Georg Simmel and Thorstein Veblen on Fashion Fin De Siècle

Although Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) and Georg Simmel (1858–1918) were important contemporaries in the shaping of modern social theory, scholars have paid little attention to their intellectual relationship. Indeed, with one possible exception, no systematic effort to compare their work exists including their most influential books, Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) and Simmel’s The Philosophy of Money (1900). ¹ Although Veblen never cites or mentions Simmel, the two both published in the American Journal of Sociology, which was edited by Albion Small from 1895 to 1926 at the University of Chicago where Veblen taught. Most of the material by Simmel was translated from German by Small himself and included a section from The Philosophy of Money. Veblen was undoubtedly familiar with some of what Simmel published in the AJS: fifteen articles between 1896 and 1910. Simmel may well have read Veblen’s contributions to it, amounting to four articles between 1898 and 1906. Even so, there is no indication of direct mutual intellectual influence although the two men probably were in reading contact with each other. ²