SOURCE: "Modernity," in Max Weber, Stanford University Press, 1983, pp. 166-88.

In the following essay, Kronman explains Weber's reaction to and interpretation of the trends in modern social life.

Beneath its richly detailed surface, Weber's Rechtssoziologie exhibits a surprising consistency and unity of purpose. Throughout, Weber is concerned with a single subject—the development of the institutions and forms of thought most characteristic of the modern legal order. 'Our interest', he remarks, 'is centred upon the ways and consequences of the "rationalization" of the law, that is, the development of those juristic qualities which are characteristic of it today.' Whether he is discussing modes of legal analysis, techniques of adjudication, or the forms of contractual association, Weber's fundamental aim is to give an account of those aspects of the present legal order that distinguish 'our contemporary modes of legal thought' from those prevailing in the past.

In this...