A critique of capitalism and nationalism, Thorstein Veblen’s work focused primarily on the analysis of institutions: their strengths, their weaknesses and the way in which, despite their failures, they manage to maintain and sediment themselves.
Thorstein Veblen is, without a doubt, one of the pillars of the social sciences. At once a philosopher, sociologist, political scientist and economist, he established a critical analysis of society based on the examination of institutions that recognizes both historical forces and the actions of individuals. However, people wishing to read or learn about the work of have too few resources in French. Introduction to Thorstein Veblen by Alice Le Goff addresses this obvious gap. But make no mistake, this 120-page book does not simply remedy this deficiency. Written in a clear and jargon-free style, it is distinguished by the accuracy of its analyses, all in nuance and without evasion. In this work, Alice Le Goff demonstrates a certain erudition. People looking for an introduction to Veblen’s work will find here an important synthesis, which despite its conciseness, covers most of the salient points of Veblen’s work. This book also tackles, in an honest and nuanced manner, certain controversial subjects about Veblen.
Veblen, an outcast?
Born in the United States in 1857 to Norwegian immigrant parents in the midst of a financial panic, Thorstein Veblen grew up in a rural community in the Midwest state of Minnesota, a region known for being agricultural and deeply religious. With the vitriolic style that would make his reputation, Veblen had identified some sources of what he bluntly called “idiocies” or “social pathologies.” Among other things, for Veblen, this meant criticizing private property and the predatory nature of institutions. A libertarian with a strong interest in socialism, it was no surprise that his contemporaries accused him of not being able to be truly American. He would be criticized for undermining the modern capitalist project of the United States, a project that is too often confused with the American nation. A. Le Goff reminds us that he was portrayed as an outcast, often described as a person who had difficulty adapting to his environment, living on the fringes of society and having behavioral deviations. But she skillfully places these preconceived ideas about Veblen in the context of an evaluation of the criticisms addressed to the work based on biographical elements of the man, romanticized in detail by his critics and some of his close friends.
It should be remembered that Thorstein Veblen attacked many of the institutions that constituted American modernity. Whether it was capitalism, which Veblen called the price system, or nationalism, which he vehemently denounced. While he denounced capitalism, imperialism, and nationalism, he also did not hesitate to defend unions, to denounce evolutionism in its biological determination as well as deterministic schemes and great bright future days, expected as so many certainties. By thus firing arrows to the right and left of the political spectrum, we will understand that Veblen did not build a solid support network. This may explain the ease with which Veblen has too often been criticized through a reading ad hominem. The life of the man will quickly classify the work in the same category as those of grumpy hermits who arouse passing curiosity.
Institutions and sources of power
In this book, the aim is to go beyond Veblen’s texts to grasp, ultimately, what drives the heart of the author’s intellectual work. It is therefore more of a tool for thinking than a contribution to the encyclopedia of modern knowledge. A. Le Goff succeeds in going beyond the texts to bring out the major directions of the author’s thought. The challenge is considerable since very few of his writings have been translated into French, Veblen’s language is dense and his analyses are little known. To add to the difficulty of accessing Veblen’s thought, it must be noted that the work of Veblen that French speakers will usually have retained, The Leisure Class Theorydoes not necessarily constitute the heart of his work. It was therefore necessary to carry out a significant amount of in-depth work.
This is the case, for example, when A. Le Goff extracts Veblen’s political thought from various scattered elements from different works and articles. A. Le Goff recognizes the limits of such an approach, but such an operation is carried out skillfully. By going beyond the texts, while relying on the writings, we understand better what drives Veblen.
For example, A. Le Goff identifies, in Veblen, the analysis of the social sources of power from a theory that focuses on the action of certain social groups (such as engineers or capitalist elites), but which recognizes that the future is shaped by historical forces. This is the case of financial speculation or status struggles that give shape to institutions. And as such, the study of institutions is, according to Veblen, a better starting point for understanding the sources of power than the postulate of the scarcity of resources and the conflicts that result from it. Institutions and their tendency to status quopathologies, idiocies and animism, in Veblen’s terms, favour elites. According to him, there is no indication that institutions are constituted because they fulfil a necessary function, or that they have a mission or that they persist because they are effective. Veblen identifies, in his analysis of the social sources of power, a succession of causal sequences and shows that there is no prior organisation that justifies the birth and transformation of the institutions observed. These take the form they have because they are inserted into power relations. And since they are the products of human beings, they are not forces whose forward movement is inevitable. Veblen rejects determinism. For him, this also means that we should not wait for the collapse of institutions and systems. Nothing guarantees the disappearance of ineffective or anemic institutions such as the price system, private property, imperialism or nationalism.
The Contemporary Relevance of Veblen’s Work
While it is easy to understand that the objective of this book and of the “Repères” collection is to present the work of an author and to identify its main points, we may regret the relative absence of references to contemporary analyses that use Veblen or that implicitly refer to his work. This is because with such a critique of the right and the left, a critique of capitalism and nationalism, we do not doubt the current relevance of a work on Veblen’s work. A. Le Goff’s book is a call to bring Veblen out of the binder of anecdotal thoughts with purely historical value. It is an invitation to draw on this work and go beyond it.
Reading this book, one will be prompted to wonder whether Thorstein Veblen was not a precursor, among other things, of environmental thought and feminism in the social sciences. Although A. Le Goff does not provide a definitive answer, this book provides enough leads to initiate such reflections. And these are justified, as A. Le Goff demonstrates.
We will also remember from this reading a certain number of elements of epistemology. Thus, without really calling it that, because that would undoubtedly constitute an anachronism, A. Le Goff emphasizes the multidisciplinary, perhaps even transdisciplinary, nature of Thorstein Veblen’s work. Veblen draws on social philosophy, history, economics, anthropology and sociology, which was then in its infancy. His approach goes beyond the limits of the disciplines, which were perhaps too restrictive. But it contributes to their development. A. Le Goff also seems to suggest that Veblen’s irony and satire could have a heuristic value. They would be the choice of an author seeking methods facilitating discovery. These are all relevant avenues for contemporary social sciences.
A unique work?
Veblen’s work is unique. And, not having really created a school, it is often compared to a UFOThe strength of A. Le Goff’s book is to place Veblen’s work in the intellectual context of the end of the long XIXe century. We are constantly accompanied in our better understanding of the sources of the work. By better understanding the originality of the latter while grasping the ideas with which Veblen enters into debate, we are better able to avoid thinking of him as an isolated case, an author whose work was born somewhat by chance. Because precisely, the risk of not seeing the obvious intellectual links with the great debates that animated the XIXe And XXe centuries is important. Obviously, Veblen participated in the reflections on institutionalism, but his work is also in dialogue with functionalism, socialism, Marxism or even anarchism. Veblen was an original intellectual, but certainly not a UFO in the social sciences. To identify him as a free electron rather than a pillar would be a mistake. It would make any current discussion with his work anecdotal. In his synthesis, Le Goff skillfully avoids this pitfall and thus invites the study and application of the tools of this pillar of the social sciences.