Max Weber is an important figure in the history of modern social thought, and his work has become accepted as seminal in a number of areas of modern inquiry. His analyses of the development of political and social life point to a number of forces in human interaction which have been much studied since his time. Donald G. MacRae notes that there are four factors involved in the great fame that has attached to Weber's name. The first of these is his discussion of charismatic leadership, an idea Weber took from theology, as to have charisma is to have divine grace, the grace of God. The second is his examination of the Protestant ethic, an idea which operates metaphysically in much modern thought. The third is the sheer bulk and density of his writings. finally, and most important, is the fact that Weber was a founding father of the discipline of sociology. An examination of some of the important ideas of max Weber will lead to their application to the life of Abraham Lincoln, a life which demonstrated the power of charismatic leadership and the working of the Puritan ethic in American life.
Max Weber was born in 1864 and died in 1920. He was a German social scientist and one of the founders of modern sociology. He studied in several German universities before working for a time as a legal assistant. He completed his doctoral dissertation and became a professor at the University of Freiburg in 1894, then professor at the University of Heidelberg in 1896. When he was in his thirties, he was nearly incapacitated by a nervous breakdown. Still, he managed to turn out a considerable body of work in spite of his infirmity. He is best known for his work in three areas of inquiry. He conducted studies in the sociology of religion and analyzed the influence of Lutheranism and Calvinism on the development of capitalism. He offered a political sociology that has become the foundation for much modern analysis of politics, social ...