Marcel Fournier is Professor of Sociology at the University of Montreal. His biography of Marcel Mauss is generally regarded as the definitive account of one of the key pioneers of sociology and anthropology.

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."The 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"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"Marcel Fournier has provided a comprehensive intellectual biography of a key founder of modern sociology: Émile Durkheim. It is an invaluable complement to Steven Lukes’s earlier Émile 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"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"Undoubtedly Émile Durkheim, A Biography takes our understanding of the French master to another level."Sam Pryke, University of Wolverhampton

• INTRODUCTIONMyths and Received IdeasSome Enigmas: New DocumentsThe Life and Work of DurkheimDurkheim, Mauss & CoThe Specific IntellectualFin de siècle Melancholy: A World ChangesACKNOWLEDGEMENTSPART ONE: THE YOUNG DURKHEIM1. A Jewish EducationRespect for the Law and Devotion to the BookEmbroidery: Extra IncomeA Humiliating DefeatEducation: A Weapon2. Ecole Normale SupérieureThe Metaphysician: A Formidable DialecticianWith the RepublicansAgainst DilettantismTowards RationalismThe Agrégation: A Very Difficult Ordeal3. 'Schopen' at the LycéeProfesseur de lycéeThe Passion for KnowledgeThe Fashion for PessimismThe Faculties of the Soul. Conscious/UnconsciousOn MethodologyEgoism/Altruism: SocietyMan is a Sociable AnimalAnd God ÉThe Noble Sadness of ResearchThe Revue philosophique: Towards Sociology'Something is not Right'A Research Programme4. Travels in GermanyAnthropology and the 'New Psychology''We Have A Lot to Learn from Germany'Towards a Positive Science of EthicsIndividual or State?Back to the LycéePART TWO: THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY5. The Bordeaux Years: Pedagogy and the Social Sciences'A Large and Happy City'Pedagogy and the Social SciencesA Good Marriage'What Has to be Done Has to be Done'New ColleaguesAlfred Espinas: 'The First to be Drawn to Sociology'The Bordeaux SchoolClasses and LecturesFirst Course on the Social SciencesPedagogy: A Practical TheoryReligion: A Sociological PhenomenonForms of Sociability: The FamilyMarriage and Inheritance'Happiness is Such a Relative Thing'The Critique of EconomicsLong Live The (French) RevolutionA Young German Author: Ferdinand TönniesJean-Jacques Rousseau: SociologistA Nephew's Education6. Individual and Society: The Social Bond. The Doctoral ThesisMontesquieu and Political ScienceThe Division of Labour?Crime and Punishment. Types of Solidarity'Long Live Cooperation, Make Room for Individual Disagreements!'The Struggle for SurvivalAnomieA Celebration of WorkThe Utopia of a World SocietyThe SoutenanceA Few MisunderstandingsA Message to Socialists 'Be Clear and United'Controversy7. An Object, A Method and Some RulesA Position in Paris? The 'Espinas Affair'Sociology and PsychologyAn Observer in ParisRené Worms: A Tireless OrganizerAllies Amongst The Philosophers?Célestin Bouglé and the Younger GenerationSome Good Reasons for Writing 'The Method'The Normal and the PathologicalThe Explanation for the Social Lies in SocietyFor or Against?8 1895: The Revelation'The Year of Ethics'New CoursesReforming the Teaching of PhilosophyA Discovery: The Vital Role of ReligionThe 'Religious Sciences' Section: Sylvain LévyMarriage or Cohabitation?Crime and Mental HealthThe International Exhibition of 1895: Popularizing SociologyA History of SocialismSociology and Democracy: Andler Versus DurkheimA Moral Crisis?PART THREE: A JOURNAL AND A TEAM9 Converts: From Suicide to L'Année sociologiqueThe Nephew's 'Personal Work'In Praise of TaineSuicide, or 'Rationalist Empiricism'Alcoholism and Heredity. The Critique of RacismImitationThe Taste for Free Enquiry and The Taste for LearningIn Praise of Marriage and Large FamiliesThe Beneficial Effects of Revolutions and WarsThe Altruism of Lower SocietiesThe Dangers of DivorceA World of EmotionsThe Case for Decentralization'Slashing at Water'10 L'Année sociologique: Birth of a TeamA Crop of JournalsPlans for a Journal: NegotiationsMaking Converts'Let Us Set to Work with a Good Heart'A Moment of Discouragement'We Will Do Better Another Time'PublicationMethodical WorkA New Research ProgrammeDifferences of OpinionWhy 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 MobilizeThe Stapfer Affair: 'The Sickening Spectacle of So Much Cowardice'In Defence of IndividualismIndividual Representations and Collective RepresentationsThe Republic versus the Army12 A Failure?The Essay on SacrificeA