There are three key reasons to examine Max Weber's sociological thought on the economy. The first, and most pressing motivation for producing this book, is to counter the one- sided and incomplete interpretations of his writings that have resulted in the artificial separation of his work into historical studies, methodological writings, material analyses and sociology. As a result, his ongoing interest in explaining and analysing economic topics has become detached from his later invention of a sociology, which he posited as an alternative to what contemporary economists and others had developed. Consequently, most sociologists have overlooked Weber's fascination with economic analyses and what he has to say about the economy.

Rather, Max Weber has been widely read as a sociologist, interested in topics such as religion, politics, authority, law and culture. It was Talcott Parsons, who, after visiting the University of Heidelberg in the 1930s, influenced this particular reception of Weber's work in the United States. Parsons, who himself separated economics and sociology because of their respective action models, detached Weber's work from economics through his translations (e.g. Turner 1996: 4– 5). Parsons’ interpretation of Weber was reimported after the Second World War and became influential in Germany and across Europe. It was not until an international meeting of sociologists in Heidelberg in 1964, organized to honour Weber's one hundredth birthday, that Weber's writings were revived through an inspiring comparison between his theories on capitalism and those of Karl Marx. Subsequently, various scholars began to compare Max Weber to Karl Marx and to other social theorists such as Èmile Durkheim and Georg Simmel. In the 1980s, Max Weber's methodological writings were read as a way of constructing action- based explanations. In line with this, Weber's sociology is increasingly read as a critique of highly abstract models in standard economics as well as of standard sociological approaches. As a result, a new understanding of Weber's sociology has more recently emerged that takes his methodological concerns as a starting point for a sociological perspective on the economy that focuses on the connections between society and economy.