ABSTRACT
Thorstein Veblen became known for his unusual prescience. A law professor acquaintance at the University of Missouri remembered having a conversation with him in 1911 on a certain street comer in Columbia. Veblen prophesied that a Russian Revolution was imminent and would result in the loss of more heads and blood than the French Revolution in its most vengeful phase. Veblen had read General Frederick von Bemhardi's startling book, Germany and the Next War. Veblen considered the book so menacing that he devoted four or five class sessions to it in the fall of 1914. Veblen had repeatedly argued that patriotism was one of the strongest forces promoting war and that its roots were in early barbarism—an anarchic trait that involves the "defeat and humiliation of some competitor". In 1916, Veblen reworked and finished The Higher Learning in America, which he had substantially written just before he left Chicago.
