation: 'The Ethical Grounds of a Doctrine of Retribution'.
1884-1888	Unable to find work as a teacher, despite of excellent recommendations. Return to the parental farm at Wheeling Township, MN; ill health (malaria); he spent his time in reading, writing and (probably?) publishing for Eastern newspapers and magazines; casual labor as a printer.
1888-1891	April, 10, 1888 (at Stacyville, IA), he married Ellen May Rolfe, despite his being unemployed. Removal to a farm of his father-in-law at Stacyville, IA. Futile attempts to gain teaching positions. For a short time tutor at Cedar Valley Seminary, Osage, IA. Translation of the Norwegian Laxdæla saga during these times.
1891-1892	After six years of unemployment he continued studying as a graduate student, now on Economics, at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. J(ames) Laurence Laughlin (1850-1933), Professor of Economics, secured him a fellowship in 1892 in economics and finance.
1892-1906	He lived in Chicago, IL. - Chicago during these times, cf. Encyclopedia, 1911
1892-1893	1892 J. Laurence Laughlin of Cornell was appointed head professor in the economics department at the new founded University of Chicago. He took Veblen with him and secured him a teaching fellowship. Encountered with the sociologist William I. Thomas (1863-1947).
1892-1906	Member of the staff of the University of Chicago. From 1892 to 1906, he taught political economy at the University of Chicago, gaining a reputation as a brilliant, eccentric thinker and innovative teacher. His first and most famous book, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), also established him as an important social critic.
	1893-1894	Reader in Political Economy.
	1894-1896	Tutor in Political Economy.
	1896-1900	Instructor in Political Economy.
	1900-1906	Assistant Professor of Political Economy.
1896-1905	Managing Editor of 'The Journal of Political Economy' (Chicago, Ill.), founded by his protector J. L. Laughlin (cf. our Book Review page).
1899	Veblen published The Theory of the Leisure Class.
1904	Veblen published The Theory of Business Enterprise.
1906/04	Veblen's held his famous Harvard lectures in economics (Followers of Karl Marx, (lect. 1-3); The Distribution of Socialist Sentiment, (lect. 4)).
1906	Veblen was offered an appointment associate professor for 1906/07, but his gruff manner and unconventional personal life garnered notoriety. The Chicago administration forced him out in Dec., 1906 for flagrant marital infidelities. His reputation suffered because of "landfill of lies and half-truths" depicting him as an irredeemable womanizer and lady-killer whose unconventional views on equality made him irresistible to women; unable to attain positions worthy of his brilliance because his wife Ellen blackened his name.
1906-1910	Veblen lived in Palo Alto, California.
1907-1909	Associate Professor of Economics at Leland Stanford Junior Memorial University in Palo Alto, CA.; forced to resign in Dec. 1909 again because of further problems of a romantic nature.
1910	Fruitless attempts to become an university lecturer. His plan failed to achieve a scholarship for an archaeological expedition (Baltic and Crete). A former student, H. J. Davenport (1861-1931), could convince the President of the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, to give Veblen a position at the School of Commerce, where Davenport was Dean, notwithstanding after his divorce.
1910-1918	He lived in Columbia, MO. Until 1912 cycle of separation and reconciliation with his wife Ellen.
1911-1918	Lecturer and associate professor in Economics, University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. Neither faculty nor students were of the quality that Veblen had been accustomed to; as a result, he withdrew. As his health grew poorer his courses became even less organized, and his contempt for his students deepened. The authorities were flattered to have attracted a man of his reputation, but they felt he was not contributing fully. As a result, he never got a permanent position and remained a lecturer, whose appointment had to be renewed annually.
1914	Veblen married Ann Bradley (1914/06/17); they had a close relationship since 1904/05. Veblen published The Instinct of Workmanship and the State of the Industrial Arts.
1915	Veblen published Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution.
1917	Veblen published An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace and the Terms of Its Perpetuation.
1918	Veblen leaves the University of Missouri for a (short-time) job with the Food Administration in the U.S. Government in Washington, D.C. (from 1918/2/19 to 1918/6/30).
1918-1927	He and his familiy moved to New York City, (465 W. 23rd St.) where Veblen lectured at the New School for Social Research, also continuing to write and publish: "Higher Learning In America" (1918), "The Vested Interests and the Common Man" (1919), and "The Industrial System and the Captains of Industry" (1919). Veblen's second wife, Ann Bradley, had a nervous breakdown and died in 1920. He published "The Engineers and the Price System" (1921). His book, "Absentee Ownership and Business Enterprise in Recent Times: The Case of America.", was published in 1923.
1918, May	Amherst College Lectures on 'Economics of the War and the Modern Point of View'
1918-1919	Veblen dropped an offered job at the War Labor Board. Full-time journalist for one year. He became editor of a New York radical literary and political magazine, The Dial (New York, N.Y.). "In a few month his influence was all over The Nation, The Dial, The New Republic and the rest of them, and his books and pamphlets began to pour from the presses, and the newspapers reported his every wink and whisper." (H.L. Mencken)
1918-1926	One of the founders of the Faculty at the New School of Social Research in New York City, New York.
1920/10/07	Veblens second Wife Ann Veblen died. She had been in Hospital (Waverly, MA.) since May, 31, 1919.
1925	Veblen published his translation of the Medieval Icelandic classic, The Laxdæla Saga, (The Epic of the Salmon River Valley). The "American Economic Association" tendered Veblen the nomination for its presidency, but Veblen refused.
1926-1929	After leaving the New School in 1926, Veblen retired. He moved in with his step-daughter Becky [Veblen Meyers], to a cabin in the hills above Stanford ["old" La Honda Road], where he lived until death. (Dec., 1926: San Diego; Apr., 1927: Palo Alto).
1929/08/03	He died from heart disease in the Menlo Park area, California.
1929-1939	The influence of Veblen's ideas peaked in the decade following his death, as the Great Depression and the rise of fascism in Europe seemed to bear out his predictions regarding the future of capitalism. Many prominent figures in the New Deal counted themselves as followers of Veblen.
1934	A collection of Veblen's articles from periodical is published under the title Essays in Our Changing Order, edited by Leon Ardzrooni (New York: The Viking Press, 1934). In Nov., 1934, Joseph Dorfman's momentous biography Thorstein Veblen and His America was published (New York: The Viking Press, 1934, 556 p.).
1936	Wesley C. Mitchell, a student of Veblen and noted economist, published a selection of Veblen's writings as What Veblen Taught (New York: The Viking Press, 1936).

