Jonathan Levy | The Real Economy: Veblen’s University Politics

Drawing on his new book, The Real Economy: History and Theory (Princeton University Press, 2025), Jonathan Levy discussed Thorstein Veblen’s attempts while a professor of economics at the University of Chicago to decide to what degree the university was inside or outside the economy. Levy focuses on Veblen’s account of the economy from a particular vantage point, his experience at the turn of the twentieth century of being a working economist at the newly founded University of Chicago, which was among the first self-styled US research universities, funded by new forms of philanthropic wealth. If we take seriously Veblen’s mantra that “habits of thought are the outcome of habits of life,” then the modern and still today contemporary research university environment must have something do with how the economy is lived and thought. Levy uses Veblen’s account of the modern research university in its early years to articulate his conception of “the economic life process,” the relationship between capitalism and higher education, and the possibility of socialism. –– Recorded February 25, 2025. All rights to the words and ideas expressed in this video are retained exclusively by their authors. If you would like to reuse a segment of this video, please contact the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory to request permission.