This book will become the standard work on the life and thought of Émile Durkheim, one of the great founding fathers of sociology. Durkheim remains one of the most widely read thinkers in the social sciences and every student of sociology, anthropology and related subjects must study his now-classic books. He brought about a revolution in the social sciences: the defence of the autonomy of sociology as a science, the systematic elaboration of rules and methods for studying the social, the condemnation of racial theories, the critique of Eurocentrism and the rehabilitation of the humanity of 'the primitive'. He defended the dignity of the individual, the freedom of the press, democratic institutions and the essential liberal values of tolerance and pluralism. At the same time he was critical of laisser-faire economics and he defended the values of solidarity and community life. In many ways, Durkheim's rich intellectual heritage has become part of the self-understanding of our time.
Despite his enormous influence, the last major biography of Durkheim appeared more than 30 years ago. Since then, the opening up of archives and the discovery of manuscripts, correspondence with friends and close collaborators, administrative reports and notes taken by students have all provided a wealth of new material about his life and work. Meticulously documented, Marcel Fournier’s new biography sheds fresh light on Durkheim’s personality and character, his relationship with Judaism, his family life, his relations with friends and collaborators, his political and administrative responsibilities and his political views.
This book will be indispensable to students and scholars throughout the social sciences and will appeal to a wide readership interested in knowing more about the life and work of one of the most original and influential thinkers of the twentieth century.
By:
Marcel Fournier (University of Montreal)
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 231mm,
Width: 168mm,
Spine: 71mm
Weight: 1.429kg
ISBN: 9780745646459
ISBN 10: 074564645X
Pages: 700
Publication Date: 07 December 2012
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
INTRODUCTION Myths and Received Ideas Some Enigmas: New Documents The Life and Work of Durkheim Durkheim, Mauss & Co The Specific Intellectual Fin de siècle Melancholy: A World Changes ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PART ONE: THE YOUNG DURKHEIM 1. A Jewish Education Respect for the Law and Devotion to the Book Embroidery: Extra Income A Humiliating Defeat Education: A Weapon 2. Ecole Normale Supérieure The Metaphysician: A Formidable Dialectician With the Republicans Against Dilettantism Towards Rationalism The Agrégation: A Very Difficult Ordeal 3. 'Schopen' at the Lycée Professeur de lycée The Passion for Knowledge The Fashion for Pessimism The Faculties of the Soul. Conscious/Unconscious On Methodology Egoism/Altruism: Society Man is a Sociable Animal And God É The Noble Sadness of Research The Revue philosophique: Towards Sociology 'Something is not Right' A Research Programme 4. Travels in Germany Anthropology and the 'New Psychology' 'We Have A Lot to Learn from Germany' Towards a Positive Science of Ethics Individual or State? Back to the Lycée PART TWO: THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 5. The Bordeaux Years: Pedagogy and the Social Sciences 'A Large and Happy City' Pedagogy and the Social Sciences A Good Marriage 'What Has to be Done Has to be Done' New Colleagues Alfred Espinas: 'The First to be Drawn to Sociology' The Bordeaux School Classes and Lectures First Course on the Social Sciences Pedagogy: A Practical Theory Religion: A Sociological Phenomenon Forms of Sociability: The Family Marriage and Inheritance 'Happiness is Such a Relative Thing' The Critique of Economics Long Live The (French) Revolution A Young German Author: Ferdinand Tönnies Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Sociologist A Nephew's Education 6. Individual and Society: The Social Bond. The Doctoral Thesis Montesquieu and Political Science The Division of Labour? Crime and Punishment. Types of Solidarity 'Long Live Cooperation, Make Room for Individual Disagreements!' The Struggle for Survival Anomie A Celebration of Work The Utopia of a World Society The Soutenance A Few Misunderstandings A Message to Socialists 'Be Clear and United' Controversy 7. An Object, A Method and Some Rules A Position in Paris? The 'Espinas Affair' Sociology and Psychology An Observer in Paris René Worms: A Tireless Organizer Allies Amongst The Philosophers? Célestin Bouglé and the Younger Generation Some Good Reasons for Writing 'The Method' The Normal and the Pathological The Explanation for the Social Lies in Society For or Against? 