OF INTEREST TO: students of economics, readers of European history The traditions of the German people, including the personnel of the civil service, are traditions of frugality and parsimony... and these are fortifed in this connection by a traditional loyalty of service to a master, to whom the civil servant stands in a relation of personal stewardship. -from "Economic Policy of the Imperial State" One of the great thinkers of the early 20th century, American economist and sociologist THORSTEIN BUNDE VEBLEN (1857-1929) is best remembered for coining the phrase "conspicuous consumption" and, in this 1915 work, explaining how the stage was set for something like the Third Reich in Germany decades before its appearance. Veblen describes: . how the pagan past of the Germans gave rise to their modern character . how Germany's appropriation of industrial technology limited its cultural growth . how a medieval perspective endured in Germany into its imperial era . how the dominance of Prussia impacted Germany as a whole . and more. ALSO FROM COSIMO: Veblen's The Vested Interests and the Common Man, The Theory of Business Enterprise, and An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace and the Terms of Its Perpetuation