"First published in German as Max Weber, Carl Hanser Verlag Mèunchen Wien, 2005"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [572]-665) and index.

pt. 1. The violation of nature. -- Great mother and harsh nature : a precocious youth on the margins of Berlin -- Max and Minimax : blood brothers and drinking companions--surly fraternity as a primary social experience -- From father's boy to mother's boy : a comradely marriage and the day of judgment for the father -- Antaeus, antiquity and agrarians : the unshackling of creativity through the earthing of culture -- Eruptions form the ice : creativity as natural catastrophe -- A 'gospel of struggle' and Old German corpulence : from lifestyle crisis through creativity crisis to existential crisis -- pt. 2. Nature's revenge. -- The demons : the wildness of nature and the riddle of sexuality -- A 'sort of spiritualistic construction of the modern economy' : the Protestant ethic and the vain quest for redemption through the spirit -- South-North-West-East : changing attempts at spiritual conquest of the world -- From the 'Essay of sighs' to 'Psychophysics' : the seven-year fight with naturalism against naturalism -- From the Eranos circle to the 'erotic movement ': new roots and new milieux -- Max Weber's love-hate for the Germans -- pt. 3. Salvation and illumination. -- Value-free science, love and music -- Charisma -- The naturalness of community--the disguised naturalism in economy and society -- From Deborah's Song of triumph to the 'Titans of the holy curse' : pacifist herdsman, prophets and pariahs--the Israelites -- World war and flight from the world -- Great speeches, the great love and death -- Epilogue : Powerplay and the wrangling over Max Weber's spirit.

Radkau brings out, in a way that no one has ever done before, the intimate interrelations between Weber's thought and his life experience. He presents detailed revelations about the great enigmas of Weber's life: his suffering and erotic experiences, his fears and his desires, his creative power and his methods of work as well as his religious experience and his relation to nature and to death.--From publisher description.