8 1895: The Revelation 'The Year of Ethics' New Courses Reforming the Teaching of Philosophy A Discovery: The Vital Role of Religion The 'Religious Sciences' Section: Sylvain Lévy Marriage or Cohabitation? Crime and Mental Health The International Exhibition of 1895: Popularizing Sociology A History of Socialism Sociology and Democracy: Andler Versus Durkheim A Moral Crisis? PART THREE: A JOURNAL AND A TEAM 9 Converts: From Suicide to L'Année sociologique The Nephew's 'Personal Work' In Praise of Taine Suicide, or 'Rationalist Empiricism' Alcoholism and Heredity. The Critique of Racism Imitation The Taste for Free Enquiry and The Taste for Learning In Praise of Marriage and Large Families The Beneficial Effects of Revolutions and Wars The Altruism of Lower Societies The Dangers of Divorce A World of Emotions The Case for Decentralization 'Slashing at Water' 10 L'Année sociologique: Birth of a Team A Crop of Journals Plans for a Journal: Negotiations Making Converts 'Let Us Set to Work with a Good Heart' A Moment of Discouragement 'We Will Do Better Another Time' Publication Methodical Work A New Research Programme Differences of Opinion Why Simmel? Incest and the Separation of the Sexes 'A Good Piece of Work Botched' 11 The Dreyfus Affair and the Defence of Human Rights 'A Terrible Storm' The Intellectuals Mobilize The Stapfer Affair: 'The Sickening Spectacle of So Much Cowardice' In Defence of Individualism Individual Representations and Collective Representations The Republic versus the Army 12 A Failure? The Essay on Sacrifice A Working Holiday A Specialist Journal Religious Sociology Takes Priority: The Study of the Sacred A Failure? Bouglé on Equality The Next Volume of L'Année sociologique Ratzel, Richard and Steinmetz: Three Articles A Discovery: Spencer and Gillen Elections to the Collège de France: Gabriel Tarde or Henri Bergson? 13 A Word: Solidarity Paris 1900: A New Consciousness Great Scientific Events Cooperation, Solidarity and Social Education The Social Role of Universities. People's Universities Sociology: 'An Essentially French Science' 'Ardent Proselytism' Notes Critiques Ð Sciences Sociales Liberalism in Crisis? In Search of a Third Way The Sickness and the Remedy: A Greater Role for Professional Groups 14 L'Année in Crisis L'Année and Notes Critiques: A Planned Merger 'We Go On' The Role of Sociology in Secondary Education A 'Provisional' Method The Année, Volume IV Birth of the Prison Bibliographical Work: A New Crisis A Death Foretold: Mélanie Durkheim The Inner Sanctum: Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss at the Ecole pratique 'A Huge Amount of Work' From the Aruntas to the Price of Coal 'Scholarly Cooperation', Or What Speaking Durkheim's Language Means PART FOUR: PARIS AND THE SORBONNE 15 At the Sorbonne 'At a Standstill' 'An Outstanding Candidate' A Painful Change The New Sorbonne A Successor in Bordeaux The Inaugural Lecture A Great Success Academic Work is Serious Work 16 Le Grand Manitou and the Totem-Taboo Clan The Debate with Gabriel Tarde: Sociology and Social Sceince A Great Debate: Historical Method and Social Science 'Adorons le Totem, le Grand Manitou' A New Research Programme: Categories of Thought The Division of Labour in Society, Revised and Updated Disagreements? 17 The Next Generation 'Morality is on the Agenda' Lévy-Bruhl on Morality and the Science of Morals The Lectures on Moral Education A Role for Magic An Essential Tool The Dreyfus Affair: 'A Strict Duty to Participate in Public Life' L'Humanité: A Waste of Time? Holidays at Last! A New Post? A New Generation: Georges Bourgin, Maurice Halbwachs, Robert Hertz, and the Others From Matrimonial Organization and the Butchery Trade 18 The Evolution of Educational Thought, or Triadic Culture Knowing and Understanding our Educational Museum The Reformist and the Scholar: A New Faith Turning to History, Or The Quest for Origins A Theory of Change The 'Essential Characteristics' of the Education System The Three Great Ages of Education Towards a New Curriculum: Studying Man and Studying Nature Cartesianism, Or The National Temperament 19 Church, State and Fatherland The Separation of Church and State Morality Without God: Rebelling Against Tradition Patriotism or Internationalism? The Critique of Marxism The Question of Divorce Worries and Annoyance A Generation Goes Badly Astray: Bouglé Stands for Election; Mauss Goes to Russia L'Année sociologique Vol IX: 'The Life of Collectivities Is Not As Simple as That of Birds' PART FIVE: