A dialectical response to Levine's "French tradition"

In this paper I examine and critique Donald Levine's treatment of the "Fren ch Tradition" in sociological thought. After summarizing Levine's account o f the development of the French tradition, I discuss the identification of the French tradition with the work of Durkheim, and discuss the reasons for the predominance of Durkheim's work over and above other plausible candida tes for exemplars of the French tradition of sociology. I then use this dis cussion to problematize the identification of sociological theories with na tional traditions, and the idealist framework that Levine uses to discuss t he development of sociological thought.