The Social Contract Or Principles of Political Right

<i>Social Contract</i> takes up an argument which had begun with Bodin and Hobbes, and been continued by Grotius, Spinoza, and Locke to form the foundation of political thinking in the eighteenth century. <br><br>The <i>Social Contract</i> is a work of consummate rhetorical skill; but it is also a prolonged sleight of hand in which what is most questionable is carefully hidden behind the magnificent flourishes of the prose.