Description
Book SynopsisThis early book was a prelude to the multi-causal and multi-dimensional approach that scholars see reflected in Weber's later writings.
Trade ReviewThe History of Commercial Partnerships in the Middle Ages is of crucial importance today. * The Chronicle of Higher Education *
Social scientists in all fields and historians of modern business culture, as well as social theorists and Weber scholars, will finally be able to put Weber's more famous writings on modern economies and societies in historical perspective. This book shows for the first time that the roots of the modern business firm are even deeper in history than the story told in Weber's best-selling work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. For years to come, readers of all kinds will thank Kaelber for making Weber's ideas more accessible. -- Charles Lemert, Andrus Professor of Sociology, Wesleyan University
Lutz Kaelber has performed a service by translating and annotating this important product of Weber's scholarly apprenticeship. Written in the peculiar staccato of historical legal writing of the time—a period in which legal history was at its peak—the text deals with a crucial problem in the rise of western capitalism: the step-by-step creation of a legal structure (a form of liability for debt suitable for capitalist enterprise) out of a legal tradition oriented to the economic unit of the productive household. -- Stephen Turner, University of South Florida
Affords specialists access to an underappreciated aspect of Weber's analysis of early capitalism. * Contemporary Sociology *
Weber's extraordinary dissertation, defended when he was 25, is a minor masterpiece, which surely makes this book the most important translation event for Weberians in the last quarter century. Kaelber's lengthy introduction is indispensable, and corrects a number of longstanding errors in the literature. Everyone who cherishes the Weberian legacy is in his debt. Historical economists, social theorists, intellectual historians, and historians of higher education will want to own this volume. -- Alan Sica, The Pennsylvania State University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction: Max Weber's Dissertation in the Context of His Early Career and Life Chapter 2 Section I. The "Lost Decade" Chapter 3 Section II. Ebb and Flow: Historical and Biographical Contexts of Weber's Early Career Chapter 4 Section III. Main Themes and Arguments of The History of Commercial Partnerships Chapter 5 Section IV. Influence of Weber's Later Writings Chapter 6 Section V. Versions of the Text and Additional Literature Chapter 7 Section VI. Translating The History of Commerical Partnerships Chapter 8 Bibliography Chapter 9 The History of Commercial Partnerships in the Middle Ages Chapter 10 Prefatory Remarks Chapter 11 Section I. Roman and Current Law. Plan of the Investigation Chapter 12 Section II. The Partnerships of Maritime Law Chapter 13 Section III. Family Communities and Communities of Labor Chapter 14 Section IV. Pisa. The Law of Partnership According to the Constitutum Usus Chapter 15 Section V. Florence Chapter 16 Section VI. The Legal Literature. Conclusion Chapter 17 Appendix: Overview of the Documents
