Durkheim and After (eBook)

Philip Smith is Professor of Sociology at Yale University.

Preface and Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Durkheim's Life and the Four Major Books
Situating Durkheim - early life and training - The Division of Labor - The Rules of Sociological Method - Suicide - the middle career phase - L'Année Sociologique - the Elementary Forms - death.

Chapter 2: Durkheim's Other Works and the Contributions of His Students

The variety of outputs - individualism - socialism - ethics- the state - sex/gender/family/marriage- pragmatism -education - the body - punishment - classification - Mauss - Hertz - Hubert - other students in the Année team.

Chapter 3: Durkheimian Thought 1917-1950

France-the fate of Durkheim's team - Mauss the gift and the body - Halbwachs and collective memory - Bataille and the Collège de Sociologie - England and structural functionalist anthropology - Radcliffe-Brown - Evans-Pritchard - the United States - Parsons - Merton.

Chapter 4: Through the Cultural Turn 1950-1985
Parsons and systems theory - the fall of Parsons - Germany - Lévi-Strauss - British anthropology - Mary Douglas - Durkheimian empirical sociology in the United States.

Chapter 5: Into the Twenty-First Century: Durkheim Revived

Durkheim neglected - the rise of cultural sociology in the United States - Jeffrey Alexander and the Strong Program - Randall Collins and interaction ritual - Other Durkheimian work in the United States - the Durkheimian Studies/Études Durkheimiennes Group - Germany - adaptations of Mary Douglas on grid/group - evolutionary psychology- the return of normative Durkheimian theory.

References

"Smith's book is a marvelous theoretical and scholarly accomplishment. It is far and away the most insightful and important work ever written not only about Durkheim but, most importantly, the tradition he created."
Jeffrey C. Alexander, Yale University

"This book is like the sun coming up, dispelling the myths that sociology has never made any important discoveries or sharpened its knowledge across the generations. Philip Smith's lucid and fair-minded account tells the story from Durkheim's team to the theoretical trajectories of today, while touching on much of the intellectual action for over a century."
Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania

"A masterpiece of sociological theory - well written and based on an impressive breadth of knowledge, a strong capacity for synthesis, and a great open-mindedness."
Marcel Fournier, University of Montreal

"This book sensitizes us to the richness of Durkheim's heritage, the inspirations that have been drawn from it and those that are still waiting to become fruitful. It offers a useful overview of the twists and turns of the Durkheim reception - with a particular focus on American cultural sociology."
Hans Joas, Humboldt University, Berlin, and University of Chicago