The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Economy Editions)

Theological nuances and extremely long paragraphs, make it difficult to read for the average reader.

Weberian theory begins here.

Max Weber's thesis that the Protestant work-ethic helped give rise to the spirit of modern capitalism is well known, but how true is it? Weber goes into an impressive review of historical details on how Luther's concept of the calling became the Calvinist concept of labor to glorify God, and finally the Puritan concept that is applied to business as well as anything else. In short, the Protestant hard-work ethic, intended to be a sign of election and to glorify god, inadvertently (at least in part) gave birth to the spirit of capitalism, of sustained, planned, methodical profit-making. Though capitalism is no longer dependent upon religion for maintaining its ethos (we are all caught in the rat race), it is fascinating how Weber makes a compelling case that a once anti-materialist Protestant Christianity came to affirm the capitalist spirit by way of a hard-working ethic. Many of Weber's themes are persuasive, if also controversial. Weber has by no means isolated the final or full cause of the take-off of capitalism in modern times, but he has made a good case for one contributing factor. Would that his style of writing had been a bit more direct - Weber's insights are at least worth careful reading.

I am a big fan of free markets and a big fan of "rationalism" (to use the term from this book) - i.e. engaging in honest productive work for the purpose of earning profit. This book is well-written and attention-gripping and certainly ranks as a pro-free-markets classic.Where the book deviates from modern acceptability is by identifying different sociological groups with different economic behaviors. Specifically, the author analyzes differences between the behaviors of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews.The author points that "rational organization of capital" is a good thing and "politically oriented capitalism" is a bad thing. I agree with this comment. However, the author's belief that the former is Protestant capitalism and the latter is Jewish capitalism is something that I find objectionable since all Protestants are not the same and all Jews are not the same.The author brings up examples from both history and religious doctrine to back up his points.John Christmas, author of "Democracy Society"

This is a classic reference book. Basic reading for all students and researchers in business ethics. My review is considered unnecessary,

This is an absolute classic...get if you don't already have it. Want to understand America (and most of the rest of the world) , get this book!

Very interesting book! Using this for my Master's thesis.

I bought this book for class. It was extremely boring. It put me to sleep every time I was reading it. Never finished it.

Whatever you do, don't buy this edition of the book. This is a joke edition: it has none of the footnotes (written by Weber himself, and which are an integral part of the text) and is simply a bad text. The book is absolutely great, but get a real edition - preferable the Talcott Parsons translation, by the way.

This is a modern reprint that gives no information about the translation, the original publication date etc etc, beyond 'Copyright 2012 Renaissance Classics'. Nothing about what edition they have taken their text from.

Very well printed, good presentation and good value for money even it this seems too materialistic for the subject. But to someone who is even vaguelly interested in the subject it is excellent.

I am not rating Weber's text. Let's just say that it's worth the read if you are interested in this sort of a thing.However, it seems that this edition has not been proofread at all: I could handle typos but there are too many repeated words and in some instances even repeated half sentences. Hopefully not much is missing! Gives a feel of a poor copy-paste job.

One of the most inspiring books you'll ever read.