The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism / Edition 1

by Max Weber

Overview

Max Weber's best-known and most controversial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, first published in 1904, remains to this day a powerful and fascinating read. Weber's highly accessible style is just one of many reasons for his continuing popularity. The book contends that the Protestant ethic made possible and encouraged the development of capitalism in the West. Widely considered as the most informed work ever written on the social effects of advanced capitalism, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism holds its own as one of the most significant books of the twentieth century. The book is one of those rare works of scholarship which no informed citizen can afford to ignore.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415254069
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/17/2001
Series:	Routledge Classics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x (d)

About the Author

Stephen Kalberg is Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston University and an affiliate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Stephen Kalberg

Translator's Preface by Stephen Kalberg

Glossary

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Part I. The Problem

1. Religious Affiliation and Social Stratification

2. The Spirit of Capitalism

3. Luther's Conception of the Calling

a. Task of the Investigation

Part II. The Vocational Calling of Ascetic Protestantism

4. The Religious Foundations of This-Worldly Asceticism

a. Calvinism

b. Pietism

c. Methodism

d. The Baptizing Sects: The Quakers, Baptists, and Mennonites

5. Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism

"The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism"

Prefatory Remarks to Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion

Editorial Reviews

Max Weber is the one undisputed canonical figure in contemporary sociology.

Times Higher Education Supplement

Arguing that classic works should be translated every generation, and that the essay here was last translated into English some 70 years ago, Kalberg (sociology, Boston U.) strives to make the text accessible to undergraduates and general readers and to retain the integrity of the work with a close-to-the-text translation. In addition to the essay itself, which was published in a two parts in a social science journal in 1904-05, he has included two related documents by Weber (1864-1920). Cited in . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"Sociologists interested in Max Weber can count themselves fortunate these days with the recent appearance of the second revised edition of Stephen Kalberg's new translation of Weber's work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. . . . Those teaching upper division undergraduate and graduate courses in social theory or the sociology of religion will find this volume an ideal introduction to Weber's work and to the continuing controversies surrounding his famous thesis. At $14.95 in paper-bound edition, it is more than worth the price."— Donald A. Nielsen, State University of New York Oneota

From the Publisher