Max Weber's Comparative-Historical Sociology
Max Weber's Comparative-Historical Sociology

Author: Stephen Kalberg

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1994-03-17

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9780226423036

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The revival of historical sociology in recent decades has largely neglected the contributions of Max Weber. Yet Weber's writings offer a fundamental resource for analyzing problems of comparative historical development. Stephen Kalberg rejects the view that Weber's historical writings consist of an ambiguous mixture of fragmented ideal types on the one hand and the charting of vast processes of rationalization and bureaucracy on the other. On the contrary, Weber's substantive work offers a coherent and distinctive model for comparative analysis. A reconstruction of Weber's comparative historical method, Kalberg argues, uncovers a sophisticated outlook that addresses problems of agency and structure, multiple causation, and institutional interpretation. Kalberg shows how such a representation of Weber's work casts a direct light upon issues of pressing importance in comparative historical studies today. Weber addresses in a forceful way the whole range of issues confronted by the comparative historical enterprise. Once the full analytical and empirical power of Weber's historical writings becomes clear, Weber's work can be seen to generate procedures and strategies appropriate to the study of present day as well as past social processes. Written in an accessible and engaging fashion, this book will appeal to students and professionals in the areas of sociology, anthropology, and comparative history.

Max Weber's Comparative-Historical Sociology Today
Max Weber's Comparative-Historical Sociology Today

Author: Stephen Kalberg

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-03-02

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 1351919091

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Bringing together the author's major scholarly work on Weber over the last thirty years, Max Weber's Comparative-Historical Sociology Today addresses major themes in Weber's thought, whilst also examining the mode of analysis practised in his comparative-historical writings. By exploring Weber's concepts and procedures, the individual chapters seek to convey the rigor of his research strategies, demonstrating their uniqueness. In this light, this study proceeds to identify as incomplete and then reconstruct the analyses undertaken by Weber of the rise of Confucianism in China, the caste system in India, and monotheism in ancient Israel. The analysis then advances to the modern era, utilising Weber's research procedures to explain the origins of four independent phenomena: the singularity of the American political culture, the cultural foundations of modern citizenship, cultural pessimism (Kulturpessimismus) in nineteenth century Germany, and the 'location' of work in contemporary German society. A dialogue with a variety of recent major schools is pursued throughout this volume. Offering a rich examination of the major themes in Weber's sociology, alongside a reconstruction of his mode of analysis and application of his approach, this book will appeal to scholars around the world with interests in social theory, German and American societies, cultural sociology, political sociology, the sociology of knowledge, comparative-historical sociology, and the sociology of civilizations.

Weber and Toennies
Weber and Toennies

Author: Werner J. Cahnman

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published: 2011-12-31

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 1412841259

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This collection of selected essays by Werner J. Cahnman brings together out of scattered dispersion his writings about Max Weber, Ferdinand Toennies, and historical sociology. The great theoretical range and depth of his intellect and mastery of sociological thinking is apparent as he discusses the impact of romanticism on modern thought, and how Weber and Toennies both analyzed and reacted to modernity. Cahnman places Weber (1864-1920), the dominant figure in twentieth-century sociology, in the midst of the methodological controversies so characteristic of contemporary social science, and he fully discusses the overarching importance of Weberian ideal-type theory. Although less well-known than Weber, Toennies (1855-1936) was also a sociologist of the first rank. He is best remembered for his enormously influential twin concepts, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, which contributed to our understanding of the historical and sociological basis for the change from premodern to modern societies. The essays in this volume establish Toennies' intellectual connections to Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, and Herbert Spencer, and clarify his influence upon American sociology. Cahnman stood against strict separations between history and sociology, and his essays are all informed by a wonderful admixture of the theoretical and the concrete. They demonstrate how a genuine historical sociology, not unlike that of Weber and Toennies, can find and explain linkages between seemingly disparate events spanning time and place. This volume will be of interest to sociologists, political scientists, and intellectual historians.

Max Weber's Sociology of Civilizations
Max Weber's Sociology of Civilizations

Author: Stephen Kalberg

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 9781003047186

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"This book investigates civilizations through the works of Max Weber. Articulating his sociology in a manner that provides clear guidelines for the systematic investigation of civilizations, the volume focuses upon his 'big picture' themes: his comparative-historical methodology and his causal explanations for the singular sources, contours, and trajectories of civilizations. Through detailed interpretations of Weber's wide-scope and configurational analysis of the West's unique development from Antiquity to the Modern era, his forceful comparisons to the discrete pathways taken by China and India, and his careful demarcation of the 'particular rationalism' of several civilizations, the author examines Weber's stark opposition to organic holism, mono-causal procedures, and structural presuppositions. As such, this study masterfully conveys his contextual and multi-causal mode of analysis rooted in a tight interweaving of the present with the past. Weber's research strategies also emphasize both the 'subjective meanings' of actors East and West and the deep cultural and long-range origins of their salient groups. In this way, social scientists pursuing a cross-civilizational agenda will be able to discover Weberian 'interpretive understanding' procedures for empirical investigations. Max Weber's Sociology of Civilizations: A Reconstruction will contribute decisively and significantly to the now-essential field of civilizational analysis, and will appeal to comparative sociologists and historians, as well as to social theorists of all persuasions"--

