author
Émile Durkheim
1858–1917
A founding figure in sociology, he explored how modern societies hold together and what happens when social bonds weaken. His books on social facts, anomie, suicide, and religion still shape the way people study community and social life.
4 Audiobooks
Le Suicide: Etude de Sociologie
by Émile Durkheim
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
by Émile Durkheim
Éducation et sociologie
by Émile Durkheim
A szociológia módszere
by Émile Durkheim
About the author
Born in Épinal, France, in 1858, Émile Durkheim became one of the key thinkers who helped turn sociology into a recognized academic discipline. He taught at the University of Bordeaux and later at the Sorbonne, and he argued that social life should be studied with the same seriousness and method as any other field of knowledge.
Durkheim is especially known for The Division of Labor in Society, The Rules of Sociological Method, Suicide, and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Across these works, he focused on ideas such as social facts, solidarity, anomie, and the way shared beliefs and rituals help bind people together.
He died in Paris in 1917, but his influence has lasted far beyond his own time. Readers still return to his work for its big, clear questions: what keeps a society together, how do institutions shape us, and what happens when people feel cut off from the group around them?