"Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains." This stirring quote begins The Social Contract, the publication of which, along with his tract on education, Emile, may have destroyed Jean Jacques Rousseau's career, but cemented his place as one of the most important figures of modern philosophy. This article in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has just been updated, and provides a compelling biography of an admittedly flawed man responsible for so many of the core ideas of modern moral and political philosophy - the idea of a 'general will' of society, the idea of the 'state of nature', the corrupting nature of society, and of course, the social contract. People like Marx, Mill and Rawls are directly in his debt.
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