De la localisation industrielle. Première partie : la théorie pure de la localisation. (Avant-propos de 1909 et introduction)

The choice of these extracts and of a return to the original German text for their translation was motivated by the consequences of certain cuts made in the most used English translation (including that of the foreword) and of explanatory notes of the translator C.J. Friedrich. They have, firstly, contributed to creating the neo-classical image of A. Weber, although the action of the latter belonged to the German Historical School and of its internal questioning led by the author's brother, M. Weber, or by his friend W. Sombart. They led, secondly, to ignoring the temporal continuity of A. Weber concerning industrial location. Although D. Gregory was one of the rare geographers to denounce the « interpretative violence » done to Weber’s work, he made a too simplistic reading of the path of the author, in terms of epistemological break. The choice of these texts can also be explained by the interest of the objective fixed by A. Weber for the development of a theory of industrial location : to try to link the abstract approach of the classical English economists and the more inductive approach of the historical economists, articulating economics and sociocultural aspects. The questions which are posed by the new economic geography on the condition of embeddedness of the economic in the social give topical significance to this procedure.