Quiz: The Theory of the Leisure Class

All 40 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. How, according to Veblen, does Labour Day augment the prestige of labour?

   By paying workers a holiday bonus from their employers By compulsory abstention from useful effort By church services and parades blessing the tools and products of every industry By holding competitions of skill between trades
2. 2. Why, according to Veblen, are workers in the mechanical industries falling away from devout observances?

   Their work enforces matter-of-fact habits that derange animistic thought Their employers forbid church attendance on working days and discourage it on Sundays They are too poor to pay church dues and pew rents, and so are made unwelcome in the wealthier congregations Socialist agitators in the workshops have converted them to an open, militant atheism
3. 3. According to the saying Veblen quotes, the relation of football to physical culture is like that of what to what?

   The bull-fight to agriculture The cavalry charge to horse-breeding The duel to justice The hunt to cookery
4. 4. What does Veblen say certain Polynesian chiefs preferred to do rather than feed themselves with their own hands?

   Fast until a servant returned Eat only what their wives prepared Abdicate Starve
5. 5. Which economist does Veblen quote as doubting that mechanical inventions had lightened anyone’s toil?

   David Ricardo J. S. Mill Thomas Malthus Adam Smith
6. 6. In Veblen’s comparison of spoons, what cheap “base” metal does he set against hand-wrought silver?

   Aluminum Tin Britannia metal Brass
7. 7. Why, according to Veblen, can no general increase in wealth satisfy the desire for it?

   Because population always grows to absorb any increase in the means of living Because wealth is always unequally distributed Because the desire rests on everyone wishing to excel everyone else Because prices rise as fast as incomes
8. 8. In which two main directions does barbarian prowess manifest itself?

   Hunting and husbandry Piety and display Force and fraud Courage and loyalty
9. 9. Where does Veblen locate the origin of modern science?

   In the industrial process, entering the schools from outside In the priestly learning of the medieval universities and monastic schools In the patronage of wealthy Maecenases at the courts of princes In the study of the classics
10. 10. Which modern ideas does Veblen count as attenuated forms of the same animistic sense?

    The socialist demand for equality and the trade unions’ claim to the whole product of labour The eighteenth-century order of nature and natural rights, and the post-Darwinian meliorative trend Statistical method and the law of large numbers, as applied by the newer historical schools to the study of society The germ theory of disease and the method of the controlled experiment in the natural sciences
11. 11. Why, according to Veblen, does English spelling serve as a test of reputability in learning?

    It reflects pronunciation exactly and so shows a good ear and careful schooling It is the same in all English-speaking countries and colonies It is archaic, costly to learn, and lapses are easy to spot It was fixed by royal decree and so shows loyalty to the Crown
12. 12. What does Veblen say is the motive at the root of ownership?

    The desire for security Emulation Physical want The instinct of self-preservation
13. 13. Besides being conspicuously expensive and showing leisure, what third requirement must dress meet?

    It must be up to date It must be made by hand It must suit the climate It must be durable
14. 14. Which three ethnic types does Veblen say the population of Western industrial communities tends to breed true to?

    Dolichocephalic-blond, brachycephalic-brunette, Mediterranean Aryan, Turanian and Semitic Celtic, Saxon and Norman, the stocks of the English people Nordic, Alpine-Slavic and Semitic
15. 15. What double watchword does Veblen find in the “New-Woman” movement?

    “Education” and “Dress Reform” “Equality” and “Property” “Suffrage” and “Temperance” “Emancipation” and “Work”
16. 16. Why, according to Veblen, are public parks seldom kept by grazing cattle?

    Visitors were afraid of the animals City ordinances forbade keeping livestock within city limits Grazing is cheap and suggests thrift, so is indecorous Cattle damage the turf more than gardeners and mowing machines do
17. 17. How does Veblen explain the constant change of fashions?

    Manufacturers change the styles each season in order to sell more cloth, lace and finery to the public Each generation rebels against its parents’ taste and seeks a style of its own Styles improve steadily toward an artistic ideal which each change brings nearer Each wasteful style grows odious and yields to another as futile
18. 18. Why is it a grievance if a butler or footman performs his duties in an untrained style?

    It suggests the master cannot afford specially trained servants It means the meal will be served late It breaks the servant’s contract of employment and the customs of the household It offends the guests’ religious sensibilities
19. 19. Which organisation does Veblen cite as a cult suited to the habits of mind of the athlete and the delinquent?

    The Ethical Culture Society The Society of Friends The Salvation Army The Unitarian Church
20. 20. What other name does Veblen say the “quasi-peaceable” stage might be given?

