The Protestant Ethic Turns 100: Essays on the Centenary of the Weber Thesis (Great Barrington Books) [Paperback]

William H. Swatos Jr. (Editor), Lutz Kaelber (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1594510997 | ISBN-13: 978-1594510991 | Publication Date: May 2005

Marking the centennial anniversary of the first publication of Max Weber's 'Protestant Ethic' essays, a group of internationally recognized Weber scholars review the significance of Weber's essays by addressing their original context, historical reception, and ongoing relevance. Lawrence Scaff, Hartmut Lehmann, Philip Gorski, Stephen Kalberg, Martin Riesebrodt, Donald Nielsen, Peter Kivisto, and the editors offer original perspectives that engage Weber's indelible work so as to inform current issues central to sociology, history, religious studies, political science, economics, and cultural studies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Provides a grand overview of the history, assessment, and implications from a century of reflection on [Weber's] text. Highly recommended. -- CHOICE --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Bill Swatos is managing editor of International Journal of Research on Religion at Baylor University.

Lutz Kaelber, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Vermont, is the editor and translator of Max Weber, The History of Commercial Partnerships (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003).

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: Paradigm Publishers (May 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594510997
• ISBN-13: 978-1594510991
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #508,050 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Viva Max!, March 20, 2011

By 

L. King "Eclectic Reader" (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Protestant Ethic Turns 100: Essays on the Centenary of the Weber Thesis (Great Barrington Books) (Paperback)

Well written collection of essays examining the zeit geist (pun intended) of sociologist/philosopher Max Weber. My own familiarity with Weber came from reading Talcott Parson's translation and commentary that my older sister had informatively underlined and provided notes on in the margins when she was in university. We no longer have the book and how much I retained is at this point a mystery, however the lessons of hard work, concern for others, a modicum of self denial and the notion of different cultural dispositions pertaining to group membership stuck with me. The other aspect of Weber that I admired was his lack of absolute historical determinism to his views, a stark contrast to Marx and Spengler. Weber's theory was an approximation of probable causes that satisficed the outcome and provided a middle road between left and right.

There are 8 contributions in all plus an excellent prefatory note by editor Lutz Kaelber which concisely summarizes each. Harmut Lehmann leads in Ch 1 with a discussion of Weber's academic circle and his response to critics, in particular Sombart who held similar views, but disagreed with Weber's assessment that modern capitalism originated with Protestant Reformers.

Chapter 2 "Dimensions of the Protestant Ethic" by Martin Reisebrodt I found more intriguing. Apparently there were two versions, one written in 1903-04 and the other published in 1920, and while not very different in content, Reisebrotd explains the context in which they appeared should result in a different interpretation. The earlier edition was a standalone piece; the latter was published with Weber's further comparative studies of the Economic Ethics of other World Religions. Further the 1904 mileue was much more hopeful and progressive. Post WW I Germany was tended more to romanticism, naturalism and experimentation much like the mid 1960s. The essay also examines the relationships of Weber's family life, in particular to his wife Marianne, his father Max Sr. his mother Helene, all of whom Reisebrodt sees as represented prototypically in Weber's work.

For historical interest Lawrence Scaff's look at Weber's foray into America was quite enjoyable and informing, including details of the land rush in the Indian Territory, a topic I've now earmarked for looking into. He relates Weber's fascination with the lore of the American frontier, not an uncommon European fascination, especially for Germans, and his hasty exit from the Hotel Royal in Oklahoma city when told of an dispute involving a newspaper editor (Frank Greer) he was about to meet where the editor had brandished a gun in order to procure a retraction from a rival paper. Scaff speculates quite bit on who Weber might have met or read about when he was in America, and also discusses Longfellow and Benjamin Franklin whom Weber regarded as iconic. He also cites Weber on the practice of developers setting up churches in frontier towns for the express of building communities of trust. (pp108)

Editor Kaelber's own contribution was thought provoking . He spends time explaining and rebutting arguments about Weber from another academeic Jere Cohen, who does not have a paper in the book. He does it so well that he convinced me that Cohen has a better argument than he does! Whereas Kaelber searches for Protestant ascetism and business ethic in a pure Weberian form, Cohen argues that in absolute terms it need not exist, that Weber only argued for tendencies and overall approximations.

Philip Gorski's "The Little Divergence" was an unexpected bonus. In the 15th century if one took a survey of the planet then Islam was both the present and the future. You had the Ottomans dominating North Africa and Asia Minor, the Safavids controlling Persia and the Mughals in the Indian subcontinent reaching east until they met a declining and insular China and SE Asia. The decline of Islam is a problem that Bernard Lewis examined in "What went wrong". Instead Gorski finds Weber asking a different question - "What went right?" in European civilization that allowed it to "liftoff" and become a dominant force. The "Little Divergence" was the Protestant Reformation and the Age of Exploration starting in the 1600. The Great Divergence was the Industrial Revolution some 200 years later. Weber favored the argument that the former was key to the latter. Gorski discusses why London, Antwerp and Amsterdam became the major centres of the European economic miracle and not Florence, La Rochelle or Paris. New World silver is one factor as it was (apparently) the only commodity that the Far East was interested in trading for with the Europeans, but more significant was the work ethic and social structure of Huguenots, Calvinists, Lutherans and other reformers.

Overall a good book that did what I hoped it would and a bit more. If you are interested in Weber and his ideas either for personal interest or a school essay it is worth picking up. To fine tune the rating - 4.3 */5.