In this scathing book, the author produced a landmark study of affluent American society that exposes, with brilliant ruthlessness, the habits of production and waste that link invidious business tactics and barbaric social behavior. Veblen's analysis of the evolutionary process sees greed as the overriding motive in the modern economy, and with an impartial gaze he examines the human cost paid when social institutions exploit the consumption of unessential...

"As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power--which groups have it and which do not. In this book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories...

"At 28, Stephanie Land's plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer, were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unplanned pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and, with a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree,...

From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon's CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming...

"An incendiary examination of burnout in millennials-the cultural shifts that got us here, the pressures that sustain it, and the need for drastic change"-- While burnout may seem like the default setting for the modern era, Petersen argues that burnout is a definitional condition for the millennial generation. It is born out of distrust in the institutions that have failed us, the unrealistic expectations of the modern workplace, and a sharp uptick...

"A Millennial's groundbreaking investigation into why his generation is economically worse off than their parents, creating a radical and devastating portrait of what it means to be young in America. Millennials have been called lazy, entitled, narcissistic, and immature, but when you push aside the stereotypes, what actually unites this generation? The short answer: They've been had. Millennials are the hardest working and most educated generation...

First published in 1901, "How They Succeeded" is a classic self-help book on the subject of succeeding, with a particular focus on business and money matters. Dr. Orison Swett Marden (1848-1924) was an American author of inspirational books. He wrote primarily on the subject of being successful and founded "SUCCESS" magazine in 1897. Marden's books deal with attaining a fruitful and well-rounded life, with many of his ideas being based on the New...

Originally published in 1911, "Woman and Labour" is a landmark work of feminist literature that deals with historical and societal issues of the role of women and the differences between the sexes. Olive Schreiner (1855—1920) was a South African anti-war campaigner, intellectual, and author most famous for her highly-acclaimed novel "The Story of an African Farm" (1883), which deals with such issues as existential independence, agnosticism, individualism,...

"Remember when it all seemed to be getting better? Before Trump happened? What went wrong, and what can we do about it? Naomi Klein--scourge of brand bullies, disaster capitalists and climate liars--shows us how we got to this surreal and dangerous place, how to stop it getting worse and how, if we keep our heads, we can seize the opportunity to make it better. She reveals how Trump is not a freakish aberration, but an extension of the most powerful...

"It is well to remind ourselves, from time to time, that "Ethics" is but another word for "righteousness," that for which many men and women of every generation have hungered and thirsted, and without which life becomes meaningless. Certain forms of personal righteousness have become to a majority of the community almost automatic. But we all know that each generation has its own test, the contemporaneous and current standard by which alone it can...