CONTENTS

Acknowledgments    ix

Chapter 1

The Twenty-first-Century “Leisure” Class    1

Chapter 2

Conspicuous Consumption in the Twenty-first Century    24

Chapter 3

Ballet Slippers and Yale Tuition: Inconspicuous Consumption and the New Elites    46

Chapter 4

Motherhood as Conspicuous Leisure in the Twenty-first Century    78

Chapter 5

Conspicuous Production    110

Chapter 6

Landscapes of Consumption    148

Chapter 7

“To Get Rich Is Glorious”? The State of Consumption and Class in America    182

Appendix    199

Notes    221

References    233

Index    247