Stigmatizing Thorstein Veblen: A Study in the Confection of Academic Reputations

The life, work, and appraisal of Thorstein Veblen reveal well the defense mechanisms employed by society's dominant strata to counter ideological challenges to the established order. They also offer insight into the sociology of reputation and, more narrowly, the psychology of Veblen's biographers, who have frequently sought to enhance their own reputations at the expense of his. Central to an understanding of Veblen's sullied reputation is Joseph Dorfman, whose voluminous biography of Veblen projects Dorfman's own cultural demons and insecurities onto his subject, at the same time as it has influenced the uncritical views of later scholars.