Max Weber: Politics and the Spirit of Tragedy

by John Patrick Diggins

Max Weber is a fresh look at the life and work of one of the greatest social and political thinkers of the modern era, and the first book to focus on Weber from an American perspective.Ever since World War II, Max Weber has been regarded as a monument to the most conservative and conventional orthodoxies of the social science establishment. Despite the fact that many of Weber's books, foremost among them, Economy and Society and The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, are classics and continue to be read, there has never been a single-volume treatment of Weber's life and thought in English.In reversing this critical neglect, John Patrick Diggins challenges Weber's iconic status and in the process uncovers another side of one influenced by Nietzche, one whose deep belief in individualism bound him close to the Emersonian tradition in America, one with a Lincoln-like sense of history as tragedy, and one with a sober sense of the responsibilities of the state.Diggins brilliantly connects the critical moments of Weber's life—and in particular, his experience of America—to his most enduring ideas on power, capitalism, bureaucracy, and science. He argues that Weber's emphasis on such topics as rapaciousness, hypocrisy, and deception makes his work timelier than ever in helping to illuminate the dilemmas of modern American politics.

Genres: Politics, Sociology, Biography

334 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

John Patrick Diggins was a professor of history at the City University of New York Graduate Center, the author of more than a dozen books on widely varied subjects in American intellectual history.

Reviews

[Raully · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diggins knows a lot about Weber and sociology, but unfortunately he knows less about German intellectual history (except for the highlights) and extremely little (perhaps nothing) about Protestantism (or its supposed "ethic"). Because Diggins places Weber solely in a left-of-center intellectual canon, I think he misses quite a bit of Weber. Its a good book, but perhaps better for sociologists than for historians.

[Missclark REteacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb biography demonstrating Weber was a "product" of his time. He belong to a very special circle of friends which included Freud and were influenced by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

[Dave Rodenhuis]

Diggings writes with authority and experience, I like the way he brings de Tocqueville's observations into the presentation of Weber's. I learned a lot.

[Steve Greenleaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific study of Weber & his thought. More reflections to follow.