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.