The agrarian sociology of ancient civilizations - Max Weber

Max Weber, widely recognized as the greatest of the founders of classical sociology, is oftenassociated with the development of capitalism in Western Europe and the analysis ofmodernity. But he also had a profound scholarly interest in ancient societies and the NearEast, and turned the youthful discipline of sociology to the study of these archaic cultures.

The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilizations - Weber's neglected masterpiece, first publishedin German in 1897 and reissued in 1909 - is a fascinating examination of the civilizations ofMesopotamia, Egypt, Hebrew society in Israel, the city-states of classical Greece, theHellenistic world and, finally, Republican and Imperial Rome. The book is infused with theexcitement attendant when new intellectual tools are brought to bear on familiar subjects.Throughout the work, Weber blends a description of socio-economic structures with aninvestigation into mechanisms and causes in the rise and decline of social systems. Thevolume ends with a magisterial explanatory essay on the underlying reasons for the fall ofthe Roman Empire.