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The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is a book written by Max Weber, a German economist and sociologist, in 1904 and 1905 that began as a series of essays. The original edition was in German and was entitled Die protestantische Ethik und der 'Geist' des Kapitalismus. An English translation was made in 1930 by Talcott Parsons, and several editions have been released. Weber wrote that capitalism evolved when the Protestant (particularly Calvinist) ethic influenced large numbers of people to engage in work in the secular world, developing their own enterprises and engaging in trade and the accumulation of wealth for investment. In other words, the Protestant ethic was a force behind an unplanned and uncoordinated mass action that influenced the development of capitalism. This idea is also known as "the Weber thesis". The book is not a detailed study of Protestantism but rather an introduction into Weber's later studies of interaction between various religious ideas and economics. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber argues that Puritan ethics and ideas influenced the development of capitalism. Religious devotion, however, usually accompanied a rejection of worldly affairs, including the pursuit of wealth and possessions. Why was that not the case with Protestantism? Weber addresses this apparent paradox in the book.
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