The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilizations

The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilizations represents a sustained historical synthesis of a type unlike anything else in Weber's writings. The work began as an essay on agrarian relations in the ancient world published in 1897, which Weber rewrote in a massively expanded form over four months of intensive creative work during 1908 and which was finally published in 1909. This work was one of the first examples of the conscious use of Weber's new methodology - including the notion of the 'ideal type' - in relation to historical research.