Thorstein Veblen's Prose

ECONOMICS FORMERLY WAS CALLED THE DISMAL SCIENCE BY ITS PROFESSORS because they believed it to be science of distribution of scarce products. What more tragic study could there be than one based on pessimistic premise that there simply was not enough of anything to go around, that supply could never equal demand? However, most American students, raised in an economy of abundance, are soon convinced that adjective dismal applies to quality of economic prose, and generally speaking they are correct. Thorstein Veblen was an orthodox economist, at least to extent that he believed in an economy of scarcity, but his use of English language would not normally be characterized as dismal, although his style is puzzling and at times even misleading. One who seems to have been misled was usually astute H. L. Mencken. Mencken heartily detested Veblen, his economics and especially his prose style. To him only remarkable things about Veblen's ideas were the astounding grandiose and rococo manner of their statement, almost unbelievable tediousness and flatulence of gifted headmaster's prose, his unprecedented talent for saying nothing in an august and heroic manner.' Although quite a few people share Mencken's view, many more, it would seem, are delighted by Veblen's provocative treatment of institutions and by his unique and ironic style. A generation raised on Veblenian echoes finds it difficult to imagine his prose causing as much difficulty as it did to earlier readers. Veblen's purpose and his manner were widely misapprehended, so much so that when The Theory of Leisure Class appeared in 1899 it was frequently misread as a literary satire of nouveaux riches of period. Even so sophisticated a critic as William Dean Howells, writing one of few friendly reviews of work, made error of taking it solely as literary satire, and failed to take adequate notice of serious intent of Veblen's social and economic criticism.2