Customer Reviews

Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society (Heritage of Sociology Series)

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Bellah has gathered Durkheim's most oft-cited writings (including Elementary Forms, Division of Labor, Suicide, and Sociological Method) and arranged them topically in this work. The book begins with Durkheim's review of French social thought, then chapters on "Sociology and Social Action, The Evolution of Morality, The Learning of Morality," and "Social Creativity." A lengthy introduction gives an overview of Durkheim's biography, other writers who influenced his thinking, as well as summaries of the major works whose selections are within. It's an excellent book for both undergraduate and graduate theory courses: most selections are between 10 and 20 pages.

This book provides a good overview of Durkheim's work, but since it is just excerpts it's hard to get any in depth understanding into any one particular subject. As a reference book, it is practically worthless, as there is no index. So, if you are writing a paper and think, hey, I know Durkheim said this, but I don't know where, it's difficult to figure out. Nevertheless, I suppose it does serve as an adequate introduction to Durkheim.