ABSTRACT
Max Weber has long been regarded as a major figure in historical sociology. Indeed, Weber’s sociology can be taken as a paradigm of how to undertake comparative and historical research in the social sciences. In specific terms, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1930), Ancient Judaism (1952), The City (1958a), The Religion of China (1951), The Religion of India (1958b) and General Economic History (1927) have made a major contribution to the debate about the relationship between history and sociology. The scale of Weber’s contribution to the development of historical sociology is explored in Chapters 2 and 6 in this volume. Although Weber’s stature as a historical sociologist is not in dispute, his influence has unfortunately often been confined either to debates about methodology-in terms of The Methodology of the Social Sciences (Weber 1949)—or to the origins of rational capitalism.
