Max Weber (1864–1920) was arguably the most important social and political theorist of the twentieth century, as well as the unwilling father of modern sociology (a role he unknowingly shared with Èmile Durkheim). The eldest of six children (with a brother Alfred, who also became a famous sociologist and cultural analyst), Max Weber was born in Erfurt, Prussia, on April 21, grew up in a suburb of Berlin, and spent his entire adult life in German university towns. He pursued law, economics, and philosophy at Heidelberg, Strassburg, Berlin, and Göttingen (1882–1886), served in the army reserve for two years during college, returned home, and studied law in Berlin, graduating in 1889. He won academic appointments in Berlin and Freiburg, but was forced to retire from teaching after suffering a nervous breakdown that immobilized him between 1897 and 1903—an almost pure example of what Sigmund Freud at precisely the same time...