Selected Texts (Book)

Selected Texts (original title: Textes Choisis) is a compilation by Frédéric le Play. In this work, themes such as family, property, religion, and working conditions are examined from a conservative perspective. The texts reflect a search for allies within the social sciences as they developed along the lines of “social reform” thought.

Frédéric le Play was a conservative thinker shaped by Western historicism. Le Play’s worldview was rooted in Christian conservatism. His interest in social research is said to have originated in the paternalistic education of the working class, which was perceived as a threat to social order. In this regard, his work reflects the attention that 19th-century conservatism directed toward the emerging social sciences.

This book consists of seventeen main sections:

1. Le Play’s Orientation
2. The State of France
3. Why and How Should Social Reform Be Carried Out?
4. Religion
5. Property
6. Family
7. Work
8. Basic Practices in the Workplace
9. Wages
10. Savings
11. Agriculture
12. Cooperatives
13. Social Inequalities
14. Elites
15. Intolerance and Bureaucracy
16. The British Example
17. Conditions of Revolution

Frédéric le Play (1806–1882) was a French social engineer and politician. Le Play was the first to undertake comprehensive monographic studies. In Selected Texts, themes such as family, property, religion, and working conditions are addressed through this approach. It is argued that if one seeks a conservative strand in the origins of sociology, it can be found in Le Play’s work. The similarities and differences between Le Play and the Durkheimian school, which would later influence French sociology, can also be traced through the texts in this compilation.

Le Play is also known for his 1855 work Les ouvriers européens (European Workers), which contains detailed monographs of 36 European working-class families. Due to its methodology and level of detail, this study served as a model for subsequent research in the same field.