The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Routledge Classics) (Routledge Classics) Description:

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Routledge Classics) (Routledge Classics) review:
5 stars ( A C lassic for All Times) - Weber's "Protestant Ethic" was originally published in 1904-1905 and later in a second, revised edition (1920). This edition is the second edition, and the translator is Talcott Parsons.

In "The Protestant Ethic" Weber famously attempts to explain how the spirit of modern rational capitalism emerged; and he essentially argues that an important part in this process was played by what he termed ascetic protestantism or different types of Protestantism that were activistic and ascetic (most famously Calvinism).

Ascetic Protestantism energized businessmen and workers, and valorized a new type of capitalism: rational capitalism which is much more methodical and dynamic in nature than the type of capitalism that existed in Europe in the 1500s ("traditional capitalism"). Today rational capitalism has conquered society and turned it into an iron cage (to use Parsons' famous translation of two words in German that are more accurately - and less imaginatively - translated as "steelhard casing").

"The Protestant Ethic" is by far the most famous sociological study and is unsurpassed in theoretical boldness and creativity. Parsons said that he found it as exciting to read as a detective novel. Most of us have to struggle quite a bit with it - but it is definitely worth it!
4 stars (Not a determinist: someone who pays attention to culture... ) - The main point in Weber's *The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism* is that the Protestant ethic helped to shape values favorable to the birth of capitalism. Despite that, the author isn't a cultural determinist because he takes care to point out that values help to shape an outcome, but don't produce it for certain.



This book is quite interesting, and includes lots of interesting observations regarding Weber's main premise, despite not being overly long. For instance, the author says that due to the fact that Protestant ethic viewed hard work as a duty and looked down on excesive luxuries, Protestants were indirectly encouraged to save almost all the money they earnt, thus increasing the funds available for the capitalist process. Of course, there are many more examples that contribute to give weight to Weber's argument, but to know more you will need to read *The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism* ...



Weber analyses some data at his disposal, and that makes some chapters slightly less engaging. Notwithstanding that, this book is likely to be worth your time and your money. To start with, you will learn quite a few interesting facts you probably were unaware of before. Secondly, and in a more frivolous vein, you will finally know what everybody is talking about when they mention directly or indirectly this book from time to time :)



All in all, I recommend this book especially to those interested in Sociology or Cultural Studies, but also to curious people who want to know more about the influence of culture in different processes. Enjoy it !



Belen Alcat




4 stars (The Essence Of National Liberalism...) - courtesy of America's great technocracy tectonician.The theoretical legacy of Max Weber -- namely, sociology as an independent science only dubiously dependent upon either economics or philosophy -- is a task which one is not highly encouraged to pick up in the present day, but the use of Weber recommended by Pierre Bourdieu (as a form of cold comfort surpassing Marx in his cultural materialism) may have involved too obscure a camera for the import of this book relative to extant social theory to be properly appreciated. Perhaps there is even a tonic more readily administered than recent disputations of Weber's famed religio-economic history: which has it that the cultural norms of Protestantism (denial of self-gratification in pursuit of a spiritual ideal) are responsible for the rise of the modern entrepreneural economy, perhaps all too securely. In fact, perhaps the architect of Weimar's Caesarist exceutive branch ought to be trusted with relatively little in this respect: that is to say, there should be some fact by virtue of which his work is available to us as an unstable amalgam permitting of virtuous appropriation. Might this be the new "availability" of the former standard translation by Talcott Parsons? Indeed it might: Parsons was not only the dean of American sociologists (and how), he was actually a fantastically acute observer of "Lakatosian" dynamics in the history of ideas, and the problematic character of the Weberian conceptual scheme was unlikely to have passed him by. If we compare this version to George Schwab's translation of *The Concept of Politics* by Carl Schmitt (once explicitly claimed to be the "legitimate heir" of Weber by Habermas) the relative lack of excitement is palpable, and perhaps tangible too: Parsons was actually rather fond of "cages of rationality", and in all seriousness there may be no very good reason to consider "cylindricized" elements of meaning employed in goal-directed behavior all that ironclad. Kudos to Routledge for providing a durable reprint of the Simon & Schuster version, even with the screams of Anthony Giddens.