Max Weber's best-known and most controversial work, The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, first published in 1904, remains to
this day a powerful and fascinating read. Weber's highly accessible
style is just one of many reasons for his continuing popularity. The
book contends that the Protestant ethic made possible and encouraged the
development of capitalism in the West. Widely considered as the most
informed work ever written on the social effects of advanced capitalism,
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism holds its own as one
of the most significant books of the twentieth century. The book is one
of those rare works of scholarship which no informed citizen can afford
to ignore.