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Charisma and Disenchantment: The Vocation Lectures by Max Weber

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Charisma and Disenchantment: The Vocation Lectures

By Max Weber
Edited by Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon
Translated by Damion Searls

By Max Weber
Edited by Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon
Translated by Damion Searls

By Max Weber
Edited by Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon
Translated by Damion Searls

By Max Weber
Edited by Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon
Translated by Damion Searls

Best Seller

Category: Psychology

Category: Psychology

Paperback $15.95

Feb 04, 2020 | ISBN 9781681373898

Ebook $9.99

Feb 04, 2020 | ISBN 9781681373904

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    About Charisma and Disenchantment: The Vocation Lectures

    A new translation of two celebrated lectures on politics, academia, and the disenchantment of the world.

    The German sociologist Max Weber is one of the most venturesome, stimulating, and influential theorists of the modern condition. Among his most significant works are the so-called vocation lectures, published shortly after the end of World War I and delivered at the invitation of a group of student activists. The question the students asked Weber to address was simple and haunting: In a modern world characterized by the division of labor, economic expansion, and unrelenting change, was it still possible to consider an academic or political career as a genuine calling? In response Weber offered his famous diagnosis of “the disenchantment of the world,” along with a challenging account of the place of morality in the classroom and in research. In his second lecture he introduced the notion of political charisma, assigning it a central role in the modern state, even as he recognized that politics is more than anything “a slow and difficult drilling of holes into hard boards.” 

    Damion Searls’s new translation brings out the power and nuance of these celebrated lectures. Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon’s introduction describes their historical and biographical background, reception, and influence. Weber’s effort to rethink the idea of a public calling at the start of the tumultuous twentieth century is revealed to be as timely and stirring as ever.

    About Charisma and Disenchantment: The Vocation Lectures

    A new translation of two celebrated lectures on politics, academia, and the disenchantment of the world.

    The German sociologist Max Weber is one of the most venturesome, stimulating, and influential theorists of the modern condition. Among his most significant works are the so-called vocation lectures, published shortly after the end of World War I and delivered at the invitation of a group of student activists. The question the students asked Weber to address was simple and haunting: In a modern world characterized by the division of labor, economic expansion, and unrelenting change, was it still possible to consider an academic or political career as a genuine calling? In response Weber offered his famous diagnosis of “the disenchantment of the world,” along with a challenging account of the place of morality in the classroom and in research. In his second lecture he introduced the notion of political charisma, assigning it a central role in the modern state, even as he recognized that politics is more than anything “a slow and difficult drilling of holes into hard boards.” 

    Damion Searls’s new translation brings out the power and nuance of these celebrated lectures. Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon’s introduction describes their historical and biographical background, reception, and influence. Weber’s effort to rethink the idea of a public calling at the start of the tumultuous twentieth century is revealed to be as timely and stirring as ever.

    Product Details

    Category: Psychology

    Paperback | $15.95
    Published by NYRB Classics
    Feb 04, 2020 | 176 Pages | 5 x 8 | ISBN 9781681373898

    Category: Psychology

    Ebook | $9.99
    Published by NYRB Classics
    Feb 04, 2020 | 176 Pages | ISBN 9781681373904

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    Praise

    “The incoherence of modern life could be said to have been Weber’s great subject. Weber used the term Entz­-auberung—‘dis-enchantment’—to describe the way in which science and technology had inevitably displaced magical thinking. . . . His writings anticipate both the rise and fall of the Soviet Union . . . and also the steady, soulless spread of global capitalism.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker

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