Starting with Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan in 1651, David Runciman examines how twelve political philosophers explain the relationship between citizens and those who rule them. From Wollstonecraft to MacKinnon and Marx to Fukuyama, Runciman reveals how Leviathan underpins seismic events such as the American Revolution, radical movements like second-wave feminism and seminal texts including Hind Swaraj by Gandhi and Democracy in America by De Tocqueville.