Elizabeth A. Kaye specializes in communications as part of her coaching and consulting practice. She has edited Requirements for Certification since the 2000-01 edition.

A reassessment of the debate surrounding Weber's classic work Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Author's best-known and most controversial study relates the rise of a capitalist economy to the Puritan belief that hard work and good deeds were outward signs of faith and salvation.

Max Weber and The Protestant Ethic Twin Histories presents an entirely new portrait of Max Weber, one of the most prestigious social theorists in recent history, using his most famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit" of Capitalism, as its central point of reference. It offers an intellectual biography of Weber framed along historical lines - something which has never been done before. It re-evaluates The Protestant Ethic--a text surprisingly neglected by scholars - supplying a missing intellectual and chronological centre to Weber's life and work. Peter Ghosh suggests that The Protestant Ethic is the link which unites the earlier (pre-1900) and later (post-1910) phases of his career. He offers a series of fresh perspectives on Weber's thought in various areas - charisma, capitalism, law, politics, rationality, bourgeois life, and (not least) Weber's unusual religious thinking, which was 'remote from god' yet based on close dialogue with Christian theology. This approach produces a convincing view of Max Weber as a whole; while previously the sheer breadth of his intellectual interests has caused him to be read in a fragmentary way according to a series of specialized viewpoints, this volume seeks to put him back together again as a real individual.

Max Weber's celebrated thesis, which explores the relationship between Protestant work ethic and the emergence of capitalist enterprise, is presented here inclusive of his lengthy notes. In coining the phrase 'Protestant work ethic', Weber demonstrates a series of parallels between certain Protestant denominations and the modern business. The veneration of hard work, discipline, and carefulness with money birthed a culture that led over generations to the establishment of capitalism; with enough workers sharing in these beliefs, entrepreneurs were able to create large businesses that could consistently deliver a profit. Using examples such as Martin Luther and Calvinist doctrines, Weber demonstrates how ideas of the virtues of diligence were placed parallel with God and morality. By working hard, every man was contributing to a better world and society, in the name of the Lord. However, Weber asserts that over time the religious connotations behind capitalist enterprise largely disappeared; the famous writings of Benjamin Franklin are cited as example, whereby notions of diligence were expressed eloquently but no longer cited God and holy virtue. Though controversial, Weber's work remains much-consulted by sociologists. The notion that Protestantism contributed to or accelerated the development of capitalism is popular in the modern day.

The Protestant ethic — a moral code stressing hard work, rigorous self-discipline, and the organization of one's life in the service of God — was made famous by sociologist and political economist Max Weber. In this brilliant study (his best-known and most controversial), he opposes the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism and its view that change takes place through "the struggle of opposites." Instead, he relates the rise of a capitalist economy to the Puritan determination to work out anxiety over salvation or damnation by performing good deeds — an effort that ultimately discouraged belief in predestination and encouraged capitalism. Weber's classic study has long been required reading in college and advanced high school social studies classrooms.

The Founding Fathers of the United States of America fought hard to create a democratic republic. Will the republic last? What if irrational voters elect a socialist demagogue to the presidency?The year is 2014. Captain Jack Cannon is a new sort of hero. His motivation is enlightened self-interest, not altruistic martyrdom. He is teamed with beautiful Russian journalist Valentina Zaiceva. Can they save the republic?