Since his death Max Weber (1864-1920) has come to be represented as one of the masters of this century's social imagination and a founding father of sociology. As The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism shows, he was a man of immense erudition, and his books, most of which were published posthumously, range over religion, economic history, law and the ancient world as well as the social sciences. But this range has misled many, so Donald MacRae believes, to credit him with a reputation as a social analyst and political prophet which his actual work by tension, polarity, ambiguity and the agonising contradictions of his own character. In Weber Donald MacRae provides a critical exploration of this maze and through an analysis of his personal life, intellectual in heritance and the imperial Germany in which he lived, a fresh assessment of Weber's creative achievement.