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Born on April 15: Durkheim, the ‘founding father’ of sociology

“Social man…is the masterpiece of existence.”
― Émile Durkheim (April 15, 1858 – November 15, 1917)

David Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist, social psychologist and philosopher. Along with Karl Marx and Max Weber, he formally established the academic discipline and and is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern


To commemorate Durkheim’s 164th birthday on April 15th, Berghahn Journals would like to offer free access to Durkheimian Studies* until April 22! To access, use code Durkheim22. View redemption instructions.

*Content is exclusively for the user’s individual, personal, non-commercial use. View full terms and conditions.


Berghahn Books is also happy to invite you to browse some of these relevant titles.

THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF THOUGHT
Durkheim, Mauss, and the Category Project
Edited by Johannes F. M. Schick, Mario Schmidt, and Martin Zillinger

“It makes a clear contribution to its field by a group of scholars with a coherent nucleus in Germany, many of whom have been researching this topic for years, if not decades … it represents the culmination, at least for the time being, of work on these issues (the Durkheimians and the categories).”Robert Parkin, University of Oxford

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In Paperback

DURKHEIM, THE DURKHEIMIANS, AND THE ARTS
Edited by Alexander Tristan Riley, W.S.F. Pickering†, and William Watts Miller
Published in Association with the Durkheim Press

“The strengths of the book are the featuring of the diversity of the [Durkheim] tradition and the many lines linking broadly Durkheimian themes to current work on the arts… [It] illustrates powerfully how Durkheimian concepts live with us today and how we can benefit by comparisons with this rich tradition. Read and be inspired.” · American Journal of Sociology

Read Introduction

Please visit additional blog post where Alexander Tristan Riley shares what brought him to the study of Durkheim, a prediction of the collection’s reception, and what he would ask the philosopher if given the chance.

In Paperback

DURKHEIM IN DIALOGUE
A Centenary Celebration of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Edited by Sondra L. Hausner

Volume 27, Methodology & History in Anthropology

“The volume conveys the potential of Elementary Forms to inspire new areas of research in the field of cognitive studies and of collective processes and rituals more specifically. As the contributors suggest, there is much to explore in contemporary phenomena by wary of Durkheim’s original approach to the study of religion.” · Durkheimian Studies/Etudes Durkheimiennes

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In Paperback

A DURKHEIMIAN QUEST
Solidarity and the Sacred
William Watts Miller

“Watts Miller provides a meticulous, conscientious, and unpretentious reading of Durkheim, rooted in deep acquaintance not only with his unpublished lectures but also with the writing of his contemporaries…The strength of Watts Miller’s book is that it harks back to a Durkheim of complexity and rich ambiguity.” · Choice

In Paperback

SUFFERING AND EVIL
The Durkheimian Legacy
Edited by W. S. F. Pickering and Massimo Rosati†
Published in Association with the Durkheim Press

“…an impressive collection that makes a strong contribution to sociological theory and Durkheimian scholarship. Its particular strength is how it makes available the robustness and enduring importance of Durkheim’s rich conceptual lexicon… Theoretically sophisticates, yet relatively accessible, this volume is particularly appropriate for inclusion in advanced undergraduate theory courses or graduate level seminars.” · Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens de sociologie

In Paperback

DURKHEIM TODAY
Edited by W. S. F. Pickering
With an introduction by Kenneth Thompson
Published by Durkheim Press

Taken as a whole, the collection provides a useful grounding in contemporary Durkheimian studies.” · Choice

DURKHEIM AND FOUCAULT
Perspectives on Education and Punishment
Edited by Mark S. Cladis

Education and punishment are two crucial sites of the “disciplinary society,” approached by Durkheim and Foucault from different perspectives, but also in a shared concern with what kind of society might constitute an “emancipatory” alternative. This collection of essays explores the issues that are involved and that are illuminated through a comparison and contrast of two social theorists who at first sight might seem an “unlikely couple” – Durkheim and Foucault.

In Paperback

GODLESS INTELLECTUALS?
The Intellectual Pursuit of the Sacred Reinvented
Alexander Tristan Riley

“…offers readers a tour of twentieth-century French intellectual 10 history by one of the finest Durkheimian scholars writing today. At the heart of the book is Durkheim’s concept of the sacred. Yet despite the seemingly familiar starting point, Riley’s book sparkles with creative 15 ideas, intriguing concepts, and introductions to a broad class of characters… part of the book’s (mystic) charm is its comprehensive and suggestive nature.” · Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review

In Paperback

THE NATURE OF SOCIOLOGY
Marcel Mauss
Translated by William Jeffrey
Introduction by Mike Gane
Published in Association with Durkheim Press

Having taken over the leadership of the French school of sociology after the death of his uncle, Emile Durkheim, in 1917, Mauss, celebrated author of The Gift, re-launched the flagship journal, the Année sociologique. Here are two of Mauss’s most significant statements on the social sciences. The first, written with Fauconnet, outlines the methodological orientations of the school. The second examines the internal organization of sociology as a division of intellectual labor. The essays are of interest to anthropologists as well as sociologists for Mauss, like Durkheim, did not distinguish in detail the two disciplines.


See other publications from Durkheim Press.