ABSTRACT
Earlier in this book, I argued that both the Barrington Moore research agenda and the more recent contributions to the literature discussed in the previous chapters are inspired by Max Weber’s pioneering work. It is all the more remarkable that Weber’s most significant contribution, his sociology of religion, has played such a modest role in post-1945 research on state formation, regime change, and economic development, at least within comparative historical analysis. The ‘Weberist’ insight about the political and economic significance of ideas has largely been ignored in the comparative historical analyses covered in Parts III and IV of this book. The literature instead emphasizes material factors, particularly war and class struggle. Above all, it is striking that Weber’s notion that Protestantism was the sledgehammer of modernity has not really been picked up by most of the literature that has followed in the German sociologist’s footprints.
