At the end of the war, Weber, now over 80 years of age, came out of the retirement into which the Nazis had forced him and took a leading part in the reconstruction of the University of Heidelberg. Though Spenglerian in scope, his book is not as pessimistic in outlook. He believes that the recent period of two world wars forms a great watershed in history, and that we have left the age of independent nations for one of what he calls "world syndicates."