The Disenchantment of the World

The term »disenchantment« is used by many international academics without any knowledge of the important role it played in Max Weber`s work. The development of the term »disenchantment »in the English and American academic world is particularly fascinating.

It is remarkable that the term »disenchantment« is often applied to a wide area of political, historical and philosophical problems. In the meantime, the term »re-enchantment« has also been established as a complementary term to »disenchantment«, although Weber himself certainly never spoke of the »re-enchantment of the world«. In ten chapters, partly written in English, Hartmut Lehman discusses the development of Max Weber`s theory and its influence in the 20th century.

The Author
Hartmut Lehmann, born in 1936, is honorary professor at the Universities of Kiel and Göttingen, and director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute of History in Göttingen.