Meštrović reads Veblen as a theorist of modernity’s moral failures: the way institutions shape desire, reward predation, and hollow out communal life.

This is a clear, serious engagement with Thorstein Veblen that pulls him out of the caricature of “conspicuous consumption” and situates his work within broader questions social organisation. 

Written from within late-20th-century sociology, the book bridges classical social theory and contemporary cultural critique without flattening either. It's dense, and difficult, but best suited to readers interested in political economy, cultural sociology, and the genealogy of critiques of capitalism that predate — and complicate — current discourse.