War as social regeneration: Sombart from The Quintessence of Capitalism to Merchants and Heroes

The essay examines a particular stage of life and scientific production of Werner Sombart, the years of the First World War. Most biographers of Sombart showed that the German scholar, during these years, remained essentially on the fringe of the debate that took place in Germany, as well in other countries taking part in the war, on the economic and social transformations induced by the conflict, and in particular, on the new role assumed by the State in directing the life of the economy and society. Published in 1915, Händler und Helden (Merchants and Heroes) should be primarily considered a work of propaganda. It is a vicious attack on Britain, seen as the country that had produced a petty and materialistic conception of existence. The topics chosen by Sombart for his polemic, however, resume many aspects of his previous works on the origins and development of modern economics, and even anticipate some of his reflections – later developed in the second edition of Modern Capitalism or in works such as German socialism – on the future and the fate of capitalism.