Durkheim's theory of suicide stressed the historical processes of modernization in explaining the rise in suicide. Tests of Durkheim's theory have, however, been largely ahistorical. The present study fills this void with a time-series analysis of Finnish historical suicide data. A Cochrane-Orcutt analysis finds that a one percent increase in urbanization is associated with a.19 percent increase in suicide. The results are independent of control variables from alternate perspectives on suicide. Some evidence is found to support Halbwach's “Law of Convergence.” Whereas a one percent increase in modernization increases suicide by .22 percent in the 19th century, this figure drops to .12 percent in the 20th century.
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