ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the experience of Thorstein Veblen at Stanford. Veblen was not to write any of his major works while he was at Stanford, but the Shangri-la atmosphere of the "Stanford Farm", with its sunny subtropical climate, did not lure him into lotus-land torpor. In one of his reviews, he concerned with the importance of women in primitive societies. Veblen then drew upon his examination of the culture of the California Digger Indian, stating that the "capital" they possessed in the form of working tools was insignificant. Wesley Clair Mitchell was disappointed with the scholarly direction Veblen was taking. Veblen's work was no longer, as it once had been, "an analytical account of the evolution of economic habits of thought and action". His writings seemed to be founded more or less on guesswork, because he could not take the time to indicate the basis from which he theorized. Veblen's time at Stanford was the happiest period of his life.
