100 years ago, on November 15, 1917, David Émile Durkheim, founder of modern French sociology and anthropology, passed away. He was born the son of a rabbi, April 15, 1858 in Epinal (Lorraine, France) and witnessed the difficulties and anti-Semitism of both the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and the Great War (1914-1918). Scholarly, innovative and disciplined, fervent, prolific and successful in establishing the academic basis of sociology in France, he was able to live comfortably as a French bourgeois, married Louise Dreyfus, and had two children, Marie and André. André served in WWI and was killed in action in Bulgaria. A number of young research collaborators and contributors to L'Année Sociologique, the major sociology journal Durkheim founded in 1898, were also killed in the war.
Durkheim was awarded the first chair in sociology in France, held at the Sorbonne. He authored now classic works in sociology and anthropology such as: The Division of Labour in Society (1893), The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), On Suicide (1897), The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), and numerous articles and reviews. Mindful of the political needs of anomic societies, he advocated for a substantially renovated form of democratic governance, a sociologically realist cosmopolitanism, substantive egalitarianism, and the practical application of sociology to public policy. Durkheim was a contemporary of major figures in European intellectual life including philosopher Henri Bergson, and psychologist Pierre Janet, both of whom were his schoolmates at the prestigious École normale supérieure. Sharing concerns with French intellectuals like Émile Zola, author of the well-known essay “J’accuse” about anti-Semitism and the Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906) that shook the French Third Republic, Durkheim also intervened, crafting “Individualism and the Intellectuals,” solidifying his position as an advocate for “moral individualism.”
Durkheim’s work has provided generations of scholars a foundation for productive and critical development across the social sciences and humanities including sociology, anthropology, religious studies, criminology, social psychology, education, history, philosophy, and political science. His books On Suicide and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life in particular, continue to spur social research. For contemporary reflections on reading Durkheim today, see the video at the link below, containing an interview with Dr. Frank Pearce, author of The Radical Durkheim and Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Queen’s University at Kingston. In a second video, Dr. Susan Stedman Jones, from the British Centre for Durkheimian Studies, The University of Oxford discusses misconceptions about Durkheim’s sociology. More videos in the series “A Durkheimian Century” will appear on YouTube in the coming months.
Dr. Ronjon Paul Datta
Department of Sociology and Criminology,
The University of Windsor
Co-Founder and Member of the Organizing Committee,
The Canadian Network of Durkheimian Studies/Réseau canadien d'études durkheimienne
Email: rpdatta@uwindsor.ca