The principal subject of the essays on Hobbes and Rousseau is the state and, more generally, political authority and political obligation. The chapters on Locke and Mill focus mainly on liberalism, and on authority's rightful limits. All of these issues are resumed in the section on Rawls, where the main topic is justice, but where the notion of political legitimacy developed in Political Liberalism is also a prime concern. The chapter on Marx addresses many of the issues raised in the earlier essays both from the perspective of his early writings, and from the vantage-point provided by his mature theories of the state and history.

While the essays are relatively self-contained, a cohesive narrative about modern political philosophy emerges from them to create both an accessible introduction and an interesting, original interpretation of ideas that have influenced our society.