leisure-class

The world is somewhat different now from how it was when Thorstein Veblen wrote “The Theory of the Leisure Class” in 1899, and even from when Vance Packard wrote “The Status Seekers” in 1959.

In 1899, Thorstein Veblen’s landmark socio-economic study, “The Theory of the Leisure Class,” showed how free time and superfluity — what we now call luxury — conferred status, or “reputability,” on the wealthiest individuals in late 19th-century America.

Vincent’s day job as a senior reporter for the Verge plants him firmly in the present, and he brings the reader up to the current craze of the leisure class: the “quantified self” movement.

The expanding leisure class of the late 19th century was, as Fischer writes, “driven to consume, eager for diversion and entertainment.”

Collection 1, for example, in February 2018, focused on the Black cowboy; the second, the following September, imagined a Black leisure class without fear of police violence; and the Kings Theater show was inspired by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, whose gospel recordings influenced early rock ’n’ roll musicians.