Thorstein Veblen

Thorstein Veblen was born in 1857 to a Norwegian farming family in Minnesota. He had a rather sparse upbringing where he didn’t perfect English until he went to college. He was sent to Carleton College Academy at the choice of his family. During his studies at Carleton, he met and fell for the niece of the president of the college. Her name was Ellen Rolfe and they were married in 1888. But their relationship was anything but stable. “Veblen was hardly faithful to Ellen and she was to leave him again and again (Heilbroner, 1999).
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eblen was to become a great economic thinker, but also, perhaps, one of the most bizarre. Veblen was seen to be a very strange man, both in appearance and personality. “His appearance was described as peasant-like; shrewd eyes, flat parted hair, unpressed suit, and an unkempt mustache and scraggly beard” (Heilbroner, 1999). The life of Thorstein Veblen was one of solitude. He was described as “an American by birth but a citizen of n...