Given the context and epoch of the book, I'd guess "barbarian" refers to non-Western, non-industrial societies. BTW, there's a Wikipedia article about the book

Given the context and epoch of the book, I'd guess "barbarian" refers to non-Western, non-industrial societies. BTW, there's a Wikipedia article about the book. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Clas...