Weber's The Protestant Ethic

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2014

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Max Weber's book the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Published in 1905, Weber's essay proposed that Protestantism had been a significant factor in the emergence of capitalism, making an explicit connection between religious ideas and economic systems. Weber suggested that Calvinism, with its emphasis on personal asceticism and the merits of hard work, had created an ethic which had enabled the success of capitalism in Protestant countries. Weber's essay has come in for some criticism since he published the work, but is still seen as one of the seminal texts of twentieth-century sociology.

With:

Peter Ghosh Fellow in History at St Anne's College, Oxford

Sam Whimster Honorary Professor in Sociology at the University of New South Wales

Linda Woodhead Professor of Sociology of Religion at Lancaster University.

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:45.9	the program. Hello in 1905 the German sociologist Max Weber published an essay suggesting a connection between religion and the spread of capitalism.
0:57.0	Weber had noticed that the countries in which capitalism had been most successful tended to be mainly Protestant. He believed that this was not a
1:03.7	coincidence and he argued that certain types of religious belief had created a
1:08.0	particular ethic giving rise to a society in which hard work was celebrated and where the wealthy invested their money rather than spending it on luxuries.
1:16.0	Vaver called his essay the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism,
1:20.0	and a century later it's still seen as one of the founding works of modern sociology.
1:24.4	The idea of the Protestant work ethic has been enormously influential,
1:27.8	although many later thinkers have disputed Vabar's basic arguments.
1:31.6	With me to discuss Max Weber's the Protestant
1:33.4	ethic and the spirit of capitalism are Peter Gosh, fellow in history at
1:37.7	at Hans College Oxford, Sam Wimster, honorary professor at the University of
1:42.1	New South Wales and Ninder Woodhead Professor of Sociology of Religion at Lancaster University.
1:47.5	Peter Gouche, can you tell us a bit more about Max Weber's background and early life?
1:52.0	Well, so Weber is born in 1864 and that's a
	...

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