Principal works by Rousseau

The standard French edition of Rousseau is Oeuvres complètes (5 volumes), Bernard Gagnebin and Marcel Raymond (eds.), Paris: Gallimard, 1959–1995.

A major work that is not included in the Oeuvres complètes in a satisfactory form is Principes du droit de la guerre published together with Écrits sur la paix perpetuelle, Bruno Bernardi and Gabriella Silvestrini (eds), Paris: Vrin, 2008. (This volume is part of a series of texts, studies and commentaries that are invaluable for extending our understanding of Rousseau’s work.)

The most comprehensive English edition of Rousseau’s works is Collected Writings (13 volumes), Roger Masters and Christopher Kelly (eds.), Dartmouth: University Press of New England, 1990–2010. The individual works below are included in each of these editions.

Accessible English translations of major works include:

• The Discourses and Other Early Political Writings, Victor Gourevitch (ed. and trans.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings, Victor Gourevitch (ed. and trans.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• The Social Contract and Other Political Writings, Quintin Hoare (trans.) and Christopher Bertram (ed.), London: Penguin, 2012.(This volume includes the English translation of the reconstruction by Bernardi et al of Principles of the Right of War.)
• 1751, Un Discours sur les Sciences et les Arts (Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts; First Discourse).
• 1755, Un Discours sur l’Origine et les Fondemens de l’Inégalité parmi les Hommes (A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality; Second Discourse). (Scholar)
• c. 1753–61, Essai sur l’Origine de Langues (Essay on the Origin of Languages). (Scholar)
• 1755, De l’économie politique (A Discourse on Political Economy).
• 1755, Lettre sur la Musique Française (Letter on French Music).
• 1758, Lettre à M. d’Alembert sur les Spectacles(Letter to d’Alembert on the Theater). (Scholar)
• 1761, Julie, ou La Nouvelle Héloïse.
• 1762, Émile, ou de l’Éducation (Emile, or On Education).
• 1762, Du Contrat Social (The Social Contract).
• 1764, Lettres Ecrites de la Montagne (Letters from the Mountains).
• 1764–5, Project de Constitution pour la Corse (Project for a Constitution for Corsica).
• 1764–6, Les Confessions (The Confessions).
• 1770–1, Considérations sur le Gouvernement de Pologne (Considerations on the Government of Poland).
• 1772–6, Rousseau Juge de Jean-Jacques: Dialogues (Rousseau Judge of Jean-Jacques: Dialogues).
• 1776–8, Les Rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire (The Reveries of the Solitary Walker).