MORALITY AND RELIGION 20 A Tenth Anniversary Enemies and Competitors Durkheim's Collaborators Teaching and Juries: Facts! Disciplinary Conflicts Another Crisis at the Année. Magic, Death and Castes A New Balance An Exclusion Foretold 'I Certainly Owe a Great Deal to the Germans' Durkheim at 50: The Légion d'honneur and a Banquet 21 'Change the World' A Durkheimian Stance: The Cahiers du socialiste Pacifism and Patriotism 'We Are All Society's Civil Servants' Divorce. The Woman Question The Origins of Religion The End of Religion? Mauss's La Prière? A Chair at the Collège de France? Emile, Or The Sense of the Real Change the World 22 Regent of the Sorbonne 'A Time for Specific Knowledge and Accurate Methods' Generational Conflict; Les Jeunes Gens d'aujourd'hui Regent of the Sorbonne? Moving House. Commitments on All Sides The New-Style Année Ideals and Collective Effervescence The Methodical Socialization of the Next Generation Pedagogy: A Practical Theory 23 The Origins of Religious Life The 'Totemist School' Freud on Totem and Taboo Totemism as Elementary Religion 'A Sort of Electricity' A Sociological Theory of Knowledge The End of Religion? 'The New Sorbonne's Theology'. Some Strong Objections The Foreign Reception 24. A Lecture-Course, The Last Année and the End of an Era. Pragmatism. One Last Année A Bust and Promotion. Official Recognition The Fashion for Pragmatism Pragmatism and Sociology Bergsonism Versus Sociology. 'Creative Synthesis' Religion and Free Thought 'I Am A Grandfather' PART SIX: THE GREAT WAR 25 Unjustified Aggression Unjustified Aggression The University in a Difficult Position A Response to the 'Manifesto of German Intellectuals' Attracting Foreign Students The Monster Or L'Allemagne au-dessur de Tout A Letter to Americans Defending French Science The (Russian) Jewish Question 26 'Thinking of the Same Thing Day and Night 'Dreadful News' André's Campaign Or, Self-Abnegation Lettres aux Français The Insult The Last Article: 'Tomorrow's Politics' 'The Moral Greatness of France' Academic Propaganda in America 'A Last Burst of Energy and A Last Response to the Call of Duty': 'Introduction to Ethics' 'Better Die Than Live Like This' 'In Memoriam' 27 Epilogue Signs of the Times Bibliography Selected Works by Emile Durkheim Other Works Consulted
Marcel Fournier is professor of sociology at the University of Montreal.
Reviews for Émile Durkheim: A Biography
<p>Winner of the 2014 ASA 'History of Sociology Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award Fournier's remarkable work of scholarship is a fitting tribute to a man who was an innovative and influential thinker, and who dedicated his entire career to advancing the cause of sociology. Irish Times Definitive I doubt that we are likely to see another appraisal of Durkheim's life as systematic as Marcel Fournier's very soon. He has given the great man a decent burial. Literary Review A monument of painstaking scholarship. It draws on a rich cache of newly available documents and will be an indispensable source for the foreseeable future. Times Literary Supplement Durkheim comes alive; for that we owe Fournier a debt of gratitude: Essential Choice This beautifully translated book provides a rich, exhaustive, and exhausting account of Durkheim as one of the central founders of sociology, and of the era of French intellectual and social history in which he lived. Church Times Marcel Fournier sets a new standard for depth of scholarship and vividness of exposition in recovering the life of the founder of sociology. It ranks with the very small number of great intellectual biographies of those who laid down the tracks of modern social thought. Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania <p> Fournier is the greatest living scholar of French sociology. With this work, he gives us a new Durkheim, a man broiled in the political controversies of his time, an academic patriarch who laid the foundations for a more cultural sociology. Jeffrey C. Alexander, Yale University <p> Marcel Fournier has provided a comprehensive intellectual biography of a key founder of modern sociology: Emile Durkheim. It is an invaluable complement to Steven Lukes s earlier Emile Durkheim in that it provides in meticulous detail newly available contextual data, particularly of the last period in Durkheim s life, such as his concern over the fate of Jewish Russian immigrants and the role of the modern university. Edward A. Tiryakian, Professor Emeritus, Duke University Undoubtedly Emile Durkheim, A Biography takes our understanding of the French master to another level. Sam Pryke, University of Wolverhampton
