Werner Sombart (1863-1941) may well have been the most famous
and controversial social scientist in Germany during the early
twentieth century. Highly influential, his work and reputation have
been indelibly tainted by his embrace of National Socialism in the
last decade of his life. Although Sombart left an enormous opus
spanning disciplinary boundaries, intellectual reaction to his work
inside and outside of Germany is divided and ambivalent. Sombart
consistently responded to the social and political developments
that have shaped the twentieth century. "Economic Life in the
Modern Age" provides a representative sampling of those portions of
Sombart's work that have stood the test of time. The volume opens
with a substantial introduction reviewing Sombart's life and
career, the evolution of his major intellectual concerns, his
relation to Marx and Weber, and his political affiliation with the
Nazis. The editors' selection of texts emphasizes areas of
Sombart's economic and cultural thought that remain relevant,
particularly to those intellectual trends that seek a more broadly
based, cross-disciplinary approach to culture and economics.
Sombart's writings on capitalism are represented by essays on the
nature and origin of the market system and the diversity of motives
among the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Also included is an
excerpt from Sombart's controversial "The Jews and Modern
Capitalism," exploring the widely perceived relation between
economic life and Judaism as a religion. In essays on the economics
of cultural processes, Sombart's comprehensive and expansive idea
of cultural science yields prophetic insights into the nature of
urbanism, luxury consumption, fashion, and the cultural
secularization of love. The volume's final section consists of
Sombart's reflections on the social influences of technology, the
economic life of the future, and on socialism, including the
influential essay "Why is there no Socialism in the United States."
Encapsulating the most valuable aspects of his work, "Economic Life
in the Modern Age" provides clear demonstration of Sombart's sense
for fine cultural distinctions and broad cultural developments and
the predictive power of his analyses. It will be of interest to
sociologists, economists, political scientists, and specialists in
cultural studies. Nico Stehr is professor at the Max
Planck-Instit3t f3r Meteorologie in Hamburg. Reiner Grundmann is
professor at the Aston Business School of Aston University in
Birmingham, U.K.
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