Commentary

• The Political Philosophy of Rousseau

  - Roger Masters, The Political Philosophy of Rousseau. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968).
  From the publisher: Masters writes in his introduction about the unity of Rousseau’s works: Man is naturally good but it is society that depraves. That is one way to characterize Rousseau’s thought. Man is motivated by two forces. One is… More

• Men and Citizens: A Study of Rousseau’s Social Theory

  - Judith Shklar, Men and Citizens: A Study of Rousseau's Social Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
  From the publisher: This book, first published in 1969, is widely regarded as one of the best studies of Rousseau’s thought in any language. In it, Professor Shklar examines Rousseau’s central concern: given that modern civilisation is intolerable… More

• The Sexual Politics of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  - Joel Schwartz, The Sexual Politics of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).
  From the publisher: Joel Schwartz presents the first systematic treatment of Rousseau’s understanding of the political importance of women, sexuality, and the family. Using both Rousseau’s lesser-known literary works and such major writings as… More

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Transparency and Obstruction

  - Jean Starobinski, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Transparency and Obstruction, trans. by Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).
  From the publisher: Jean Starobinski, one of Europe’s foremost literary critics, examines the life that led Rousseau, who so passionately sought open, transparent communication with others, to accept and even foster obstacles that permitted him to… More

• Rousseau: An Introduction to His Psychological, Social and Political Theory

  - N.J.H Dent, Rousseau: An Introduction to his Psychological, Social and Political Theory (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988).
  From the publisher: Dent argues that Rousseau’s political ideas are the natural outgrowth of other interests and not simply the point to which all his other work tended. He shows how Rousseau’s ideas concerning the sense of a common life and the… More

• Gendered Community: Rousseau, Sex, and Politics

  - Penny Weiss, Gendered Community: Rousseau, Sex, and Politics (New York: NYU Press, 1993).
  From the publisher: Rousseau’s writings reflect paradoxes and apparent inconsistencies with his principled commitments to freedom and equality. In this engrossing work, Penny Weiss wrestles with issues of gender in the works of Rousseau. Weiss attempts… More

• Rousseau, Nature, and the Problem of the Good Life

  - Laurence D. Cooper, Rousseau, Nature, and the Problem of the Good Life. (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999).
  From the publisher: The rise of modern science created a crisis for Western moral and political philosophy, which had theretofore relied either on Christian theology or Aristotelian natural teleology as guarantors of an objective standard for ‘the good… More

• Being after Rousseau: Philosophy and Culture in Question

  - Richard L. Velkley, Being after Rousseau: Philosophy and Culture in Question (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).
  From the publisher: In Being after Rousseau, Richard L. Velkley presents Jean-Jacques Rousseau as the founder of a modern European tradition of reflection on the relation of philosophy to culture—a reflection that calls both into question. Tracing this… More

• Frail Happiness: An Essay on Rousseau

  - Tzvetan Todorov, Frail Happiness: An Essay on Rousseau, Translated by John T. Scott and Robert D. Zaretsky (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005).
  From the publisher: “We are all confronted, at one time or another, with choices as to what sort of life we will lead.” So Tzvetan Todorov begins Frail Happiness, an important interpretation of Rousseau, one suffused with Todorov’s own moral… More