Max Weber, a German political economist, legal historian, and sociologist, had an impact on the social sciences that is difficult to overestimate. According to a widely held view, he was the founder of the modern way of conceptualizing society and thus the modern social sciences. His major interest was the process of rationalization, which characterizes Western civilization---what he called the "demystification of the world." This interest led him to examine the three types of domination or authority that characterize hierarchical relationships: charismatic, traditional, and legal. It also led him to the study of bureaucracy; all of the world's major religions; and capitalism, which he viewed as a productof the Protestant ethic. With his contemporary, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim---they seem not to have known each other's work---he created modern sociology.
Nzanmongi Jasmine Patton is an assistant professor in the Department of English, Gargi College, University of Delhi. She has diverse interests ranging from Oral Literature and History, Translation,
Volga (P. Lalitha Kumari), one of the most highly regarded Telugu writers today, is generally acknowledged to have introduced a feminist perspective into the literary and political discourse of And
V. Geetha writes in Tamil and in English on history, culture and gender. She has co-authored with S.V. Rajadurai, Towards a Non-Brahmin Millennium: From Iyothee Thass to Periyar (Samya, rev. ed. 20
Ramnarayan S. Rawat is Associate Professor of History at the University of Delaware and the author of Reconsidering Untouchability: Chamars and Dalit History in North India.
Tamás Krausz is Professor of Russian History at the Eötvös Loránd Univesity of Sciences in Budapest, and Head of the Department of Eastern European Studies. One of the best-
