Theory of the Leisure Class

Veblen's study indicts the nineteenth-century socio-economic system which based class status on the accumulation of material wealth. More than a century after its original publication, his work still is of surprisingly high relevance, since it casts an astonishingly contemporary and often very satirical eye on American economics and society.
Originally released in 1899, "The Theory of the Leisure Class" is considered as the first detailed critique of consumerism.