Max Weber: A Biography

Abstract

A founder of contemporary social science, Max Weber was born in Germany in 1864. At his death 56 years later, he was nationally known for his scholarly and political writings, but it was international reception of his oeuvre over last forty years that has made him world-famous. Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism, Economic Ethics of World Religions and his magnum opus, Economy and Society, with its treatment of relations of economics, politics, law and religion, belong to great achievements of 20th-century social science. The groundwork for posthumous Weber reception was laid by Weber's widow Marianne, well-known feminist writer, who followed up her edition of his collected works with one of greatest biographies in generation that produced many important accounts of itself. Although unavailable in English until decade ago, importance of Marianne Weber's 1926 work had been widely understood. Sociologist Robert A. Nisbet called it a moving and deeply felt biographical memoir. Historian Gerhard Masur cited book as the foundation of all further inquiries into Max Weber's life and influence. Beginning with Max's ancestry and early years, Marianne Weber guides us through his life as student, young lawyer, scholar and political writer, quoting liberally from his voluminous correspondence. Her account of his nervous breakdown after 1897, which curtailed his academic career but ultimately strengthened his creative energies, provides deep insight into some of personal tensions that troubled him to end. In addition to her perceptive personal and intellectual life before First World War, describing many scholars, social reformers, politicians and literary figures within and beyond famous Heidelberg circle of Webers. The new introduction by Guenther Roth situates Marianne Weber's own role in contemporary setting and discusses current state of Weber research and of international Weber reception.

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