The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class

Book Description

Long regarded as a classic, The Tourist is an examination of the phenomenon of tourism through a social theory lens that encompasses discussions of authenticity, high and low culture, and the construction of social reality. It brings the concerns of social science to an analysis of travel and sightseeing in the postindustrial age, during which the middle class acquired leisure time for international travel. This edition includes a new foreword by Lucy R. Lippard and a new afterword by the author.

Customer Reviews:

Unqual chapters..........2004-06-03

Tourism is an interesting topic for a structural analysis and this is the goal of MacCannell's analysis, citing Levi-Strauss and Roland Barthes right from the beginning. The introduction of the book fascinated me and kept my going. There the author illustrates a variety of interesting thoughts in relation to Marx, sometimes Walter Benjamin and Levi-Strauss. But in comparison with several of the chapters to come (not all), the philosophical level does not always keep up. Some of them content themselves to describe what the reader already knows - with little philosophical output. An example: the third chapter of the book is about tourism in Paris at the time of 1900. A very good topic. But the author limits himself with the interpretation of a Baedeker's Travel Guide, not looking or mentioning other sources in THE city of tourism as Paris was at that time. A combination with literature for example of the same time - where tourists play an important part - would have been much more lucrative. The same with chapter 5, though chapter 6 about a "Semiotics of Tourism" gets back to the level of the introduction. Well... Theses are the reasons for three stars.

One of the more accessible books on the topic.......2003-06-25

What I liked about MacCannell's book was how easy it was to read- now, granted, I was forced to plow through this in a week, so I didn't get to savor it- but I really felt like I understood far more than I usually do- like the book had enough of substance to say that it wasn't necessary to obscure the ideas with jargon.

It seemed like in many ways this was a rebuttal to Daniel Boorstin's "The Image: A Guide to Pseudo Events in America" , which presents a fairly elitist distinction between traveller and tourist. MacCannell expressely mentions Boorstin's ideas and decries them as being counterproductive- that we'd all like to elevate ourselves above the majority, but are mostly deceiving ourselves that this distinction is true.

Also, some very interesting stuff in here about how a sight is established- how it is marked- the interplay of markers and signs. His work on Staged Authenticity is also quite compelling- the idea of Front, Back, and Reality- spaces where everyone can go, restricted spaces that are still modified knowing outsiders will pass through, and spaces that are authentic.

His examples involving Paris are especially interesting. I'd recommend checking out this AND the Boorstin.

"Travellers seek authentic Hungarian peasant's dinner".......2002-02-12

All around the world, especially in those domains inhabited by readers of Lonely Planet publications, a fine (or sometimes not so fine) distinction is drawn between "tourists" and "travellers". Almost always, "tourists" are "them", while "travellers" are "us". Tourists are somebody you can look down on, from the height of your greater awareness, cultural sensitivity, or superior poverty. In the old days, the term "pilgrim" described not only people who went to places like Mecca, Jerusalem or Rome, but also those on the "road of life". It seems to me that all travellers are tourists and vice-versa. Anthropologists too are just tourists with a more professional attitude, intent on telling others what they have found in their in-depth investigations and placing it in an academic framework. If you want to get to the bottom of this whole topic---with all the various ramifications---then you must read MacCannell's book, an essay in the (OK, somewhat arcane) field of the Anthropology of Tourism. It is not a bedtime reading book, but will stimulate plenty of thought.

The author takes the tourist as a model of modern man. He engages in a very effective piece of structural analysis; more effective in my opinion than any ever created by the Old Master, Claude Levi-Strauss. A reader of THE TOURIST will come away having understood everything, not totally baffled by mountains of jargon. The pre-modern world has not disappeared, it has been turned into zillions of tourist attractions. We, the seekers, pilgrims, or, if you like, the tourists, try to get close to the roots of our civilization, to our own origins, by visiting and looking at packaged versions of the past. Where pre-modern societies still exist to some extent, for example, among the hill tribes of Thailand, tourists make great efforts to visit them and, significantly, try their utmost to ensure that their visits are not "packaged" but "real". The tourist wants to penetrate and share the lives of "others", others who are so distinct from ourselves. Tourist satisfaction may be directly correlated to how "authentic" the experience seems to the visitors. That's why having the authentic Hungarian peasant's dinner is important. Unfortunately, you can't really share that dinner if you are travelling with forty other pilgrims in search of authenticity on a large bus. But advertising, as always, can work wonders! Fake authenticity has become the norm.

