ABSTRACT
In 1891, after seven years of outward idleness but actually of intense intellectual fermentation, Thorstein Veblen decided to resume formal study in a renewed effort to obtain an academic post. At the age of thirty-five, Veblen was at last a member of a university faculty. His analyses of the capitalistic structure show that breadth of perception and critical acumen which have made him unique among modern economists. Veblen’s fourteen years at the University of Chicago were for him a period of notable efflorescence. He saturated his mind with the speculation of his time, but his own thought was entirely original. Veblen studied the leisure class genetically, tracing its diverse manifestations from its first appearance in history down to modern times. Veblen described the peculiar kind of intelligence required by the machine process. In operating a machine a workman must develop qualitative precision or fail at his job.
