"The translation and introduction by Rousseau�s biographer, Maurice Cranston, are admirably authoritative."
--Sunday Times
Penguin Putnam Web Site, May, 2002
Summary
The most influential of Rousseau's writings, the "Second Discourse" set forth a theory of human evolution
that prefigured the discoveries of Darwin, revolutionized the study of anthropology and linguistics, and made a
seminal contribution to political and social thought--leading to both the French Revolution and the birth of social
science.
