Marx, Capital
MarxIII_AccumulationChart.docx Covers Chapter 29 of Capital.
Weber, The Protestant Ethic
- Close Reading of Protestant Ethic, Part 1, Section 1: Denomination and Social Stratification. Designed to help students distinguish Weber's own theories from those he presents only to reject. Asks students to identify the empirical puzzles Weber presents, his rejected explanations for these phenomena, the evidence he leverages to reject them, and the new theory he proposes to solve the puzzle. (Includes GSI answer key, which is the file curiously labeled as "For Students")
- Part 1, Sections 2 & 3: The Spirit of Capitalism and Luther's Calling: Vignette Game and Mini-Lecture. First part uses silly vignettes to help students identify the distinction between the spirit of capitalism, the traditionalist work ethic, and "the acquisitive instinct" (featuring Walter White as the embodiment of The Spirit of Capitalism, which I enjoyed, and maybe my students found it helpful as well). Second part includes a mini-lecture on Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist religious beliefs and the connection of those beliefs with the religion's views of work (with worksheet for students to fill out). I thought this was helpful, as Weber presumes a lot of knowledge of the history of Christian religions our students may not have.
- Calvinism's Affinity to Capitalism Diagram and Secularization Worksheet. First I asked students to discuss with a partner Weber's argument about why Calvinism has an affinity with capitalism, and used their responses to construct the attached diagram on the board. Then they filled out the worksheet on how the Protestant Ethic becomes The Spirit of Capitalism.