REFERENCES (and downloads)

Anderson, Karl L.: "The Unity of Veblen's Theoretical System", Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 47 (1933), pp. 598-626.
Bates, Ernest S.: "Thorstein Veblen: A Biography," Scribner's Magazine, Dec., 1934
Dorfman, Joseph: Thorstein Veblen and His America. (New York: Viking, 1934 [1966]))
Edgell, Stephen: Veblen in Perspective: his life and thought (New York, London: Sharpe, 2001)
Dowd, Douglas (ed.): Thorstein Veblen. A Critical Reappraisal (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1958)
Duffus, R. L: The Innocents at Cedro - A Memoir of Thorstein Veblen (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1944)
Homan, Paul T.: "Thorstein Veblen." In: American Masters of Social Science: An Approach to the Study of the Social Sciences through a Neglected Field of Biography, ed. Howard Odum, pp. 231-270 (New York: Holt, 1927).
Innis, Harold A[dams]: "A Bibliography of Thorstein Veblen", Southwestern Political and Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 10, (Jun., 1929), pp. 56-68.
Jaffé, William: "Les théories économiques et sociales de Thorstein Veblen", (Paris: Giard et Brière, 1924) - dissertation.
Jorgensen, Elizabeth W./Henry I. Jorgensen: Thorstein Veblen. Victorian Firebrand (Armonk, N.Y./London: Sharpe, 1999)
Riesman, David: Thorstein Veblen: A Critical Interpretion (New York: Seabury, 1953 [1960])
Tilman, Rick: A Veblen Treasury: From Leisure Class to War, Peace and Capitalism (Armonk, N.Y./London: Sharpe, 1993)
[27 KB] Veblen, Florence: "Thorstein Veblen: Reminiscences of His Brother Orson,"
Social Forces, vol. 10 (1935), pp. 187-95.
Veblen genealogy: an account of the Norwegian ancestry of the Veblen family in America, which was founded by Thomas Anderson Veblen and his wife Kari Bunde Veblen / compiled by Andrew A. Veblen. (San Diego, Calif., The author, 1925).

