The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: The American Evidence for the Weber Thesis

FAIN: FB-12888-76

David H. DeLeon
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore, MD 21250-0001)

To define precise meanings for Weber's key terms, "work ethic", "the Protestant ethic, and "The spirit of capitalism" and to consider of those definitions when applied to American documents. From the study of the social values of work in America, and the function of an ideology (Puritanism) in both responding to social change and acting as an agent of social change a greater understanding would be reached.