Thorstein Veblen
200 Norwegians21 Joulu 2025

Thorstein Veblen

In the 18th episode of 200 Norwegians, we tell the story of Thorstein Veblen, a Norwegian-American thinker who spent his life trying to understand why wealthy societies so often lose their way.

Veblen died in 1929, alone in a small cabin in California. No obituary appeared. His name had largely vanished from public conversation. Then the stock market crashed—and suddenly America remembered him.

Born to Norwegian immigrant parents on the Midwestern frontier, Veblen grew up in a tight-knit Norwegian community, culturally distant from the America that was rapidly industrializing around him. That distance gave him a peculiar vantage point. He watched the rise of great fortunes, railroads, monopolies, and financiers—and noticed something unsettling. Wealth, he argued, was increasingly detached from productive work and devoted instead to display.

In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen coined the term “conspicuous consumption,” not as a slogan, but as a diagnosis of a society that had begun to mistake waste for success.

This episode explores Veblen’s unlikely life—from Norwegian farm communities to elite universities—and why his ideas keep resurfacing during moments of economic crisis. It is a story about status, power, and a question that remains unresolved: what kind of prosperity actually serves society?

Jaksot(22)

Leif Erikson

Leif Erikson

In the 14th episode of 200 Norwegian, we tell the story of Leif Erikson—the first European to reach North America—and how his place in U.S. history was revived a thousand years later. We trace Helge I...

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Ole Evinrude

Ole Evinrude

The thirteenth episode of 200 Norwegians tells the story of Ole Evinrude, the man who invented the first successful outboard motor. Born in Norway and raised in Wisconsin, Evinrude struggled through ...

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Guri Endreson Rosseland

Guri Endreson Rosseland

In the 12th episode of 200 Norwegians, we follow Guri Endreson Rosseland, a Norwegian settler caught in the Dakota War of 1862. When Dakota visitors came to her Minnesota farm, the encounter turned vi...

7 Syys 202535min

Sonja Henie

Sonja Henie

In the 11th episode of 200 Norwegians, you’ll meet one of Norway’s greatest athletes of all time: figure skater Sonja Henie. Not only did she dominate the sport with an unbeaten streak of three Olympi...

26 Elo 202536min

Ole Edvart Rølvaag

Ole Edvart Rølvaag

In the tenth episode of 200 Norwegians, we follow Ole Edvart Rølvaag—from stormy Dønna to the American Midwest—where he carved the immigrant experience into the American psyche with a number of novels...

6 Elo 202546min

Hans Christian Heg

Hans Christian Heg

In the ninth episode of 200 Norwegians, you’ll discover the legacy of a Norwegian abolitionist, Hans Christian Heg. Heg was only eleven when he boarded the ship that carried his family across the Atla...

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Odd Lovoll

Odd Lovoll

Episode 8 of 200 Norwegians is a special live recording from Norway House in Minneapolis, featuring renowned Norwegian-American historian and Professor Emeritus at St. Olaf College, Odd Lovoll. Lovoll...

20 Kesä 20251h

Knute Rockne

Knute Rockne

The seventh episode of 200 Norwegians tells the story of legendary football coach Knute Rockne. What made him so great? How did he achieve the highest winning percentage in college football history? W...

8 Kesä 202548min

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