The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Weber's famous thesis, that Calvinist theology created the psychological conditions for capitalism, launched a century of debate and founded modern sociology. Whether or not you accept the argument, the question it poses (what is the relationship between culture and economics?) remains central to social science.
The Talcott Parsons translation is stiff and hard going, and readers specifically recommend the Baehr and Wells Penguin edition as “far more readable.” Chapters one through four, laying out sect history and doctrine, are the slow part and “much less interesting” than what follows. Weber argues almost entirely from “a handful of quotes from Puritan theologians” rather than anything like data, which sceptics call a “vibes based approach.” Without prior Reformation background readers get lost in the distinctions between sects, and the whole is “difficult to get through, not your average fun read.” It began as two journal essays assembled into a book later.
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
