Despite the evident differences in topic and focus, the founding theorists of modernity such as Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and Simmel could all tell a good story: about religion and the rise of capitalism (Weber, 1976); about the division of labor and its consequences (Durkheim, 1964); about the rise and eventual self-destruction of capitalism (Marx, 1976); about the individuating consequences of a philosophy of money (Simmel, 1900). Not “ripping yarns,” perhaps, but a good read. Each was a grand master of narrative. Indeed, the main thrust of each of their theories was a narrative structure in which a central idea of capitalism, differentiation, Protestantism, individuation, played an ambivalent heroic role. Later, good stories were to become the ...