In these books/articles you will find a lot of further references. More wishes? e.g., search: amazon.com, or yahoo.com, key-words 'Veblen' or 'Veblin'.

What Veblen taught. Selected writings of Thorstein Veblen. Edited with an introduction by Wesley C[lair] Mitchell. New York, N.Y.: Viking Press 1936, xlix, 503 p.
The portable Veblen. Edited, and with an introduction, by Max Lerner. New York, N.Y.: Viking Press 1948 (= The Viking portable library.), vii, 632 p.
Thorstein Veblen. Selections from his work, with an introduction and commentaries by Bernard Rosenberg. New York, N.Y.: Crowell 1963 (= Major contributors to social science series.), 100 p.
The writings of Thorstein Veblen. New York, N.Y.: Kelley 1964-1965 (= Reprints of economics classics.), 11 vol.:
- The theory of the leisure class. With the addition of a review by William Dean Howells. 1965, 400 p.
- The theory of business enterprise. With the addition of a review by James Hayden Tufts. 1965, 400 p.
- The instinct of workmanship, and the state of the industrial arts. 1964, ix, 355 p.
- Imperial Germany and the industrial revolution. 1964, xxi, 343 p.
- An inquiry into the nature of peace and the terms of its perpetuation. 1964, xii, 376 p.
- The higher learning in America. A memorandum on the conduct of universities by business men. 1965, viii, 286 p.
- The vested interests and the common man ("The modern point of view and the new order"). 1964, 183 p.
- The engineers and the price system. 1965, 169 p.
- Absentee ownership and business enterprise in recent times. The case of America. 1964, 445 p.
- Essays in our changing order. Edited by Leon Ardzrooni. With the addition of a recently discovered memorandum "Wire Barrage" supplied by Joseph Dorfman. 1964, xviii, 476 p.
- What Veblen taught. Selected writings of Thorstein Veblen. Edited with an introduction by Wesley C[lair] Mitchell. 1964, xlix, 503 S.
Essays, reviews, and reports. Previously uncollected writings. Edited and with an introduction, New light on Veblen, by Joseph Dorfman. Clifton, N.J.: Kelley 1973, viii, 690 p.
A Veblen treasury. From leisure class to war, peace, and capitalism. Rick Tilman, editor. Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe 1993 (= Studies in institutional economics.), xxix, 402 p.
The collected works of Thorstein Veblen. London: Routledge / Thoemmes Press 1994 (= Thoemmes reprints.), 10 vol.:
- vol. 1: The theory of the leisure class. An economic study of institutions. Reprint of 1st edition. xxxviii, 227, 404 p.
  Includes John A[tkinson] Hobson: Veblen. Reprint of 1st edition (1936).
- vol. 2: The theory of business enterprise. Reprint of 1st edition. vii, 400 p.
- vol. 3: The instinct of workmanship, and the state of the industrial arts. Reprint of 1st edition. ix, 355 p.
- vol. 4: Imperial Germany and the industrial revolution. Reprint of 1st edition. viii, 324 p.
- vol. 5: An inquiry into the nature of peace and the terms of its perpetuation. Reprint of 1st edition. xiii, 367 p.
- vol. 6: The higher learning in America. A memorandum on the conduct of universities by business men. Reprint of 1st edition. viii, 286 p.
- vol. 7: The vested interests and the common man, and, The engineers and the price system. Reprints of the 1st editions. 183, 169 p.
- vol. 8: The place of science in modern civilisation and other essays. Reprint of 1st edition. 509 p.
- vol. 9: Absentee ownership and business enterpise [i.e. enterprise] in recent times. The case of America. Reprint of 1st edition. 445 p.
- vol. 10: Essays in our changing order. Reprint of the 1st edition. xviii, 470 p.

RESIDUE AND OBITURY

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