Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Politics of the Ordinary

by Tracy B. Strong

This book examines the philosophy of Rousseau and its contribution to our understanding of modernity. Strong notes that Rousseau has been associated with almost every school of thought and political movement of Western modernity - why is it that he has been read so divergently? The author suggests that Rousseau `gives us...our language for politics and personhood...Rousseau is not the whole story of modernity, but he is, in ways that others around and before him were not, modern .′

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 23, 1994

About the author

Tracy B. Strong is distinguished professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is a former editor of Political Theory and the author or editor of many books, including Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transfiguration, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Politics of the Ordinary, and The Many and the One: Religious and Secular Perspectives on Ethical Pluralism in the Modern World.