French Sociology

No history of the discipline has ever articulated so finely the evolution of its institutions, an interpretation of the trajectories of its central actors, and the presentation of its main theoretical, methodological, and empirical results.

* Contemporary Sociology *

Reading Heilbron’s study affords an unusual degree of intellectual satisfaction. It is thoroughly researched, up-to-date with the latest scholarship, and, although Bourdieusian in method, appropriately detached and non-partisan in its intellectual judgments. It tells a coherent overall story, continuing the author’s fine The Rise of Social Theory, of the consolidation and subsequent reconsolidations of Comte’s projected discipline across two centuries and tells that story in a sequence of stages whose periodization is well-motivated by reference to the distinctive dynamics of each.

* Theory and Society *

French Sociology is a striking illustration of the relevance of an historical sociological approach to the social sciences that succeeds in articulating intellectual history and sociology of science. One can only hope that it will inspire other works of the same type.

* Revue d'histoire des sciences humaines *

Heilbron paints a deep sharp picture that allows new insights into the complex genealogies and institutional contexts of French sociology. His recapitulation of about two centuries of () French social science impressively demonstrates the usefulness and necessity of a historiography that consciously starts off from national scientific traditions.

* Soziopolis *

With French Sociology Johan Heilbron - European sociologist if ever there is one – provides further evidence of his ability to use in his work on the history of sociology, not only the whole range of research techniques, but also the most demanding conceptual tools of the discipline he has taken as his object of study.

* Revue d'histoire des sciences humaines *

Johan Heilbron’s erudite history of French sociology is essential reading.

* Society *

Heilbron’s book is a well-documented journey of more than 150 years of French sociology. Having been able to dissect the main developments in a limited number of pages is an accomplishment. The choice not to limit the analysis to authors and their theories, but to consider dominant institutions, media of publication, fluctuations in student numbers as well as the overall context, offers an original perspective.

* Revue européenne des sciences sociales *

An empirically very rich and at the same time concise book.

* Sociologie Magazine *

For every historian of sociology this is an important, compulsory reference work.

* H-Soz-Kult *

Vivid, innovative, and insightful.... Reading Heilbron's study affords an unusual degree of intellectual satisfaction.

* THEORY AND SOCIE