Teorie zahálčivé třídy

The book is one of the most famous and most significant works in critical sociology. Veblen provides the first systematic analysis of the lifestyle which results from a social organization driven by profit rather than the instinct of workmanship. His insightful analysis and critique of a society based solely on the competition for property is still relevant today, despite dating back to more than a hundred years ago. In contemporary sociological literature, the book is cited as the founding work of the sociology of consumption, the sociology of fashion, and the consumer culture theory.
America has bred the most stable and cohesive kind of monetary and commercial civilization. But it has also produced its most consistent criticism. And that is the main point of Thorstein Veblen’s work. (Max Lerner)
Thorstein Veblen is the best critic of America this country has ever had. Today, his language is part of the language of every erudite American, and his works are the most prominent contribution to the American intellectual self-reflection. Veblen was considered a heretic, and yet his beliefs lie at the heart of American social-scientific thought. Indeed, it is said that there is no other model of criticism than the critical canon established by Veblen. (Charles W. Mills)