The Social Contract in America: From the Revolution to the Present Age

Because most Americans believe that government requires the consent of the governed, the idea of the social contract may come as close to a public philosophy as we’ve ever had. And, as Mark Hulliung reminds us, we have frequently fought our greatest political battles by wielding one or another version of social contract theory.

Hulliung’s book is the first to examine the role of the social contract across the entire sweep of American history, well beyond the Revolution and Founding periods....