The Anthem Companion to Maurice Halbwachs

The Anthem Companion to Maurice Halbwachs

Edited by Robert Leroux & Jean-Christophe Marcel

Anthem Companions to Sociology

This book seeks to place Louis Maurice Halbwachs in his historical and intellectual context, showing that his work was sensitive to the events of his time, and that the development of his analysis could be influenced by happenstance.

Hardback, 192 Pages

ISBN:9781785276804

July 2021

£120.00, $195.00

  • About This Book
  • Reviews
  • Author Information
  • Series
  • Table of Contents
  • Links
  • Podcasts

About This Book

For a quarter of a century now, and more particularly over the last decade, Maurice Halbwachs has inspired a growing literature embodied by many sociologists and historians of social sciences, published for the most part in scientific journals, focusing on the sociological thought that Halbwachs developed in his writings. Then come many studies that emerge from the history of ideas and epistemology: these are entirely devoted to a particular facet of Halbwachs’ work, either to place it in its scientific context or to discuss it on the basis of fundamental cognitive issues.

Our task is not to summarize or synthesize the thinking of Halbwachs, which would be far too vast an undertaking for an exercise of this kind. He was keenly aware of the most pressing epistemological and methodological questions surrounding the nascent sociology. He thought about the place of demography in the study of social life; he posed the problem of the role of psychology; and he considered the application of statistics. Better yet, he asked what a society really is: a kind of “organization” trying to last and preserve itself, adapting to the conditions of its environment. There is no doubt that Halbwachs contributed to the emergence of sociology especially after World War I. His studies have always been innovative, part of the intellectual debates at the moment. In particular, his work invests the question of knowing if it was possible to study in a positive way human spirit, and especially intellectual faculties.

Reviews

The Anthem Companions to Sociology offers wide ranging and masterly overviews of the works of major sociologists. The volumes in the series provide authoritative and critical appraisals of key figures in modern social thought. These books, written and edited by leading figures, are essential additional reading on the history of sociology. — Gerard Delanty, Professor of Sociology, University of Sussex, Brighton

This ambitious series provides an intellectually thoughtful introduction to the featured social theorists and offers a comprehensive assessment of their legacy. Each edited collection synthesizes the many dimensions of the respective theorist’s contributions and sympathetically ponders the various nuances in and the broader societal context for their body of work. The series will be appreciated by seasoned scholars and students alike. — Michele Dillon, Professor of Sociology and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, University of New Hampshire

The orchestration and emergence of the Anthem Companions to Sociology represent a formidable and invaluable achievement. Each companion explores the scope, ingenuity, and conceptual subtleties of the works of a theorist indispensable to the sociological project. The editors and contributors for each volume are the very best in their fields, and they guide us towards the richest, most creative seams in the writings of their thinker. The results, strikingly consistent from one volume to the next, brush away the years, reanimate what might have been lost, and bring numerous rays of illumination to the most pressing challenges of the present. — Rob Stones, Professor of Sociology, Western Sydney University, Australia

The Anthem Companions, those that have appeared already and those that are to come, will give every sociologist a handy and authoritative guide to all the giants of their discipline. — Stephen Mennell, Professor Emeritus, University College Dublin

Each volume of the Anthem Companions to Sociology examines comprehensively not only a theorist’s distinct approach and unique contributions, but also situates each in reference to the major parameters of mainstream theoretical schools and traditions. This remarkable Series in addition throws into high relief the singular features of modern societies. It promises to set the standard for discussions of Sociology’s long-term development and belongs on the shelves of every social scientist.— Stephen Kalberg, Professor of Sociology Emeritus, Boston University 

This valuable series covers both familiar figures in the history of sociology (such as Max Weber and, prospectively, Marx and Durkheim) and less often treated ones such as Arendt and Troeltsch who are also highly relevant to sociology, broadly conceived. In these books, leading scholars explore important but often neglected aspects of their subjects’ work. — William Outhwaite, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Newcastle University, UK

Author Information

Robert Leroux is a professor of sociology at the University of Ottawa. 

Jean-Christophe Marcel is a professor of sociology at the University of Burgundy.

Series

Anthem Companions to Sociology

Table of Contents

Introduction; Chapter 1. A Theorist of Collective Memory, Éric Brian; Chapter 2. Halbwachs and the Durkheimian Perspective on History, Robert Leroux; Chapter 3. Maurice Halbwachs, Sociologist of Memory: His Reception in Italy and the Development of the Sociology of Memory, Teresa Grande; Chapter 4. Population as the Body of Society, Jean-Christophe Marcel; Chapter 5. Urban Morphology and Social Morphology: Marcel Roncayolo and the Work of Maurice Halbwachs, Gilles Montigny; Chapter 6. Halbwachs’s Leibniz and Halbwachs’s Sociology, Guillaume Coqui; Chapter 7. Halbwachs on Quetelet and the Use of Statistics in Sociology, Christian Robitaille; Chapter 8. Maurice Halbwachs and the Sociology of Consumption and Social Classes, Lorenzo Migliorati; Chapter 9. From Criticism of Moral to the Probalistic Test, Éric Brian; Chapter 10. The Age Criterion: Between Sociology and Biology, Marie Jaisson; Chapter 11. Speculation: Order or Disorder?, Jacques Lautman; List of Contributors; Index.

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