In trying to understand Habermas's theory of contemporary society it is best to begin with the early twentieth-century sociologist Max Weber. Habermas argues that certain analyses by Weber—which Habermas calls Weber's "diagnosis of the times"—help uncover the origins of contemporary cultural and social disarray. For this reason, the overarching framework of Habermas's most detailed work in social theory, The Theory of Communicative Action, is a reconsideration of Weber's diagnosis in light of later social theories and present political dilemmas.