Émile Durkheim A Biography

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
 
"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
"Undoubtedly Émile Durkheim, A Biography takes our understanding of the French master to another level."
Sam Pryke, University of Wolverhampton

'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 '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 '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: 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