This is the long-awaited English-language edition of Professor Borchardt's brilliant and controversial essays on German economic history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The essays are nontechnical in character, and thus should be accessible to a wide range of historians. In particular they reinforce and illustrate the sheer usefulness of economic history for political historians and indeed for anyone interested in how detailed historical evidence can be brought to bear on apparently intractable problems. The essays deal in the main with three topics: the determinants of economic growth in nineteenth-century Germany; the major patterns of Germany's economic growth in the longer term up to the present day; and the structural crisis of the Weimar Republic before the slump of the 1930s, and the total absence of any economic "miracle weapon" against Hitler's seizure of power. In particular, Professor Borchardt's controversial interpretations of the economic history of the interwar period have already triggered a lively debate which will be enhanced by the appearance of an English edition.

This is the long-awaited English-language edition of Professor Borchardt's brilliant and controversial essays on German economic history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The essays are nontechnical in character, and thus should be accessible to a wide range of historians. In particular they reinforce and illustrate the sheer usefulness of economic history for political historians and indeed for anyone interested in how detailed historical evidence can be brought to bear on apparently intractable problems. The essays deal in the main with three topics: the determinants of economic growth in nineteenth-century Germany; the major patterns of Germany's economic growth in the longer term up to the present day; and the structural crisis of the Weimar Republic before the slump of the 1930s, and the total absence of any economic "miracle weapon" against Hitler's seizure of power. In particular, Professor Borchardt's controversial interpretations of the economic history of the interwar period have already triggered a lively debate which will be enhanced by the appearance of an English edition.

English summary: Max Weber's Economy and Society is not a single work consisting of several volumes, but is instead a project published in many versions. Following the pre-war critical edition MWG (Max Complete Works) I/22, the unfinished version from 1919/1920 that Max Weber himself sent to the printers can now be submitted for publication. The student edition comprises the four chapters of this version, including the famous chapters I Soziologische Grundbegriffe (Basic Sociological Terminology) and III Die Typen der Herrschaft (Types of Authority), the much neglected chapter II Soziologische Grundkategorien des Wirtschaftens (Basic Sociological Categories in Economics) and the unfinished chapter IV Stande und Klassen (Ranks and Classes). An epilogue describes the genesis of the work. The appendix contains information on the editing of the text and notes that help to make it accessible. German description: Max Webers Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft ist kein Buch in Teilen, sondern ein Projekt in mehreren Fassungen. Nach der Edition der Vorkriegsfassung in MWG I/22 wird nun die von Max Weber noch zum Druck gegebene, unvollendete Fassung von 1919/20 vorgelegt. Die Studienausgabe umfasst die vier Kapitel dieser Fassung, darunter die beruhmten Kapitel I "Soziologische Grundbegriffe" und III "Die Typen der Herrschaft," das in der Rezeption haufig vernachlassigte Kapitel II "Soziologische Grundkategorien des Wirtschaftens" sowie das unvollendete Kapitel IV "Stande und Klassen." Ein Nachwort beschreibt die Entstehung des Werks. Der Anhang enthalt Informationen zur Textbearbeitung und Hilfen zur Texterschliessung.