Isaacs, Mark D. (2006) Centennial Rumination on Max Weber's the Protestant Ethic And the Spirit of Capitalism, Dissertation.com

Max Weber's sociological classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was published first in 1904-1905. In this book Weber argues that religion, specifically "ascetic Protestantism" provided the essential social and cultural infrastructure that led to modern capitalism. Weber suggests that Protestantism has "an affinity for capitalism" and something within Protestantism—by accident or design—creates the necessary preconditions that lead to the flowering of a just, free, and prosperous society.  Weber also wonders if the economic backwardness of certain societies and regions of the world are somehow related to their religious affiliation. Weber’s century old thesis challenges the erroneous core assumptions of many secular humanists, postmoderns, Roman Catholic traditionalists, and Islamists. In view of the threat of the War on Terror, and in the face of the inadequate response of secularist and post-modern intellectuals, it is vital that we understand and appreciate the profound paradigm shift that occurred during the sixteenth and seventeenth century that led to the unfolding of modern capitalism. Despite a plethora of critics Max Weber’s one-hundred year old thesis still stands. (Adapted from Amazon)

The Rev. Mark D. Isaacs is a Lutheran clergyman and an adjunct college professor. He earned a B.A. in Economics from Westfield State College (1980), a M.Div. degree (1992) and a S.T.M. degree (2005) from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He received his Ph.D., Summa Cum Laude, from Trinity Theological Seminary in Newburgh, Indiana (2005). Pastor Mark worked as a research economist, business editor, and economics writer before attending seminary. Since June 1996 he has served as pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Wurtemburg located in Rhinebeck, New York. Since January 2000 Pastor Mark has served as an adjunct professor in several area colleges.

Huntington, Samuel P. (2004) Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Brief part in Chapter 4 - Individualism and Work Ethic, Protestant America and Catholicism]

America was founded by British settlers who brought with them a distinct culture including the English languzge, Protestant values, individualism, religious commitment, and respect for law. The waves of immigrants that later came to the United States gradually accepted these values and assimilated into America's Anglo-Protestant culture. More recently, however, national identity has been redoded by the problems of assimilating massive numbers of primarily Hispanic immigrants, bilingualism, multiculturalism, the devaluation of citizenship, an the "denationalization" of American elites. (From the front flap of the hardcover edition)
 

Weber, Max, Baehr, Peter (Ed.), and Wells, Gordon C. (Ed.) (2002). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: and Other Writings (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) Penguin Classics.

“The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism is one of those audacious and robust texts for which the term “classic” could have been invented. Ever since its publication in 1905, the essay has provoked controversy, prompting successive generations of readers to wrestle with the paradox at its core. Many authors might have welcomed such notoriety, but not Max Weber (1864-1920); who bitterly complained that the critics had misunderstood him and that the ensuing debate was both obfuscating and sterile. To prevent further confusion, he revised the essay in 1919, modifying some of its formulations and increasing further an already massive apparatus of footnotes. But all attempts at definitive clarification were to no avail; Weber’s revision, published in 1920, served only to generate new problems and ambiguities. And herein, ironically, lies the secret of The Protestant Ethic’s fame. If Weber’s “thesis” were self-evidently true, simple, or translucent, it would never have engaged a critical audience in the first place or survived to become a classic. “Mere” solutions to a problem impede a text’s ascent to greatness for the simple reason that they offer no challenges for contemporaries to embrace and succes­sors to ponder. Weber’s achievement was not to definitively answer a riddle but to stake out a territory fertile of new puzzles at the heart of which is the claim that religious forces, not simply economic ones, paved the way for the mentality characteristic of modern, Western capitalism. On Weber’s account, our secular and materialistic culture is partly indebted to a spiritual revolution: the Protestant Reforma­tion of the sixteenth century. That Weber’s argument raises—or begs—a hundred questions is inseparable from its eminence and renown.” (From Editors’ Introduction, p. ix)

Weber, Max, Parsons, Talcott, and Tawney, R. H. (2003). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Dover Value Editions) Dover Publications.

 This brilliant study opposes the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism and its view that change takes place through the conflict of opposites. Instead, Weber relates the rise of a capitalist economy to the Puritan determination to work out anxiety over salvation or damnation by performing good deeds — an effort that ultimately encouraged capitalism.