ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the experiences of Thorstein Veblen in Chicago, 1896-1899. The summer of 1896, Thorstein Veblen felt the need to get away. He decided to go to England and look up a person whom he had always admired—William Morris. In fact, Veblen had sharp things to say about Morris in his Theory of the Leisure Class, published two or three years later. Veblen could not join in. He had too many reservations about the University of Chicago. In 1897, Veblen was still earning only $1,500 a year, while Laughlin, as head of the department, was earning $7,000. He was also repelled by the gross ugliness of the corps of well-fed sycophants surrounding the entrenched university administration. In mitigation, he pointed out that there was more to it than sheer swinishness. Administrators and their underlings were forced to attend many ceremonial dinners.
