Introduction; Part I. The Durkheimian group and its context: 1. The Annee sociologique team Phillipe Besnard; 2. The Durkheimians in Academe. A reconsideration Victor Karady; 3. The republican ideology and the social sciences: the Durkheimians and the history of social economy at the Sorbonne George Weisz; 4. Durkheimian sociology under attack: the controversy over sociology in the Ecoles Normales Primaires Roger Geiger; Part II. The Durkheimians and the scope of sociology: 5. An intellectual self-portrait Marcel Mauss; 6. At the frontier of folklore and sociology: Hubert, Hertz and Czarnowski, founders of a sociology of folk religion Francois A. Isambert; 7. Obligation and right: the Durkheimians and the sociology of law W. Paul Vogt; 8. The absence of political sociology in the Durkheimian classifications of the social sciences Pierre Favre; 9. Education and social mobility: Paul Lapie's path-breaking work Mohamed Cherkaoui; 10. Durkheimian sociology versus philosophical rationalism: the case of Celestin Bougle W. Paul Vogt; 11. The epistemological polemic: Francois Simiand Phillipe Besnard; 12. Sociology and related disciplines between the wars: Maurice Halbwachs and the imperialism of the Durkheimians John E. Craig; Index.