An updated and clear presentation of this classic of sociology: Emile Durkheim's lecture series on civic roles and duties and the concept of the State, and on ethics in professions and trade groups. The new edition from Quid Pro features contemporary formatting and embedded pagination from standard print editions, for continuity with other printed forms, ready referencing and course assignment, and consistency with Quid Pro's 2012 ebook edition.

Properly presented and on the merits, Durkheim's Professional Ethics and Civic Morals astutely analyzes the origins of professional groups and their norms, codes, and guild controls. It then offers extensive analysis of the social basis for the State, property, contract law, and the prohibition of murder.

Durkheim draws insightful and surprising conclusions on several fronts, including refuting accepted notions of the basis for government and of the value of property as a product of labor. He reveals the religious origins of property rights and its protection by law. He also demonstrates that times of social upheaval and war produce secondary social effects such as the rise in homicide. The book is of continuing value to sociologists, political theorists, historians, and other interested readers. The English translation is presented in a straightforward and clear style.

In this modern edition from Quid Pro Books, the original Introduction by Georges Davy is included, as well as 2012 Notes of the Series Editor by Steven Alan Childress, Ph.D., J.D., a senior law professor at Tulane University. Part of the Classics of the Social Sciences Series.