Main entry:

Merwood-Salisbury, Joanna, author.

Title & Author:

Barbarian architecture : Thorstein Veblen's Chicago / Joanna Merwood-Salisbury.

Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2024]
© 2024

Description:

332 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: The Book and the City -- The Ethnology of the Leisure Class: The Fair and the Castle -- Pecuniary Culture: The Elevator Building and the University -- Mechanisms of Consumption: Fashion and the Department Store -- The Business of Vice: The Levee -- New Industrial Institutions: The Workshop, the School, and the Museum -- Conclusion: Picturing Veblen's Chicago.

Summary:

"An important critic of modern culture, American economist Thorstein Veblen is best known for the concept of “conspicuous consumption,” the ostentatious and wasteful display of goods in the service of social status—a term he coined in his 1899 classic The Theory of the Leisure Class. In the field of architectural history, scholars have employed Veblen in support of a wide range of arguments about modern architecture, but never has he attracted a comprehensive and critical treatment from the viewpoint of architectural history. In Barbarian Architecture, Joanna Merwood-Salisbury corrects this omission by reexamining Veblen's famous book as an original theory of modernity and situating it in a particular place and time—Chicago in the 1890s. Merwood-Salisbury takes her title from Veblen's use of the term “barbarian,” which refers to his belief that Gilded Age American society was a last remnant of a barbarian state of greed and acquisitiveness. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws on biography, intellectual history, and historiography, she explores Veblen's position in relation to debates about industrial reform and aesthetics in Chicago during the period 1890–1906. Bolstered by a strong visual narrative made possible by several of Chicago's historic photographic collections, Barbarian Architecture makes a compelling and original argument for the influence of Veblen's home city on his work and ideas." -- Provided by publisher

ISBN:

9780262547413 paperback
0262547414 paperback

Subject:

Veblen, Thorstein, 1857-1929. Theory of the leisure class.
Theory of the leisure class (Veblen, Thorstein)
Architecture and society Illinois Chicago History 19th century.
Architecture et société Illinois Chicago Histoire 19e siècle.
Architecture and society
Social conditions
Chicago (Ill.) Social conditions 19th century.
Illinois Chicago

Form/genre:

History

Holdings:

Location: Library main 319589
Call No.: 319589
Copy: 1
Status: Available