Religion and Economic Action: The Protestant Ethic, the Rise of Capitalism and the Abuses of Scholarship

Dr Samuclsson's book is the first major discussion of the subject to come from Sweden and the latest entrant to the lists. The author is an economic historian whose publications include a study of the Stockholm merchant houses in the 18th century and a history of the big Stockholm department store, N.K. (Nordiska Kompaniet), as well as various articles, some of which have appeared in English;1 he is also known to a wider public in Sweden as an active journalist, and for his commentaries on current affairs on radio and television. The present work was published in Swedish in 1957 under the title Ekonomi och Religion. It will have none of Weber and little of Tawney. A bold and hard-hitting essay in interpretation rather than a detailed monograph, it asks the central question: was there any connection between Protestantism and economic progess? 'Did such a clear correlation,' he asks, 'exist between Protestantism and economic progress that there is any reason to enquire into cause and effect at all?'