MacCannell discusses such serious topics as "commodity and symbol", "cultural productions and work groups" and how these relate to work. In subsequent chapters, entitled "Sightseeing and Social Structure", "The Paris Case: Origins of Alienated Leisure", "Staged Authenticity", "A Semiotic of Attraction", "The Ethnomethodology of Sightseers", and "Structure, Genuine and Spurious", the author covers a wide variety of fascinating subjects in a brilliant book which will definitely succeed in making you view tourism in a different way forever afterwards. The pages are crammed with insights, analysis, good examples and interesting observations. This book is the classic work of the Anthropology of Tourism. If you are starting out in the field or are just interested in thinking about tourism in modern life, this is your book. If you are a tourist along the byways of Amazon.com, you might consider making a stop here. You will not find less than an authentic gem.

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Brilliance but...

Conspicuous Consumption (Penguin Great Ideas)
Thorsten Veblen
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0143037595

Book Description

The perfect books for the true book lover, Penguin's Great Ideas series features twelve more groundbreaking works by some of history's most prodigious thinkers. Each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-driven design that highlights the bookmaker's art. Offering great literature in great packages at great prices, this series is ideal for those readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped our world.

Customer Reviews:

Brilliance but..........2007-10-02

... you should just read all of Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class. I like this book cover though, so buy it for the attractive cover, not merely the content, i.e. consume.

The Theory of the Leisure Class (Dover Thrift Editions)

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America's first great economic treatise
A classic analysis of how the West sees money
Intresting and applicable
The leisure class is working harder than ever
Viva Veblen!!!

The Theory of the Leisure Class (Dover Thrift Editions)
Thorstein Veblen
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486280624

Book Description

Classic of economic and social theory offers a satiric examination of the hollowness and falsity suggested by the term "conspicuous consumption" (coined by Veblen), exposing the emptiness of many cherished standards of taste, education, dress and culture.

Customer Reviews:

America's first great economic treatise.......2007-06-07

Boring sciences often require insightful, imaginative writers to make mainstream. So it was with Einstien and theoretical physics, and so it is with economics and Thorstein Veblen as described in this book. Mr. Veblen descended from Norwegian immigrants to the US, and lived in the Midwest from the late 1800s to early 1900s. With a keen eye and insightful mind, he took in the huge economic growth of the US and the beginnings of mass consumerism and corporate advertising in the American population. What he saw was the formation of a middle and upper class that had both idle time and money to spare. Together, this created a leisure class that defined respect, social standing, and self-worth in terms of "pecuniary emulation", i.e. spending money on stuff and entertainment just because one could. Like a zoologist examining wild animals, Veblen picks apart the rituals, clothing, speech, and consumption habits of this newly rich. All of this is recorded and explained in extraordinary and sometimes comical detail in this book. Upon publication, this book became the first great work of economics by an American author, and made Veblen famous. Along with the Great Gatsby, this book provides one of the best description of the American upper class at the beginning of the 20th century.

A classic analysis of how the West sees money.......2006-09-25

This may not be a book to read for recreation, unless you like 1890s verbal locutions, but there are other reasons to read it. The emergence of the economic analysis of Western society might intrigue you. You might discover the origins of such still useful terms as 'leisure class' and 'conspicuous consumption,' among others. You might be curious about author Thorstein Veblen's status-conscious, anachronistic world of working men and idle wives, which reflects upper-class society in his day. Published in 1899, this is a classic in sociology and economic literature, although it is a veritable dreadnought of density. It discusses property, ownership, status and leisure in a turn-of-the-last-century American context. Though scholars call it a 'satire,' the book is neither witty nor ironic. Instead, it is a stolid analytical daguerreotype of a world long gone. We suggest that if you tackle Veblen's old-fashioned, slow-flowing prose, you should do it for the background you may glean and the scholarly satisfaction you may feel when you are done. Instead of Alexander Pope's, 'What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed,' this book presents what oft was said and usually better, but not as early.

Intresting and applicable.......2006-03-01

This book, although written over 100 years ago is still valid. Even though Veblen attempts to press the application of his thesis a bit too far, the thesis istself still has merit for the 21st century. His thesis, although not stated as such is biblically rooted in Ecclesiastes 4:4, "And I saw that all labor and all achievement springs from man's envy of his neighbor." Interesting perspective on society... worth the read!

