<b>The Theory of the Leisure Class is one of the great works of economics as well as the first detailed critique of consumerism.<b> Veblen argues that economic life is driven not by notions of utility, but by social vestiges from pre-historic times. <br/>Drawing examples from his time (turn-of-the-century America) and anthropology, he held that much of todays society is a variation on early tribal life. It was in this book that the term conspicuous consumption was first used.