The Rise of the West
Daniel Chirot
Max Weber's explanation of the rise Western progress remains best available. It needs to be blended with an awareness that geographic coincidence and medieval class conflict were instrumental in allowing strong, bourgeois-dominated towns emerge from feudalism. This, very long-lasting political stalemate between contending forces Middle Ages early modern Europe key elements development rationality. Proof comes comparing other major agrarian civilizations, particularly China. Twentieth-century historical scholarship confirms Weber more than it supports some recent, fashionable sociological theories about West such as world system
American Sociological Review