The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism.

first edition in English in the scarce dustjacket

The first edition in English of Max Weber's (1864-1920) seminal work on the history and origins of modern capitalism. Scarce in the original unclipped buff-paper dustjacket, and with an important association to the economic historian Eileen Power.

Weber's thesis posited that the Reformation of religion in the sixteenth century was accompanied by a counterpart revolution in the moral standards of the day, in which the pursuit of wealth came to be regarded not merely as advantageous, but a duty. 'This conception welded into a disciplined force that still feeble bourgeoisie, heightened its energies, and cast a halo of sanctification round its convenient vices' (Foreword).

The work was first published under the title 'Die protestantishe Ethik under der Geistet des Kapitalismus' in the Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft under Sozialpolitick, volumes XX and XXI, 1904-1905. The text was then reprinted in substantially revised form the year of Weber's untimely death, and it is from this later edition that the present translation was made by the Harvard economist Talcott Parsons (1902-1979).

Parsons had worked with Weber's brother Alfred at Heidelberg University in the second half of 1920s, where he was studying for his doctorate in sociology. Through his research, Parsons became acquainted with the work of Max, and was given permission by his widow Marianne to begin the task of translating Weber's works into English.

With an important association to the economic historian Eileen Power, who presented this copy to 'M.G. Jones from Eilieen Power, Portmellon, July 1930'. Power (1889-1940) was educated at Girton College, Cambridge, later serving as Director of Studies in History from 1913 to 1921, which was followed by appointments at the University of London and the London School of Economics, where in 1931 she became the second woman to be appointed to the Chair of Economic History.

First edition in English; 8vo (22 x 15 cm); contemporary presentation inscription in pen to front free endpaper recto, the odd pencil annotation to margins, offsetting to endpapers; publisher's black cloth, spine lettered in gilt, well-preserved in the scarce, unclipped buff-paper dustjacket lettered in blue, the spine toned and chipped with loss at the ends, lower hinge of jacket with closed tear, completely unrestored; xi, [5], 292, [2]pp.