Weber, Karl Emil Maximilian [Max]

(1864–1920)

   Sociologist and Historian.

   Weber was born in Erfurt, Germany, and for much of his career he taught political economy at the Universities of Freiburg and Heidelberg. A friend of Ernst troeltsch, he is primarily remembered for his argument that Calvinist beliefs were an important element in the growth of capitalism. This he expressed in his Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (English title). He also classified different types of religious leaders and it was he who coined the term ‘charismatic’.

   A. Giddens, Politics and Sociology in the Thought of Max Weber (1972);

   B. Turner, Max Weber: From History to Modernity (1992);

   S. Whimster and S. Cash (eds), Max Weber, Rationality and Modernity (1987).