Gelehrtenbriefe

The selected letters and cards gathered here are an impressive record of a learned, middle-class culture of correspondence towards the end of the nineteenth century. They lead directly to the knowledge making of one of modernity's greatest thinkers, Max Weber. Linguistically sophisticated, at times merciless, Letters of a Scholar gives insight into the three most important spheres in Weber's world - his personal life-conduct, his politics, and his academic life. Characteristic of each area is the critical-analytical view that time and again puts passion and personal engagement aside where objective dissociation is called for. The rich correspondence contained in the volume reveals Weber's well-maintained networks, and allows a glimpse into the world of scholarship with its intellectual charisma and academic sociability. Gangolf Hübinger introduces the collection, which is drawn entirely from the Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe.