The City

Front Cover
Free Press, 1958 - Social Science - 242 pages
In this classic work, Max Weber, one of the founders of modern social science and the man characterized by Karl Jaspers as the philosopher of his age, presents one of the most influential theories of urban life and development. For the modern reader, the study provides a perspective that brings greater understanding and dimension to today's urban problems--housing, transportation, overcrowding, and social disorganization. Weber saw the city as a balanced, self-restoring system of institutions that has played a basic role in the development of Western civlization. He discussses the origins of cities, and proceeds to show how and why this new way of urban life was fully developed. Here is a work enlightened by keen insight and intellectual vigor--from back cover

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Contents

The Theory of the City
9
THE NATURE OF THE CITY
65
The City as the Fusion of Fortress and Market
77
Copyright

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About the author (1958)

Max Weber, a German political economist, legal historian, and sociologist, had an impact on the social sciences that is difficult to overestimate. According to a widely held view, he was the founder of the modern way of conceptualizing society and thus the modern social sciences. His major interest was the process of rationalization, which characterizes Western civilization---what he called the "demystification of the world." This interest led him to examine the three types of domination or authority that characterize hierarchical relationships: charismatic, traditional, and legal. It also led him to the study of bureaucracy; all of the world's major religions; and capitalism, which he viewed as a productof the Protestant ethic. With his contemporary, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim---they seem not to have known each other's work---he created modern sociology.

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