This article concerns Émile Durkheim's critique of the Action Française as expressed in his seminal articles of 1898, which was an important moment in the Dreyfus Affair, where Durkheim's active engagement serves to challenge a still widespread view of him as a latter day traditionalist and positivist, He developed epistemological and political arguments against this proto-fascist movement, which have implications for his accounts of nationalism and internationalism.
Susan Stedman-Jones formerly taught the philosophy of social science and sociological theory at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has studied philosophy and anthropology at University College, London, and completed a PhD in philosophy. Her dissertation ‘From Kant to Durkheim’ earned a British Academy research award. She has worked with the British Centre for Durkheimian Studies and the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, both at the University of Oxford, and has published Durkheim Reconsidered (2001) and various articles which focus on the philosophical and historical aspects of Durkheim's thought, some of which have appeared in Durkheimian Studies/Études Durkheimiennes. E-mail: suestedman@gmail.com