Max Weber's Insights and Errors
Max Weber's Insights and Errors

Author: Stanislav Andreski

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-04-15

Total Pages: 167

ISBN-13: 1135657912

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Max Weber (1864-1920) is generally recognised as one of the founding fathers of modern sociology. His ideas continue to be discussed by sociologists and historians and much homage is paid to his contribution to knowledge. However, such is the awe which the breadth of his knowledge inspires that most general books about Weber contain summaries rather than criticism. This book is the first attempt to evaluate Weber's entire work in the light of historical knowledge available today and of contemporary analytic philosophy. Professor Andreski shows where Weber's true greatness lies, which of Weber's ideas are still valid, which need either correction or modification and which merit rejection. Andreski places Weber in his social and cultural context of the intellectual preeminence of German culture in the second half of the nineteenth century. He examines Weber's most famous theses on objectivity, methodological individualism, ethical neutrality; explanation versus understanding; ideal types; rationalisation; bureaucracy, charisma, power, law and religion; as well as the explanation of the rise of capitalism and uniqueness of Western civilization. Andreski concludes by considering what contemporary scholars should learn from Weber if they want to advance further. He argues that the most important lesson is that comparative study of history (including recent history) is the only method of giving empirical support to an examination of large-scale social processes or a general proposition about them. This book was first published in 1984.

Max Weber's Comparative-Historical Sociology
Max Weber's Comparative-Historical Sociology

Author: Stephen Kalberg

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1994-03-17

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780226423036

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The revival of historical sociology in recent decades has largely neglected the contributions of Max Weber. Yet Weber's writings offer a fundamental resource for analyzing problems of comparative historical development. Stephen Kalberg rejects the view that Weber's historical writings consist of an ambiguous mixture of fragmented ideal types on the one hand and the charting of vast processes of rationalization and bureaucracy on the other. On the contrary, Weber's substantive work offers a coherent and distinctive model for comparative analysis. A reconstruction of Weber's comparative historical method, Kalberg argues, uncovers a sophisticated outlook that addresses problems of agency and structure, multiple causation, and institutional interpretation. Kalberg shows how such a representation of Weber's work casts a direct light upon issues of pressing importance in comparative historical studies today. Weber addresses in a forceful way the whole range of issues confronted by the comparative historical enterprise. Once the full analytical and empirical power of Weber's historical writings becomes clear, Weber's work can be seen to generate procedures and strategies appropriate to the study of present day as well as past social processes. Written in an accessible and engaging fashion, this book will appeal to students and professionals in the areas of sociology, anthropology, and comparative history.

Comparative-Historical Methods
Comparative-Historical Methods

Author: Matthew Lange

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2012-11-12

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 1446291286

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This bright, engaging title provides a thorough and integrated review of comparative-historical methods. It sets out an intellectual history of comparative-historical analysis and presents the main methodological techniques employed by researchers, including: - comparative-historical analysis, - case-based methods, - comparative methods - data, case selection and theory. Matthew Lange has written a fresh, easy to follow introduction which showcases classic analyses, offers clear methodological examples and describes major methodological debates. It is a comprehensive, grounded book which understands the learning and research needs of students and researchers.

Max Weber, Democracy and Modernization
Max Weber, Democracy and Modernization

Author: Ralph Schroeder

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-07-27

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1349268364

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These essays bring Weber's sociology to bear on the current transformation of the political landscape. After the collapse of communism, many states are faced with the challenges of democratization: they need to establish their legitimacy in an uncertain economic climate and within a new geopolitical order. The essays in this volume develop Weberian concepts and apply his comparative-historical method to deepen our understanding of these problems. They cover a wide range of examples, from the United States to Western and Eastern Europe, and from Russia and Japan to the Islamic states.

What is Historical Sociology?
What is Historical Sociology?

Author: Richard Lachmann

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-10-10

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 0745679021

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Sociology began as a historical discipline, created by Marx, Weber and others, to explain the emergence and consequences of rational, capitalist society. Today, the best historical sociology combines precision in theory-construction with the careful selection of appropriate methodologies to address ongoing debates across a range of subfields. This innovative book explores what sociologists gain by treating temporality seriously, what we learn from placing social relations and events in historical context. In a series of chapters, readers will see how historical sociologists have addressed the origins of capitalism, revolutions and social movements, empires and states, inequality, gender and culture. The goal is not to present a comprehensive history of historical sociology; rather, readers will encounter analyses of exemplary works and see how authors engaged past debates and their contemporaries in sociology, history and other disciplines to advance our understanding of how societies are created and remade across time. This illuminating book is designed for use in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses as an introduction to historical sociology and as a guide to employing historical analysis across the discipline.