The Sociology Book

40

U

ntil the latter half of the
19th century, the economic
growth of the German
states was based on trade rather
than production. But when they
made the shift to large-scale
manufacturing industry, of the sort
that had urbanized Britain and
France, the change was rapid and
dramatic. This was especially
noticeable in Prussia, where the
combination of natural resources
and a tradition of military
organization helped to establish
an efficient industrial society in
a very short time.

Germany’s unfamiliarity with the

effects of modernity meant it had

not yet developed a tradition of

sociological thought. Karl Marx was

German by birth, but he based his

sociological and economic ideas on

his experiences of industrialized

society elsewhere. However,

toward the end of the century, a

number of German thinkers turned

their attention to the study of

Germany’s emergent modern

society. Among them was Max

Weber, who was to become

perhaps the most influential of the

“founding fathers” of sociology.

Weber was not concerned with

establishing sociology as a

discipline in the same way

as Auguste Comte and Émile

Durkheim in France, who sought

universal “scientific laws” for

society (in the belief, known as

“positivism," that science could

build a better world).

While Weber accepted that any

study of society should be rigorous,

he argued that it could not be truly

objective, because it is the study

not so much of social behavior but

of social action, meaning the ways

in which individuals in society

MAX WEBER

Bureaucratic efficiency has stifled

traditional interactions, trapping us

in an “iron cage of rationality."

Modern industrial society brought technological

and economic advances.

But this was accompanied by increased

rationalization and a bureaucratic structure...

...that imposed new controls, restricted individual

freedoms, and eroded community and kinship ties.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Rational modernity

KEY DATES

1845 Karl Marx notes down

11 “Theses on Feuerbach”

and introduces the idea of

historical materialism—that

economics, rather than ideas,

drive social change.

1903 German sociologist

Georg Simmel examines

the effects of modern city

life on the individual in The

Metropolis and Mental Life.

1937 In The Structure of Social

Action, Talcott Parsons puts

forward his action theory,

which attempts to integrate

the contrasting (subjective–

objective) approaches of Weber

and Durkheim.

1956 In The Power Elite,

Charles Wright Mills describes

the emergence of a military-

industrial ruling class as the

result of rationalization.