ABSTRACT
A science in a period of primitive intellectual accumulation scarcely concerns itself with its history. A notable exception has been Kurt H. Wolff, whose editing, translating, and authoritative analysis of the social philosophy and sociology of Georg Simmel has placed American scholarship in his debt. The essay by Talcott Parsons on the integration of social system is less an analysis of Durkheim's position than an exposition of Parsons's own outlook. The Durkheimians were an organizational force for secularism and republicanism, quite apart from latter-day arguments concerning Durkheim's conservatism or radicalism. Durkheim, Hubert and Mauss had the rare energy and capacity to do the hand work as well as the vision to perform the head work. In this sense, Besnard's volume might be read with profit not simply by those for whom Durkheim and his School is a towering intellectual achievement, but no less by those who consider his work a momentous publishing feat.