The leisure class is working harder than ever .......2005-01-30

I have no idea whatsoever of how true Veblen's analysis of American social reality was one - hundred years ago, or how true it is today. No doubt he did see ' social phenomenom' that were emerging and succeeded in finding the 'name ' for them. 'Leisure class' and ' conspicuous consumption' are part of the everyday vocabulary of the description and analysis of 'social life'. I know that Veblen was particularly hard upon the nouveau riche, those trying to prove by buying and having more that they were as good or better than ' old money'. However I wonder if in ' work ethic' America there is not also another kind of phenomenom, of people of great wealth feeling a special social obligation, as multibillionaires Gates and whether for good purposes or not, Ted Turner have displayed in recent years. I also have a problem with making the concept of ' leisure' an entirely pejorative one. What about those ' surpluses' at the state of the agricultural age which Lewis Mumford said were so key in creating civilization? Isn't it true that in many societies those who do not have to do productive work were freed for higher work of mind and spirit? I wonder then that is whether Veblen's condemnation of the 'leisure class ' is too ' blanket' a one in many ways. And this without denying the truths that great wealth often corrupts, leads to arrogance, and indolence, folly and waste. For years the conception of the US was of a society in which the middle class element was predominant, a society reflecting an equality of opportunity and the fact that the majority of people had been able to in time and through work raise themselves to a good level of life. The decline of the middle class in the sense of the growing gap between very rich and very poor is a fact of life in America. Perhaps this makes Veblen's analysis of a certain part of American society more pertinent. But again I think that there is a counter- tradition emerging in which many of the very wealthy assume that the way to real respect in the eyes of the public is in doing good for others.

Viva Veblen!!!.......2004-05-21

This is one of the most thought provoking books I have read in a long time. Veblen leaves no stone unturned in his dissection of America's upper class and the unconscious traditions that lead them, and us. It is not hard to understand the volcano that erupted with this books publication. The Penguin edition is also set in an elegant Caslon typeface that reads beautifully.

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The Theory of the Leisure Class
Thorstein Veblen
Manufacturer: Dodo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1905432038

THORSTEIN VEBLEN'S THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS

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THORSTEIN VEBLEN'S THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS

Manufacturer: New American Library
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The Theory of the Leisure Class: With an Introd. by John Kenneth Galbraith

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The Theory of the Leisure Class: With an Introd. by John Kenneth Galbraith
Thorstein Veblen
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin College Div
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Binding: Hardcover

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Leisure, Sport, and Working Class Cultures: Theory and History

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Leisure, Sport, and Working Class Cultures: Theory and History

Manufacturer: Garamond Press
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The theory of the leisure class: An economic study of institutions

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The theory of the leisure class: An economic study of institutions
Thorstein Veblen
Manufacturer: New American Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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The Theory Of The Leisure Class
Thorstein Veblen
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure. As wealth accumulates on his hands, his own unaided effort will not avail to sufficiently put his opulence in evidence by this method. The aid of friends and competitors is therefore brought in by resorting to the giving of valuable presents and expensive feasts and entertainments.

The Economic Theory of the Leisure Class (Modern reader, PB-261)

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The Economic Theory of the Leisure Class (Modern reader, PB-261)
Nikolai I. Bukharin
Manufacturer: Monthly Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

While there is ample evidence that high inflation is harmful, little is known about how best to reduce inflation or how far it should be reduced. In this volume, sixteen distinguished economists analyze the appropriateness of low inflation as a goal for monetary policy and discuss possible strategies for reducing inflation.

Section I discusses the consequences of inflation. These papers analyze inflation's impact on the tax system, labor market flexibility, equilibrium unemployment, and the public's sense of well-being. Section II considers the obstacles facing central bankers in achieving low inflation. These papers study the precision of estimates of equilibrium unemployment, the sources of the high inflation of the 1970s, and the use of non-traditional indicators in policy formation. The papers in section III consider how institutions can be designed to promote successful monetary policy, and the importance of institutions to the performance of policy in the United States, Germany, and other countries.

This timely volume should be read by anyone who studies or conducts monetary policy.

