This revised reissue of G. D. H. Cole’s celebrated translation of The Social Contract and the three Discourses brings together some of the most influential political treatises ever written. Rousseau’s discussions of the state, individual liberty and human rights, the origins of property and the economic structure of society, still affect our thinking about such matters more than two centuries later. The present edition includes sections from the first manuscript draft of the text and an extensive new introduction by Alan Ryan.