Max Weber
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is Weber's most famous work. It was the start of his research on how religions affected the development of economic systems. In the book, he put forward the thesis that the Protestant work ethic, which was derived from the theological ideas of the Reformation, influenced the development of capitalism. Weber was looking for elective affinities between the Protestant work ethic and capitalism. He argued that the Puritans' religious calling to work caused them to systematically obtain wealth. They wished to prove that they were members of the elect who were destined to go to Heaven. Weber used Benjamin Franklin 's personal ethic, as described in his " Advice to a Young Tradesman ", as an example of the Protestant sects' economic ethic. Both rationalisation and the ideal type, concepts that later became central to his scholarship, appeared in the thesis. Rationalization caused the West to be trapped in the stahlhartes Gehäuse ("iron cage" or "steel-hard casing") that was the modern capitalist economic order. The ideal types were representative figures, or case studies, that represented concepts.
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