ABSTRACT
The story of how Durkheimian sociology became the "official" ideology of the Third Republic and influenced many sectors of French culture and education up to 1945 has received less attention than it deserves. Celestin Bougie has noted that Emile Durkheim's influence was also marked in other disciplines such as psychology, ethnology, human geography, history, law and political economy. Durkheim's influence, although constantly challenged, was therefore not reacted against in practice until the advent of the Vichy regime in 1940. In a palpable reference to Durkheim, they considered education was flawed by a "scientisme sans ame", by lip-service paid to the belief in moral progress, and by materialism. Paul Lapie, a former lecturer in Bordeaux and then Rector of the University of Toulouse, was a disciple of Durkheim and a contributor to the Annee sociologique. Somehow Durkheimian sociology had become linked with "internationalism" and antipatriotism.
