Part of the excellent Fontana Modern Masters series edited by Frank Kermode, Anthony Giddens' study of Émile Durkheim remains one of the clearest introductions to one of sociology's founding figures.

Giddens reconstructs the intellectual problems Durkheim himself was trying to solve: how modern societies hold together, why social order persists, and what happens when traditional forms of community begin to dissolve. The book moves through Durkheim's major works and concepts — social facts, division of labour, religion, anomie and suicide — while situating them within the political and social upheavals of nineteenth-century Europe. What emerges is a thinker wrestling with questions that remain remarkably contemporary: alienation, collective identity, the role of institutions, and the relationship between individual freedom and social cohesion. Compact without being simplistic, this is an ideal entry point for readers of sociology, political theory, philosophy and intellectual history.

Fontana Modern Masters paperback edition. A clean, well-preserved copy in very good condition, with original bookseller price sticker to front cover.