    The patriarchal stage The stage of contract The pastoral stage The stage of status
21. 21. What two purposes does Veblen find in the gentleman’s walking-stick?

    It supports him in old age, and it shows his taste in rare woods and fine silver It shows that his hands are not used for useful work, and it is a weapon It signals membership of a club, and it keeps dogs away It aids his posture in sport, and it marks his military rank
22. 22. What does Veblen identify as the earliest form of ownership?

    The ownership of weapons and tools The ownership of herds of cattle The ownership of women by men The ownership of land by the tribe
23. 23. Which of these does Veblen give as an example of a peaceable savage community without a leisure class?

    The Polynesian islanders The Icelanders of the Sagas The Todas of the Nilgiri Hills The North American hunting tribes
24. 24. Which four occupations does Veblen assign to the leisure class of the barbarian culture?

    Government, warfare, religious observances and sports Warfare, hunting, herding and metalwork Trade, warfare, law and agriculture Government, banking, scholarship and the fine and decorative arts
25. 25. What axiom does Veblen say the law of natural selection gives when applied to institutions?

    Whatever is, is wrong Nature makes no leaps Whatever is, is right The fittest always survive
26. 26. According to Veblen, what must exist before predation can become a group’s habitual resource?

    A hereditary priesthood to sanction the seizure of goods by force A settled agricultural population tied permanently to the land A written code of honour governing the conduct of war between rival groups A margin of production above the subsistence of those getting a living
27. 27. What illustration does Veblen give of how strictly hunting tribes separate exploit from drudgery?

    The man may not eat game he has killed himself The man must not bring home his kill, but sends a woman to do it Women are forbidden to touch a hunter’s weapons The hunter must give away all the game he kills to the elders of the tribe
28. 28. At what point in the social scale do the duties of vicarious leisure and consumption fall on the wife alone?

    The urban poor The farming population The lower middle class The landed gentry
29. 29. Why, according to Veblen, is the leisure class conservative?

    It is older on average than other classes It has been taught to revere tradition in its private schools and its churches It is sheltered from the economic pressures that force a change of habits It reads more history than other classes
30. 30. Whose dress, besides that of women and servants, does Veblen say shows the marks of a servile status?

    The judge’s The soldier’s The scholar’s The priest’s
31. 31. Where does Veblen say his theoretical position is stated more explicitly?

    In a series of papers in the American Journal of Sociology In his doctoral dissertation on Kant In lectures at the University of Chicago In articles in the Journal of Political Economy
32. 32. Why does the profession of the law grade high in reputability, in Veblen’s account?

    It carries no taint of usefulness beyond competitive ends It has long been tied to the church and to the learning of the medieval schools It requires the longest and most costly education of any calling Lawyers usually come from families holding large landed estates
33. 33. Why is the cat less reputable than the dog in Veblen’s scheme?

    She is more costly to keep, and so offends the sense of thrift She is less wasteful and knows nothing of the relation of status She cannot be bred into fancy varieties of grotesque and costly form She is too closely associated with the kitchen and with the menial servants
34. 34. How does Veblen explain the heavy drinking and “treating” of journeymen printers?

    Their low wages and long hours, which drive them to seek relief in drink The night work of their trade, which keeps them apart from home and the restraints of family life A moral deficiency peculiar to the trade, handed down among its members Their mobility means constant new acquaintances to impress
35. 35. How does Veblen characterise the sporting man’s sense of luck?

    As an inarticulate or inchoate animism As a rational estimate of probabilities As a purely modern product of the stock exchange As a harmless survival with no economic effect
36. 36. To what does Veblen attribute the recent adoption of cap and gown by colleges of the Middle West?

    The influence of German universities on the American scholars who studied there A wish to save students the expense of formal clothes The growth of wealth and leisure-class sentiment in their constituencies A ruling by the federal government on academic standards
37. 37. Whose press does Veblen say “reduced the matter to an absurdity” in artistic book-making?

    John Ruskin’s Brantwood Press Macmillan’s fine-printing house in London The University of Chicago Press Morris’s Kelmscott Press
38. 38. How does Veblen characterise the corset “in economic theory”?

    As a survival of the plate armour worn by medieval knights As a health measure adopted by the middle class to support the spine As a garment designed mainly for comfort As a mutilation rendering the wearer unfit for work
39. 39. Which reconstruction does Veblen cite as an example of middle-class pecuniary taste in grounds?

    The gardens of Versailles Central Park in New York The grounds of the Columbian Exposition The campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore
40. 40. What does Veblen say much of the work of “settlements” among the urban poor amounts to?

    A scheme to recruit voters for the political machines of the great cities Effective technical training that raises wages A purely religious campaign of conversion to the churches A mission of upper-class culture