Civilization: The West and the Rest

The final chapter of this book examines attitudes toward work and Max Weber’s concept of the Protestant work ethic as the sources of the West’s rise and preeminence. Ferguson reiterates his assertion that the West began to emerge around 1500 and remained “the dominant civilization of the world” even in the late 1990s as evident by numerous criteria—from universities to manufacturing (256). Within the West, it was the United States that remained the sole superpower after the Cold War. The author suggests that “it was a very specific form of Christianity,” Protestantism, one that emerged in Europe in the Early Modern period, that became “the sixth of its key advantages over the rest of the world” (259). He goes even further to argue that while religiosity declined in Europe in the latter part of the 20th century, the US continues to be a religious country. The latter is, in part, responsible for its elevated status in the international arena.

German sociologist Max Weber’s visit to the United States in the early 1900s made him wonder what “could possibly explain the dynamism of this society” (260). Writing his “The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” essay, Weber explained American successes through the Protestant work ethic—one of the “unintended consequences of the Protestant Reformation” (260).