governance, and religious activities, while industrial efforts are viewed with disdain. The opening of the book introduces the concept of a leisure class through an examination of historical institutions and practices found in feudal societies, such as those in Europe and Japan. Veblen explains how class divisions manifest in terms of labor and social status, emphasizing that upper classes traditionally engage in activities deemed honorable while relegating industrial labor to the lower classes. He describes how the differentiation and specialization of roles lead to the cultural construction of honorific leisure and how the social structures evolve, including the implications for women and the labor markets. Furthermore, he sets the stage for understanding the continuous tension between productive labor and the desire for social respectability that defines the dynamics of leisure throughout history. (This is an automatically generated summary.)