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The Western Canon Mailing List
Moderator: Paul John Barnette Jr.
Activation Date: March 8, 1997
Current Date: March 30, 1997 
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     HAPPY EASTER!!!

I hope that everyone is having an enjoyable
holiday weekend. I am sending this message
out to everyone to announce that The Western
Canon Mailing List is now open for discussion.
I will forward all messages I receive to every
member of the list. The turnover time for the
postings will be 24 hours because I will check
for new messages once every day. I am looking
forward to an active and interesting discussion.

As a reminder our work for discussion this month
is Thorstein Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure
Class". This work can be obtained via The Western
Canon WWW Site at the following URL.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6681/veblen.htm

Since this is our first month of active participation,
I would also like to encourage the members of the
mailing list to introduce themselves to one another.
This will involve writing a short description of yourself
and sending it to the list so that the other members can
read it. This is in no way a requirement for participation
in the discussion. I think that it would be a good
way to get started for those that may be interested.

The primary purpose of the list is to read and discuss the
selected works. In light of this fact I have two questions
that I would like to put forward in regard to the current
selection.

(1)What exactly is Veblen's attitude toward his subject matter?
   Is this an objective and scholarly analysis of a social class, or
   is it a direct attack against a social class disguised as an
   objective analysis?

(2)How does Veblen's description of the leisure class of his time
   (1899) differ from the leisure class of today? And would these
   differences point out any flaws in Veblen's fundamental analysis of
   this class?

I put these question out to simply get the ball rolling. You 
may totally ignore them if you like. Personally I am more 
interested in what YOU have to say. 

I hope that we can look forward to some fascinating and 
engaging discussion during the following months!

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The Western Canon Mailing List
pbarnett@geocities.com
The Western Canon WWW Site
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6681/index.html
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