Review by Choice Review
This book reads like a collection of essays, because the "context" to which its subtitle refers is not the social, cultural, and institutional setting in which Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic, in both its 1905 and 1920 versions, appeared, but, rather, a series of texts. These include Weber's earlier and later writings (primarily his 1895 inaugural lecture at Freiburg and the 1919 lectures on science and politics as vocations), and comparatively the writings of Thomas Wright (the 17th-century author of Passions of the Minde), Adam Smith, Thorstein Veblen, and Werner Sombart. Barbalet (Univ. of Western Sydney) writes that Weber intended his text as "an allegory serving a programmatic purpose of political education," making it continuous with both the inaugural and vocation lectures. Consequently, Weber's depiction of the religious origins of capitalism requires more critical scrutiny, which Barbalet offers in the comparative chapters. Neither part of this argument is entirely new, but their combination receives its most forceful treatment to date. Integral to this stance is the author's undoubtedly controversial assertion that Weber's formulation of vocation, or calling, in The Protestant Ethic contains no "emotional" element, which was added only in later writings. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty. C. T. Loader University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
