Holding men in wretched subservience, feudalism-alongside religion-was a powerful force in the eighteenth century. Self-serving monarchic social systems, which collectively reduced common people to servitude, were now attacked by Enlightenment philosophers, of whom Rouseau was a leading light.

His masterpiece, The Social Contract, profoundly influenced the subsequent development of society and remains provocative in a modern age of continuing widespread vested interest.

This is the most comprehensive paperback edition available, with introduction, notes, index and chronology of Rousseau's life and times.