Working HolidayA Specialist JournalReligious Sociology Takes Priority: The Study of the SacredA Failure?Bouglé on EqualityThe Next Volume of L'Année sociologiqueRatzel, Richard and Steinmetz: Three ArticlesA Discovery: Spencer and GillenElections to the Collège de France: Gabriel Tarde or Henri Bergson?13 A Word: SolidarityParis 1900: A New ConsciousnessGreat Scientific EventsCooperation, Solidarity and Social EducationThe Social Role of Universities. People's UniversitiesSociology: 'An Essentially French Science''Ardent Proselytism'Notes Critiques Ð Sciences SocialesLiberalism in Crisis? In Search of a Third WayThe Sickness and the Remedy: A Greater Role for Professional Groups14 L'Année in CrisisL'Année and Notes Critiques: A Planned Merger'We Go On'The Role of Sociology in Secondary EducationA 'Provisional' MethodThe Année, Volume IVBirth of the PrisonBibliographical Work: A New CrisisA Death Foretold: Mélanie DurkheimThe 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 MeansPART FOUR: PARIS AND THE SORBONNE15 At the Sorbonne'At a Standstill''An Outstanding Candidate'A Painful ChangeThe New SorbonneA Successor in BordeauxThe Inaugural LectureA Great SuccessAcademic Work is Serious Work16 Le Grand Manitou and the Totem-Taboo ClanThe Debate with Gabriel Tarde: Sociology and Social SceinceA Great Debate: Historical Method and Social Science'Adorons le Totem, le Grand Manitou'A New Research Programme: Categories of ThoughtThe Division of Labour in Society, Revised and UpdatedDisagreements?17 The Next Generation'Morality is on the Agenda'Lévy-Bruhl on Morality and the Science of MoralsThe Lectures on Moral EducationA Role for MagicAn Essential ToolThe 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, RobertHertz, and the OthersFrom Matrimonial Organization and the Butchery Trade18 The Evolution of Educational Thought, or Triadic CultureKnowing and Understanding our Educational MuseumThe Reformist and the Scholar: A New FaithTurning to History, Or The Quest for OriginsA Theory of ChangeThe 'Essential Characteristics' of the Education SystemThe Three Great Ages of EducationTowards a New Curriculum: Studying Man and Studying NatureCartesianism, Or The National Temperament19 Church, State and FatherlandThe Separation of Church and StateMorality Without God: Rebelling Against TraditionPatriotism or Internationalism? The Critique of MarxismThe Question of DivorceWorries and AnnoyanceA Generation Goes Badly Astray: Bouglé Stands for Election; MaussGoes to RussiaL'Année sociologique Vol IX: 'The Life of Collectivities Is Not AsSimple as That of Birds'PART FIVE: MORALITY AND RELIGION20 A Tenth AnniversaryEnemies and CompetitorsDurkheim's CollaboratorsTeaching and Juries: Facts!Disciplinary ConflictsAnother Crisis at the Année. Magic, Death and CastesA New BalanceAn Exclusion Foretold'I Certainly Owe a Great Deal to the Germans'Durkheim at 50: The Légion d'honneur and a Banquet21 'Change the World'A Durkheimian Stance: The Cahiers du socialistePacifism and Patriotism'We Are All Society's Civil Servants'Divorce. The Woman QuestionThe Origins of ReligionThe End of Religion?Mauss's La Prière? A Chair at the Collège de France?Emile, Or The Sense of the RealChange the World22 Regent of the Sorbonne'A Time for Specific Knowledge and Accurate Methods'Generational Conflict; Les Jeunes Gens d'aujourd'huiRegent of the Sorbonne?Moving House. Commitments on All SidesThe New-Style AnnéeIdeals and Collective EffervescenceThe Methodical Socialization of the Next GenerationPedagogy: A Practical Theory23 The Origins of Religious LifeThe 'Totemist School'Freud on Totem and TabooTotemism as Elementary Religion'A Sort of Electricity'A Sociological Theory of KnowledgeThe End of Religion?'The New Sorbonne's Theology'. Some Strong ObjectionsThe Foreign Reception24. A Lecture-Course, The Last Année and the End of an Era. Pragmatism.One Last AnnéeA Bust and Promotion. Official RecognitionThe Fashion for PragmatismPragmatism and SociologyBergsonism Versus Sociology. 'Creative Synthesis'Religion and Free Thought'I Am A Grandfather'PART SIX: THE GREAT WAR25 Unjustified AggressionUnjustified AggressionThe University in a Difficult PositionA Response to the 'Manifesto of German Intellectuals'Attracting Foreign StudentsThe Monster Or L'Allemagne au-dessur de ToutA Letter to AmericansDefending French ScienceThe (Russian) Jewish Question26 'Thinking of the Same Thing Day and Night'Dreadful News'André's Campaign Or, Self-AbnegationLettres aux FrançaisThe InsultThe 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 EpilogueSigns of the TimesBibliographySelected Works by Emile DurkheimOther Works Consulted