Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Publication of Le Suicide

When
1897
Where
Paris
Part of
Émile Durkheim publishes Suicide

Durkheim published Le Suicide in 1897, analyzing suicide rates among Protestants and Roman Catholics to demonstrate social control's impact.

The work argued that stronger social control among Roman Catholics resulted in lower suicide rates. It was the second methodological study of a social fact, preceded by Masaryk's 1881 work. The publication distinguished social science from psychology and political philosophy.

Sources

  1. Émile Durkheim Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-26
  2. Suicide (Durkheim book) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-22

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.