The Elementary Forms of Religious Life [Paperback]

Emile Durkheim (Author), Karen E. Fields (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1995

"Karen Fields has given us a splendid new translation of the greatest work of sociology ever written, one we will not be embarrassed to assign to our students. In addition she has written a brilliant and profound introduction. The publication of this translation is an occasion for general celebration, for a veritable 'collective effervescence.'

-- Robert N. Bellah Co-author of Habits of the Heart, and editor of Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society

"This superb new translation finally allows non-French speaking American readers fully to appreciate Durkheim's genius. It is a labor of love for which all scholars must be grateful."

--Lewis A. Coser

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) founded the French school of sociology. In 1893 he created the Annee Sociologique, which he edited until 1913, and he wrote seminal texts including The Division of Labor in Society, Suicide, and The Rules of Sociological Method.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; (5th printing) edition (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0029079373
• ISBN-13: 978-0029079379
• Product Dimensions: 1.5 x 6.5 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 70 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Elements of Religious Life - Durkheim June 12, 2000

By Victoria Bowhill

Format:Paperback

This book is a sociological text written by Durkheim. One of the forefathers of Sociology, he believed that to study sociology you must identify social phenomena and then trace it to its origins to see how it came about. This for Durkheim was the only way to understand society.

In this book he examines the origins of religion. He explains that religion develops from the collective feelings of security we gain from living in a group, and these feelings are very powerful and important to us. However, early tribes passed these feelings onto which ever object they were close to at the time of experiencing the emotions, or the most frequent object in their area. The object could include a plant, vegetable or an animal, which would then be represented in a carving of stone or wood and then worshipped. This for Durkheim is the beginning of totemism, the first religion.

He follows on to discuss how our first religion gave us an understanding of the world around us, our conception of space and time. For Durkheim 'the framework of our intelligence' is made up of the concepts of space, time, numbers and our existence, and they were born 'in religion'.

Durkheim's writing is suprisingly easy to read and very enjoyable. His examination of early societies gives much insight into their lives and how they understood the world to be. For anybody studying Durkheim, this book is a good topic area to concentrate on. However, for anybody interested in theology or in early societies, it is a fascinating read. I read this book as part of my degree course and, although I borrowed it from the library, even after my course has ended I am now buying my own copy to reread.

I recommend this book to a wide range of readers, not only those interested in sociology. Read it, you'll be suprised!

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars WARNING: THIS EDITION IS ABRIDGED June 1, 2008

By Caraculiambro

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Durkheim's "Elementary Forms of the Religious Life" is one of the deepest books I've ever read, but I will leave others to speak of that.

I would like to complain about this particular edition, the "Oxford's World Classics" edition. (This review has apparently been published elsewhere. The edition I'm talking about is a yellow-and-red "Oxford's World's Classics" paperback with a black-and-white photo of Durkheim looking off to his left.)

I have long been looking to replace my worn-out edition, and thought this offering (published 2001) would answer nicely. (Is it just me, or has this book been plagued with editions that have flimsy binding?)

Unfortunately, Amazon buries an important piece of information in its "Editorial Reviews" section: this edition is abridged.

Now, it's lightly abridged. The original, which I have a hand, is only slightly longer than what you're getting here.

Which is what puzzles me: why did they bother to abridge this at all? Printing the entire text would only have added about 30 pages to the thing. The lines they have disincluded seem, at least upon my examination, no more irrelevant or abstruse than what they've decided to include.

Puzzling.

There are some good things about this edition, though. There are explanatory footnotes at the end of the text: useful glosses, not those "textual comparison" kind. (The footnotes on the bottom of each page are Durkheim's own.) There is a 29-page introduction. There is also an ethnographic map of Australia. But the biggest plus for me is that the (paperback) binding is super-sturdy and promises to last through many reads.

This is the translation by Carol Cosman, done in 2001 specifically for this edition.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Abridged... why? February 6, 2010

By T. Cushman

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I, too am disappointed that the new edition is abridged. One reviewer noted that only about 30 pages were taken out, but for serious readers, students, and teachers, it is important to have the book exactly as Durkheim wrote it. I am a professor of sociology and I suppose this edition would be OK for teaching (the introduction is fantastic), but for my own scholarship, I could not depend on it
because I am unsure what has been excised and the rationale. This is not just the idle complaint of a pedant - this is one of the most important books in the history of modern social thought and there is no excuse for abridging it, especially when the cover DOES NOT note that it is abridged. In a classic, every word counts.