ABSTRACT
The legacy which Durkheim left to later generations of sociological investigators defies easy summary. As we tried to show at the end of the last chapter, quite separate traditions of enquiry have claimed him as their mentor. Furthermore, ‘the spirit if not the detail’ of his theories (Swanson 1960, p. 17) still continues to stimulate work on the topics which he himself had written about-suicide, religion, law and crime. Above all, few sociologists, whatever their opinions, have been wholly untouched by his general example and his stalwart advocacy of his discipline.
