THE PORTABLE VEBLEN (632 pp.)Edited by Max LernerViking ($2).
Yesterday's harried "freethinkers" produced a flood of radical literature, most of which is now as dull and dead as the social grievances it attacked. Of the countless contributors to this literature, Thorstein Veblen is one of the very few who does not give the impression of being just a cut off the old red jelly.
One reason why Veblen survives is that he was as skeptical of his friends as he was of his enemies. He distrusted both Marxism and capitalism, bankers and proletariat. In addition,...