who studied the introduction of Capitalism into the world at large, thoroughly investigated the Industrial Revolution and concludes that a religious ethic was influential especially among the Protestants of early seventeenth century Europe. In this time, there developed a pervasive method of living a life that became the societal norm of modern day. He also clarified the concept of working. Where before, traditionally speaking, people worked to gain money, and with money they bought material goods, and with material goods they survived in their proper conditions, the introduction of a new philosophy – the “Spirit of Capitalism” – developed fully during the Industrial Era. People let go of tradition and grasped a new ideal of living. This process of change in people’s ideals will be developed fully later in this thesis. Weber’s description of this ideal was that to work is life, and to live is to work. That is, the meaning of life can only be answered by actively working in life. This change in the ideal of the people changed with the economic conditions in America during the Industrial era. One small note on religion should be said here to emphasize the fact that this change in people’s idealism towards life was not dependent on religion at all, although ironically it stemmed in the main from the European Protestants. When the people were more heavily influenced by religion, as early as two hundred years ago, before the Gilded age, they were susceptible to various ideals and interpretations on the divine nature of life. One of these interpretative ideals was among the Protestants who developed their own strict set of values and methods to live a divine life. They had created for themselves a system of values and ethics that allowed them to garner wealth successfully through business ventures. Historically speaking, Weber studies this phenomenon and terms it the Protestant Ethic. Once having been developed, this Ethic p...