Works about Rousseau

• Berman, M., 1970, The Politics of Authenticity, New York: Atheneum. (Scholar)
• Bertram, C., 2004, Rousseau and The Social Contract, London: Routledge. (Scholar)
• –––, 2012, “Rousseau’s Legacy in Two Conceptions of the General Will: Democratic and Transcendent.”, Review of Politics, 74: 403–419. (Scholar)
• Brooke, C., 2009, “‘Locke en particulier les a traitées exactement dans les mêmes principes que moi’: revisiting the relationship between Locke and Rousseau”, in Miqueu, C. and Chamie, M. eds Locke’s Political Liberty: Readings and Misreadings, Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. (Scholar)
• –––, 2015, “Rawls on Rousseau and the General Will”, in Farr, J. and Williams, D.L. eds, The General Will After Rousseau, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Canon, J.S., 2022, “Three General Wills in Rousseau”, Review of Politics, 84: 350–371. (Scholar)
• Cassirer, E, 1954, The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, trans. P. Gay, Bloomington: Indiana. (Scholar)
• Charvet, J., 1974, The Social Problem in the Philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Cohen, J. 2010, Rousseau: A Free Community of Equals, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Dent, N.J.H, 1988, Rousseau: An Introduction to his Psychological, Social and Political Theory, Oxford: Blackwell. (Scholar)
• –––, 1992, A Rousseau Dictionary, Oxford: Blackwell. (Scholar)
• –––, 2005, Rousseau, London: Routledge. (Scholar)
• Douglass, R., 2015, Rousseau and Hobbes: Nature, Free-will and the Passions, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Fermon, N., 1997, Domesticating Passions: Rousseau, Woman, and Nation, Hanover, NH: Weslyan University Press. (Scholar)
• Fralin, R., 1978, Rousseau and Representation, New York: Columbia. (Scholar)
• Gauthier, D., 2006, Rousseau: The Sentiment of Existence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Griswold, C.L., 2017, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith A Philosophical Encounter, London: Routledge. (Scholar)
• Grofman, B. and Feld, S.L., 1988, “Rousseau’s General Will: A Condorcetian Perspective”, American Political Science Review, 82: 567–76. (Scholar)
• Kelly, C.J., 2003 Rousseau as Author: Consecrating One’s Life to the Truth, Chicago: Chicago University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2006, “Rousseau’s ‘Peut-etre’: Reflections on the Status of the State of Nature”, Modern Intellectual History, 3: 75–83. (Scholar)
• Masters, R.D., 1968, The Political Philosophy of Rousseau, Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Scholar)
• McLendon, M.L., 2019, The Psychology of Inequality: Rousseau’s Amour Propre, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. (Scholar)
• Melzer, A.M. , 1990, The Natural Goodness of Man On the System of Rousseau’s Thought, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Scholar)
• Neidleman, J., 2017, Rousseau’s Ethics of Truth, London: Routledge. (Scholar)
• Neuhouser, F., 1993, “Freedom, Dependence and the General Will”, Philosophical Review, 102: 363–95. (Scholar)
• –––, 2008, Rousseau’s Theodicy of Self-Love, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2014, Rousseau’s Critique of Inequality, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• O’Hagan, T., 1999, Rousseau, London: Routledge. (Scholar)
• Roosevelt, G.G., 1990, Reading Rousseau in the Nuclear Age, Philadelphia: Temple. (Scholar)
• Rosenblatt, H., 2002, “On the Misogyny of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Letter to d’Alembert in Historical Context”, French Historical Studies, 25: 91–114. (Scholar)
• Rousselière, G., 2021, “Rousseau’s Theory of Value and the Case of Women”, European Journal of Philosophy, 29: 285–298. (Scholar)
• Scott, J.T., 2021, Rousseau’s Reader: Strategies of Persuasion and Education, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Scholar)
• Shklar, J.N., 1969, Men and Citizens: A Study of Rousseau’s Social Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Simpson, M., 2006, Rousseau’s Theory of Freedom, London: Continuum. (Scholar)
• Spector, C., 2019, Rousseau, Cambridge: Polity Press. (Scholar)
• Sreenivasan, G., 2000, “What is the General Will?”, Philosophical Review 109: 545–81. (Scholar)
• Starobinski, J., 1988, Transparency and Obstruction, trans A. Goldhammer, Chicago: Chicago University Press. (Scholar)
• Williams, D.L., 2014, Rousseau’s Social Contract, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Wokler, R., 1995, Rousseau, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2014, Rousseau, the Age of Enlightenment, and Their Legacies, Bryan Garsten (ed.) Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Scholar)

Biographies of Rousseau

• Cranston, M., 1982, Jean-Jacques: The Early Life and Work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712–1754, London: Allen Lane. (Scholar)
• –––, 1991, The Noble Savage: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1754–1762, London: Allen Lane. (Scholar)
• –––, 1997, The Solitary Self: Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Exile and Adversity, London: Allen Lane. (Scholar)
• Crocker, L.G. 1974, Jean-Jacques Rousseau-the Quest 1712–1758, New York: Macmillan. (Scholar)
• –––, 1974, Jean-Jacques Rousseau The Prophetic Voice 1758–1778, New York: Macmillan. (Scholar)
• Damrosch, L., 2005, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius, New York: Houghton Mifflin. (Scholar)