Originally published in 1893 and never out of print, Emile Durkheim's groundbreaking work remains one of the cornerstone texts of the sociological canon--now updated and re-translated in this new edition. As the Industrial Revolution was changing the landscape of society, Durkheim presented a new vision of the social structures at the root of capitalism, and the issues he grappled with still resound today. If pre-industrial societies were held together by common values, sentiments, and norms, equally shared by all, what holds modern societies, with their complex division of labor and non-cohesive social structure, together? What did this new social order mean for the autonomy of the individual? Durkheim argued that class conflict is not inherent in a capitalist society, as Marx contended, but that the unfettered growth of state power would lead to the extinction of individuality. Only in a free society that promotes voluntary bonds between its members, Durkheim suggested, can individuality prosper. In this new edition, the first since 1984, world-renowned Durkheim scholar Steven Lukes revisits and revises the original translation to enhance clarity, accuracy, and fluency for the contemporary reader. Lukes also highlights Durkheim's arguments by putting them into historical context with a timeline of important information. For students and scholars, this edition of "The Division of Labor" is essential reading and key to understanding the relevance of Durkheim's ideas today.

本卷收录的《社会分工论》，是涂尔干1893年的博士论文，是其开山之作。一开始他就显示了他反对单一的功利主义思维的立场，他指出社会是多元的，是由种种矛盾的部分组成的，是要适应相互矛盾的种种需要的，必须有一种限定与平衡。他选取的题目是一个经济学的对象，但他却要从其中找出非经济的内核来。这本书的中心思想就是，劳动分工并不是纯粹经济现象。

涂尔干是与马克思和韦伯齐名的社会学三大奠基人之一，为19世纪末20世纪初人文和社会科学领域不可多得的集大成者之一。本书援用了大量人类学材料，从图腾制度出发讨论了宗教生活之构成的基本原理及命题，堪称涂尔干所有作品中最精湛的作品，也是最能代表其社会思想取向的文献。此外，本书还反映了涂尔干晚年思想的主要转向，即用社会决定论来构建道德个体主义的理论企图，其中的若干章节被认为知识社会学研究的范本。

《教育思想的演进》根据涂尔干1904-1905年在巴黎大学开设的“法国中等教育史”课程整理而成，是史学界公认的社会史的开山之作。它考察了长达十几个世纪的教育制度和观念史，几乎涵盖了法国启蒙教育从早期教会的“肇发时期”到19世纪的“危机时期”的演进过程。本书不仅把教育观念的演进与思想体系史融通起来，也与教育体制内的制度安排和实践形式环环相扣，以教育为视角和切入点，勾画了一幅现代性在制度化和文明化的意义上从生成到危机的全景。