Max Weber and the Path from Political Economy to Economic Sociology

This book examines the largely-neglected shift in Max Weber’s work from political economy to economic sociology. Considering the importance of his recognition—made during his research on the Protestant Ethic—of the reciprocal influences that exist between economics and society and the role of this realization in prompting him to rethink the study of political economy, the author sheds fresh light on his emerging belief that the study of the relationship between economic factors and social issues required a new discipline. A study that charts an important development in the thought of one of the founding figures of sociology, this volume will appeal to scholars of social theory with interests in the history of the field and the legacy of Max Weber.

Christopher Adair-Toteff is Fellow at the Center for Social and Political Thought, University of South Florida, USA. A philosopher, sociologist, and social theorist, he has published widely in the field of classical sociology. He is the author of Raymond Aron’s Philosophy of Political Responsibility, Max Weber’s Sociology of Religion, Fundamental Concepts in Max Weber’s Sociology of Religion, Reintroducing Ferdinand Tönnies and Sociological Beginnings. He is the editor of The Anthem Companion to Ernst Troeltsch and The Anthem Companion to Ferdinand Tönnies, and the co-editor of The Calling of Social Thought: Rediscovering the Work of Edward Shils and The Anthem Companion to Raymond Aron.