num_pages: 320
description: The Protestant ethic — a moral code stressing hard work, rigorous self-discipline, and the organization of one's life in the service of God — was made famous by sociologist and political economist Max Weber. In this brilliant study (his best-known and most controversial), he opposes the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism and its view that change takes place through "the struggle of opposites." Instead, he relates the rise of a capitalist economy to the Puritan determination to work out anxiety over salvation or damnation by performing good deeds — an effort that ultimately discouraged belief in predestination and encouraged capitalism. Weber's classic study has long been required reading in college and advanced high school social studies classrooms.
language: English
title: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
titlecomplete: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
genres: Politics, Religion, Philosophy, Economics, Theory, Classics, Social Science, Nonfiction, Sociology, History
ratings_count: 13097
publisher: Dover Publications