Anthologies

Barker, Ernest, ed. Social Contract: Essays by Locke, Hume, and Rousseau. London, Oxford, and New York: Oxford University Press, 1960, 307 p.

Reprint of Locke's An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government, Hume's Of the Original Contract, and Rousseau's The Social Contract. Barker's introduction provides a detailed overview and historical context.

Sigmund, Paul E., ed. Natural Law in Political Thought. Cambridge, Mass.: Winthrop Publishers, 1971, 214 p.

Excerpts many of the primary statements concerning natural law, including selections from Locke, Rousseau, Bentham, and Kant. Each section begins with introductory essays.

Criticism

Abbo, John A. Political Thought: Men and Ideas. Westminster, Md.: The Newman Press, 1960, 452 p.

Surveys the history of political philosophy from ancient Greece to the twentieth century, with several sections devoted to the primary figures of the early modern period.

Boucher, David, and Paul Kelly. The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls. London and New York: Routledge, 1994, 276 p.

Presents academic essays by scholars writing from positions ranging from Marxist to feminist and new historicist. Many treat the dominant figures of modern political philosophy, including Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and Rousseau.

Dunn, John. The History of Political Theory and Other essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, 235 p.

Tells the history of political philosophy while engaging with many of its key theoretical aspects, including a chapter on "Contractualism."

Gough, J. W. The Social Contract: A Critical Study of Its Development. Oxford: Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1957, 259 p.

An authoritative history of the social contract by a prominent scholar. Central chapters treat the period from the late Middle Ages to the eighteenth century.

Laslett, Peter, ed. Philosophy, Politics and Society. New York: Macmillan, 1956, 184 p.

Presents ten largely theoretical essays on different aspects of political philosophy, including Margaret Macdonald on "Natural Rights."

Lessnoff, Michael. Social Contract. London: Macmillan, 1986, 178 p.

Provides a detailed history of the social contract, as well as an assessment of how recent critiques have understood that history and revived the idea of the contract.

Macpherson, C. B. The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke. Oxford: Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1962, 310 p.

Looks at the history of political philosophy via the concept of possessive individualism, which Macpherson contends to be fundamental to even the most diverse thinkers of modern history.

Medina, Vicente. Social Contract Theories: Political Obligation or Anarchy? Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1990, 179 p.

Takes each of the major figures—from Hobbes through Rawls—in turn before the author addresses the primary theoretical issues surrounding the idea of the social contract.

Skinner, Quentin. The Foundations of Modern Political Thought. : Volume One: The Renaissance. Cambridge, London, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978, 405 p.

Combines a history of early modern political philosophy with an attempt to "indicate something of the process by which the modern concept of the State came to be formed."

Wolin, Sheldon S. Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought. Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1960, 529 p.

An extensive, in-depth discussion of the history of political philosophy, the last half of which treats the modern era. Wolin investigates politics in relation to other significant fields, including religion, imperialism, economics, and "the social."