Max Weber in the Netherland s This article has two main aims. First, it explores the treatment of the Netherlands in Max Weber’s canonical essays on the Protestant Ethic . This is a real history and not simply a static exploration of a text, since Weber’s attitudes towards Dutch religion (though not capitalism) shifted considerably after he first drafted the Protestant Ethic in 1904-1905. His engagement with the Dutch was a central part of the revision of the text that took place in 1906-1908, a period which also saw the writing of the companion essay on ‘the Protestant sects.’ Here is a phase in the history of this work which has been neglected hitherto; and yet the final text of the Protestant Ethic , as it was issued in 1920, was primarily a work of the years 1904-1908. By 1920 it was, as Weber said, an ‘older’ work. The second aim is to cast light on this history.