This wide-ranging and assured book, written by one of the leading Weber scholars in the English-speaking world, shows us the many sides of Max Weber. The book provides an authoritative guide to the current burning issues in social theory, religion, rationalization, the body, modernization and capitalism. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in Weber's claim that the aim of sociology must be to explain what is distinctive about the times in which we live.
Preface Introduction 1. Max Weber and the Panic Culture of Postmodernism 2. Max Weber's Historical Sociology Part One 3. Islam, Capitalism and the Weber Theses 4. Origins and Traditions in Islam and Christianity 5. State, Science and Economy in Traditional Societies 6. Religion and State-Formation Part Two 7. The Rationalization of the Body 8. The Body Politic Part Three 9. Simmel, Rationalization and the Sociology of Money 10. Nietzsche, Weber and the Devaluation of Politics Conclusion: Sociology and the Science of `Man'
