This essay analyzes Max Weber’s place in post-World War II US social thought, when English-language translations, interpretations, and applications of his work proliferated and it became widely known in American sociology and related fields. The focus is on shifting interpretations and meanings of Weber’s work in different phases of postwar American culture, society, and politics from the Cold War era through the post-9/11 years. Weber’s ideas have been fused with those of diverse thinkers and traditions and have been applied in ways that he likely would have rejected and that stricter Weberians castigate. The various Weber fusions engage modernization theory - arguably the postwar era’s primary metanarrative for legitimating and challenging the liberal democratic policy regime. The historical discussion provides context for later sections on Weber’s salience in the US today and for a possible Weber fusion after postwar modernization.
