The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Excellent book, great points.

The book does a great job explaning some differencs between Catholic and Protestant religions and their influence on Capitallism a must read for relligious and political leaders.

The reviewer BWB states that "this translation from the very first is littered with mistakes." Such a broad statement must be backed up by evidence (instead, BWB tells us he stopped reading at p. 8). His comments make evident that he has had 1-2 semesters of college German and now is convinced that he's capable of translating a notoriously tough text. Such hybris!! Such naivete'!!! Horst Schubert

I can read the German, but need to use an English translation to teach the book. I expected this translation to be good, given that it can refer to the earlier translations of Parsons and Baehr, but in fact, from the very first paragraph, the translation is littered with mistakes, often not very major, but enough to show that Kalberg doesn't really "get" the German. E.g. An "it also must be noted" where it should be "Indeed, it should be noted" or an "although" where it should be an "especially". And he very often turns the sentences around, in order to make them more English, less German, but thereby loses the sense (!) of the sentence.I gave up on this translation after 8 pages, and got a copy of the Talcott Parsons translation (the Baehr translation is of Weber's 1904-5 edition, not the 1920). I had read that Parsons' translation was obscure and thorny, but that is simply not true; it was really excellent. One of two little things, but generally very good.I recommend that version, certainly not this one by Kalberg