Since its publication in 1905, Max Weber’s seminal treatise has been both championed as perceptive sociological analysis and condemned as inaccurate and even subversive. Whatever its shortcomings, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is valuable for helping us think about alternative types of capitalism and the relationship between culture and the economy.

Solomon Stein is a senior research fellow in the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University.
Virgil Henry Storr is associate professor of economics at George Mason University.
Culture and SocietyEconomic PolicyEconomistsEconomyPhilosophy and Religion
Other Independent Review articles by Virgil Henry Storr
Summer 2019 Is Social Justice a Mirage?
Fall 2018 Gordon Tullock’s Legacy: An Introduction
Spring 2014 Grover Cleveland against the Special Interests