s/t: The First Complete English Edition of Weber's Prelude to the Protestant Ethic and the Spiri This early book was a prelude to the multi-causal and multi-dimensional approach that scholars see reflected in Weber's later writings.
Maximilian Carl Emil Weber was a German lawyer, politician, historian, sociologist and political economist, who profoundly influenced social theory and the remit of sociology itself. His major works dealt with the rationalization, bureaucratization and 'disenchantment' associated with the rise of capitalism. Weber was, along with his associate Georg Simmel, a central figure in the establishment of methodological antipositivism; presenting sociology as a non-empirical field which must study social action through resolutely subjective means.