Reducing Inflation Motivation and Strategy

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Reducing Inflation Motivation and Strategy
Christina D. (EDT)/ Romer, David H. (EDT) Romer
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPXL3E

Book Description

ADO.NET refers to a set of classes that ship with Visual Studio .NET that allow developers to access data typically stored in relational databases. The purpose of this book is to explain the important features of ADO.NET to corporate developers who use VS .NET. Dan Fox also provides architectural guidance and Best Practices for using ADO.NET in corporate applications. Reference Tables sho how members of ADO.NET classes fit into the bigger picture by denoting why or where the method or property is used. This book is filled with code snippets and code listings in both VB .NET and VC# .NET, sidebars, and mini Case Studies that briefly explore peripheral issues, tips, cautions, and additional resources.

Download Description

Dan Fox's no-nonsense approach gets to the answers corporate developers need most to use ADO.NET in practical applications. Provides tutorial-based coverage about the purpose and architecture of ADO.NET and how it fits into .NET development. Compares ADO.NET to classic ADO, tells how it integrates with XML, SQL Server, and Oracle. Prevents wasting time looking through online documentation for example code. ADO.NET refers to a set of classes that ship with Visual Studio .NET that allow developers to access data typically stored in relational databases. The purpose of this book is to explain the important features of ADO.NET to corporate developers who use VS .NET. Dan Fox also provides architectural guidance and best practices for using ADO.NET in corporate applications. Reference Tables show how members of ADO.NET classes fit into the bigger picture by denoting why or where the method or property is used. This book is filled with code snippets and code listings in both VB .NET and VC# .NET, sidebars, and mini case studies that briefly explore peripheral issues, tips, cautions, and additional resources. Dan Fox is a Technical Director for Quilogy, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. He has developed, designed, and architected client-server, Web-based, and distributed solutions using Visual Basic, Visual Interdev, SQL Server, MTS, COM+, and ADO. Dan has taught the Microsoft development curriculum to thousands of students. Dan regularly speaks at conferences and writes articles on a variety of topics including data access with relational databases-his area of expertise. Books Dan has authored include Pure Visual Basic, ISBN 0-672-31598-X, $24.99, 1999, and Building Distributed Applications with Visual Basic .NET, ISBN 0-672-32130-0, $44.99, 2002, both for Sams Publishing.

Customer Reviews:

Too much of one type of information.......2004-01-08

There is a lot of DETAILED info in this book on ADO.NET. However, if you want to do something (write a data entry screen with validation etc.), there is very little here.

This book would be much better suited as a reference on ADO.NET - very little info on how to actually use it in an application.

Succeeded where two others failed.......2002-11-14

Over the last 18 months I had read 7 or 8 VB.net and .net books, with two supposidly focused only on .net database and ADO.net. While they gave me an understanding of the purpose of ADO.net's architecture, and one brought me thru the wizzards (for which a seperate book was hardly necessary). Neither of these books left me with an understanding of what was really going on, or how I could actually develop ADO.net applications without wizzards.

ADO.net in 21 days was the answer to really understanding the details of how the dataset works inside, how the dataset and all ADO.net relates to XML, Adapter details, and much much more.

I give 5 stars to the book, yet subtract 1 since the samples all require SQL server, I would have appreciated having the samples in Access as well.

I consider myself an intermediate VB programmer. I have worked in my spare time for close to a year, developing a database intensive, moderately complex VB.net application as a volunteer. My agenda is to build a useful product for an organization while keeping my skills up to date -- I have been programming in a variety of languages since 1966. I was especially interested in using ADO.net to make sure what I develop now will have the longest life possible.

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The Management of Small Tourism and Hospitality Firms

Manufacturer: Cassell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0304701971

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Small firms embracing technology and tourism development: evidence from two nations in Central America [An article from: International Journal of Hospitality Management]
R.R. Croes , and D.V. Tesone
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RR41HO

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from International Journal of Hospitality Management, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
This research note reports the findings of a study that explored the types of technology used within hospitality-related small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The study investigated the perceptions of value and the levels of awareness of entrepreneurs and managers regarding various technologies commonly used in similar organizations in the United States. The results suggest that there are minimal technology applications in back-office and front-office processing activities in SMEs in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The evidence further suggests that the levels of awareness of entrepreneurs and managers concerning these applications are practically non-existent.

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