Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic in the 21st Century∗

The history of sociology’s most famous study began with the publication of a two-part essay. Its author, educated as a lawyer but formerly employed as a national economist, had no formal training in its subject. He had just overcome a mood disorder that had debilitated him and all but finished his promising academic career, allowing his wife to become better known in some academic and social circles than he was. The essay’s arguments were quickly challenged by historians, whose critiques the author rebuffed in an acerbic and cantankerous fashion. Within weeks and months after publishing the study, its author moved on to conduct other monumental studies and did not return to the original study’s subject matter until close to the end of his life, when the essays were thoroughly revised and made part of a much larger project comparing the interface of religion and economics in the major religions. Since the author’s death, there have been studies addressing the genesis of the original essays, the significance of the changes made in their revision, the original and revised essays’ status in the larger context of the author’s work, their extension both stepping back and moving forward in time, and, last but not least, their shortcomings and aberrations, real and imagined.1 The work itself has been translated into numerous languages. A few years ago it was voted one of ten most significant books in sociology (of the twentieth century) by members of the International Sociological Association and listed among the New York Public Library’s Books of the Century (1895–1995). What more, then, could possibly be written about The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (hereafter: PE) and its author, Max Weber, to further our insight into the man and his work? One of the answers to this question is a new English translation that also includes a new introduction to Weber’s work. While some might find it