Mauss was a student at Bordeaux between 1890 and 1895, and this discussion of his university library loans directly complements an earlier article on those of Durkheim, who taught there from 1897 to 1902. Mauss worked hand in glove with his uncle, and although the profiles of their library use were quite different, all the material borrowed by Mauss was closely related with material amongst Durkheim's loans. Archival evidence brings out how Mauss prepared for the agrégation in philosophy in a way that went well beyond the examination itself, indeed, that in effect transcended philosophy, and that included a year at the Sorbonne that was crucial for the future. If Durkheim showed a methodological imagination – drawing on a variety of disciplines, albeit largely through a ‘hidden’ reading of uncited references – in order to elaborate a sociological approach for his time, Mauss showed a sociological imagination in an effort, in parallel with his academic commitments, to develop his uncle's work straightaway. Their close collaboration with one another during this period is a platform for reconsidering the nature, up to 1914, of the intellectual link between Mauss and Durkheim, as two sociologists who were above all separated by a ‘chronological’ gap, who occupied two different positions that, while helping to explain disagreement, made possible their project of disciplinary ‘conquest’ begun at Bordeaux, and who, lastly, produced the same general sociology based on two related approaches. My conclusion returns to their Bordeaux ‘moment’ and the veritable symbolic blitzkrieg they conducted there.
Nicolas Sembel est Maître de conférences Habilité à diriger des recherches (HDR) en Sociologie, Centre Émile Durkheim & Espé, Université de Bordeaux. Son principal objet de recherche est le travail intellectuel des élèves, des enseignants et des scientifiques. Les deux volumes de son habilitation (Université Paris-Ouest, 2015) ont pour titre : Pour une sociologie générale de l'éducation ; et : Durkheim et Mauss au travail à Bordeaux en 1890 : la naissance de la sociologie générale. E-mail : nicolas.sembel@sfr.fr