Max Weber on Capitalism

For this important selection from Weber, sections of text from Webers major works (Gesammelte, Aufsatze Zur Religionssoziologie, including The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; General Economic History; and The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilisations) have been carefully edited and substantially translated to form a coherent and integrated volume.

Professor Andreskis aim has been to use Webers own works to explain crucial turns in the evolution of societies and cultures, while eliminating the difficulties of language and frequent mistranslation which have previously made Weber so difficult and baffling for students new to his work.

An essay by Andreski introduces the selections, which are centred on Webers principal interest, the relationship between capitalism, religion and bureaucracy. He seeks to correct those misinterpretations of Webers work which have stressed his classification, rather than his attempts to theorise and explain social phenomena on the basis of a comparitive analysis of universal historical trends.

This book was first published in 1983.