Radkau Max Weber

A Biography
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7456-8342-3
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 700 Seiten, E-Book

Max Weber (1864-1920) is recognized throughout the world as themost important classic thinker in the social sciences - thereis simply no one in the history of the social sciences who has beenmore influential. The affinity between capitalism andprotestantism, the religious origins of the Western world, theforce of charisma in religion as well as in politics, theall-embracing process of rationalization and the bureaucratic priceof progress, the role of legitimacy and of violence as offspringsof leadership, the 'disenchantment' of the modern worldtogether with the never-ending power of religion, the antagonisticrelation between intellectualism and eroticism: all these are keyconcepts which attest to the enduring fascination of Weber'sthinking.
The tremendous influence exerted by Max Weber was due not only tothe power of his ideas but also to the fact that behind histheories one perceived a man with a marked character and a tragicdestiny. However, for nearly 80 years, our understanding of thelife of Max Weber was dominated by the biography published in 1926by his widow, Marianne Weber. The lack of a great Weber biographywas one of the strangest and most glaring gaps in the literature ofthe social sciences. For various reasons the task was difficult;time and again, attempts to write a new biography of Max Weberended in failure.
When Joachim Radkau's biography appeared in Germany in 2005it caused a sensation. Based on an abundance of previously unknownsources and richly embedded in the German history of the time, thisis the first fully comprehensive biography of Max Weber ever toappear. Radkau brings out, in a way that no one has ever donebefore, the intimate interrelations between Weber's thoughtand his life experience. He presents detailed revelations about thegreat enigmas of Weber's life: his suffering and eroticexperiences, his fears and his desires, his creative power and hismethods of work as well as his religious experience and hisrelation to nature and to death. By understanding the great dramaof his life, we discover a new Max Weber, until now unknown in manyrespects, and, at the same time, we gain a new appreciation of hiswork.
Joachim Radkau, born in 1943, is Professor of Modern History atthe Bielefeld University, Germany. His interest in Max Weber datesback nearly forty years when he worked together with theGerman-American historian George W. F. Hallgarten (Washington), arefugee who left Germany in 1933 and who, as a student, listened toWeber's last lecture in summer 1920. Radkau's mainworks include Die deutsche Emigration in den USA (1971); DeutscheIndustrie und Politik (together with G. W. F. Hallgarten, 1974),Aufstieg und Krise der deutschen Atomwirtschaft (1983), Technik inDeutschland (1989), Das Zeitalter der Nervosität (1998), Naturund Macht: Eine Weltgeschichte der Umwelt (2000).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Radkau, Joachim

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements xii
Preface to the English Edition xiii
Abbreviations xviii
At the Den of the Sick Lion 1
Part I The Violation of Nature
1 Great Mother and Harsh Nature: A Precocious Youth on theMargins of Berlin 7
2 Max and Minimax: Blood Brothers and Drinking Companions- Surly Fraternity as a Primary Social Experience 25
3 From Father's Boy to Mother's Boy: A ComradelyMarriage and the Day of Judgement for the Father 39
4 Antaeus, Antiquity and Agrarians: The Unshackling ofCreativity through the Earthing of Culture 70
5 Eruptions from the Ice: Creativity as Natural Catastrophe96
6 A 'Gospel of Struggle' and Old German Corpulence:From Lifestyle Crisis through Creativity Crisis to ExistentialCrisis 117
Part II Nature's Revenge
7 The Demons: The Wildness of Nature and the Riddle of Sexuality145
8 'A Sort of Spiritualistic Construction of the ModernEconomy': The Protestant Ethic and the Vain Quest forRedemption through the Spirit 179
9 South - North - West - East: ChangingAttempts at Spiritual Conquest of the World 208
10 From the 'Essay of Sighs' to'Psychophysics': the Seven-Year Fight with Naturalismagainst Naturalism 250
11 From the Eranos Circle to the 'Erotic Movement':New Roots and New Milieux 275
12 Max Weber's Love-Hate for the Germans 316
Part III Salvation and Illumination
13 Value-Free Science, Love and Music 345
14 Charisma 390
15 The Naturalness of Community - The Disguised Naturalismin Economy and Society 405
16 From Deborah's Song of Triumph to the 'Titans ofthe Holy Curse': Pacifist Herdsmen, Prophets and Pariahs- the Israelites 427
17 World War and Flight from the World 450
18 Great Speeches, the Great Love and Death 481
19 Epilogue: Powerplay and the Wrangling over Max Weber'sSpirit 551
Notes 572
Index 667

Über Autor(innen)

Joachim Radkau, born in 1943, is Professor of Modern History at theBielefeld University, Germany. His interest in Max Weber dates backnearly forty years when he worked together with the German-Americanhistorian George W. F. Hallgarten (Washington), a refugee who leftGermany in 1933 and who, as a student, listened to Weber'slast lecture in summer 1920. Radkau's main works include Diedeutsche Emigration in den USA (1971); Deutsche Industrie undPolitik (together with G. W. F. Hallgarten, 1974), Aufstieg undKrise der deutschen Atomwirtschaft (1983), Technik in Deutschland(1989), Das Zeitalter der Nervosität (1998), Natur und Macht:Eine Weltgeschichte der Umwelt (2000).
Joachim Radkau, born in 1943, is Professor of Modern History atthe Bielefeld University, Germany. He has published numerous bookson social history, cultural history and the history of technology,including Nature and Power: A Global History of theEnvironment.