This Norton Critical Edition includes the three most important of Rousseau’s political writings: Discourse on Inequality, Discourse on Political Economy, and On Social Contract. Each piece is fully annotated.

Backgrounds includes a sketch of Rousseau’s life, selections from his Confessions, and comments on Rousseau’s work and character from such illustrious contemporaries and early critics as Voltaire, Hume, Boswell and Johnson, Paine, Kant, and Proudhon.

Commentaries includes assessments of Rousseau’s political thought by a wide variety of scholars and critics including Judith Shklar, Robert Nisbet, Simone Weil, and Benjamin R. Barber.

Preface

Translator’s Note

Rousseau’s Political Writings

 Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men

 Discourse on Political Economy

 On Social Contract or Principles of Political Right

Backgrounds

 Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A Biographical Sketch

 From Rousseau’s Confessions

 REACTIONS TO ROUSSEAU

 Fran?ois Marie Arouet de Voltaire

 David Hume

 James Boswell and Samuel Johnson

 Giacomo Casanova

 Adam Smith

 Thomas Paine

 Immanuel Kant

 Joseph de Maistre

 John Adams

 Benjamin Constant

 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

 Leo Tolstoy

Commentaries

 Jean Starobinski ? The Political Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

 R. A. Leigh ? Liberty and Authority in On Social Contract

 Robert Nisbet ? Rousseau ? Equality

 Judith N. Shklar ? Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Equality

 Robert Paul Wolff ? Rousseau’s Majoritarian Democracy

 Simone Weil ? A Note on the Complete Abolition of Political Parties

 Benjamin R. Barber ? Political Participation and the Creation of Res Publica

 Bibliography

Index