Timothy O'Hagan offers us an up-to-date, well researched, and ground breaking interpretation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's work and crucial contribution to philosophical thought.

Timothy O'Hagan investigates Jean-Jacques Rousseau's writings concerning the formation of humanity, of the individual and of the citizen in his three master works: the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality among Men, Emile and the Social Contract. He explores Rousseau's reflections on the sexes, language and religion. O'Hagan gives Rousseau's arguments a close and sympathetic reading. He writes as a philosopher, not a historian, yet he never loses sight of the cultural context of Rousseau's work.

"This book is an excellent account of Rousseau: accurate, very wide ranging... and moreover providing without heaviness or pedantry an account of major recent approaches to Rousseau... This is a very fine book indeed." - Marian Hobson, Mind