Hobbes created the first truly modern political philosophy.

In Leviathan, Hobbes created the idea of a "social contract" and set out to explicate a doctrine for the foundation of states and legitimate forms of government. In On Hobbes, Ryan explains how he created the secular conception of the state and politics in one of the first truly modern works of political philosophy. Ryan explicates how current notions of individual rights, sovereignty, representative government and almost all liberal political theory find their foundation in Hobbes.