On the Roads to Modernity

Benjamin Nelson was a wide ranging New York intellectual, trained at Columbia in medieval history, who wrote a classic study, The Idea of Usury. Hebecame a sociologist and continued to explore large issues in philosophy, psychoanalysis and the construction of systems of spiritual direction. He taught at the University of Chicago, at Minnesota, and at the New School for Social Research. He also served as editor of many books in the famous Harper & Row paperback series of classic authors. Toby E. Huff is a research associate at Harvard University and Chancellor Professor Emeritus at UMass Dartmouth. He is the author of Max Weber and the Methodology of the Social Sciences (1984), The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West (2nd ed. Cambridge 2003); Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution. A Global Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2010) as well as co-editor with Wolfgang Schluchter of Max Weber and Islam (1999). He has lectured in Europe, Asia and across the Muslim world.