Christopher Pierson has been Professor of Politics at the University of Nottingham since 1996. He has held visiting positions at the Australian National University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore), the University of Auckland, and at the Hansewissenschaftskolleg in Lower Saxony. He has published extensively on the themes of the welfare state, the problems of social democracy and, over the last decade, on the politics of property.

Just Property amply illustrates, by historical example, why property should be at the core of political theory. The strength of Just Property is in how it combines rigorous scholarship with witty commentary that quietly celebrates Rousseau's 'heroic failure' and sighs at the German Idealists' knack for starting in all the wrong places.

• Introduction 1: The Scottish Enlightenment 2: The French Enlightenment 3: The German Enlightenment - and beyond 4: The French Revolution - and its aftermath 5: Socialism 6: Anarchism

Christopher Pierson has been Professor of Politics at the University of Nottingham since 1996. He has held visiting positions at the Australian National University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore), the University of Auckland, and at the Hansewissenschaftskolleg in Lower Saxony. He has published extensively on the themes of the welfare state, the problems of social democracy and, over the last decade, on the politics of property.

Just Property amply illustrates, by historical example, why property should be at the core of political theory. The strength of Just Property is in how it combines rigorous scholarship with witty commentary that quietly celebrates Rousseau's 'heroic failure' and sighs at the German Idealists' knack for starting in all the wrong places.

• Introduction 1: The Scottish Enlightenment 2: The French Enlightenment 3: The German Enlightenment - and beyond 4: The French Revolution - and its aftermath 5: Socialism 6: Anarchism