The Protestant ethic and modernization

by S. N. Eisenstadt

Max Weber's provocative thesis about the role of Protestant values in the emergence of modern capitalism has become one of the best-known and most influential ideas ever advanced in social science. First set forth more than sixty-five years ago, it has been the subject of continuing and tremendously fruitful controversy ever since. The sociologists, political scientists, and anthropologists whose writings Professor Eisenstadt has gathered together in this volume show the continuing relevance of Weber to our understanding of the modernization process by doing two things for the first time: (1) re-examining the Protestant-ethic thesis in the light of contemporary sociological analysis and (2) applying it to contemporary non-Western as well as Western societies. The result is a highly suggestive work that will interest all those -- theorists and practitioners alike -- concerned with the problem of social change. - Back cover.