ABSTRACT
This chapter has a dual purpose. First, on the eve of the bicentennial of a major watershed of modern history, the French revolution, we wish to propose that Emile Durkheim may be recognized as truly a “grandson of the revolution.” Second, we will bring out an important albeit neglected aspect of Durkheim’s classic The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, a work which has been analyzed and scrutinized by a host of contemporary sociologists, yet none of these apparently has paid attention to a major reference for Durkheim’s magnum opus. In bringing this to light, we consider materials that go beyond an excursion in the history of sociology to a consideration of the problematics of “reading a classic” as well as those relating sociology to the discipline of history.
