The General History of Ireland, Tr. With Amendments by D. O'connor. With an Appendix, Collec... Book

Starting with the exceedingly obvious observation that business men and the values of business enterprise dominate our social, political, and cultural landscape, Veblen introduces the contradictions between business enterprise and industry and its industrial systems. The famous lines point to the role of business men as well positioned to create disorder in order to create or preserve extra profits. But this is really just the start from where Veblen details the logics and patterns that flow out with examples that could just as easily be drawn from the facts of today as in his time. Extraordinary companion to his “Theory of the Leisure Class”, his style seems to almost be explaining our current situation to an alien. It’s thorough going with great explanatory powers and resurrects the political economy roots of economics and reads like a more exacting sociological text. If you read it, it helps to forgive some of the silted language and to be generous were at times his generalizations expand beyond his facts but if you can read with an objective eye there are many golden insights into the forces and logics at play in modern society. A must read for anyone looking to see how we might transcend the current entanglement of ecological, political, economic, and social crisis.