Jean-Jacques Rousseau (28 June 1712 2 July 1778) was a major Genevois philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the American Revolution and subsequently the French Revolution, and the development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.

His novel, Emile: or, On Education, which he considered his most important work, is a seminal treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel, Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse, was of great importance to the development of pre-Romanticism and romanticism in fiction.See also Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre, chapter 6: "Readers Respond to Rousseau: The Fabrication of Romantic Sensitivity" for some interesting examples of contemporary reactions to this novel. Rousseau's autobiographical writings: his Confessions, which initiated the modern autobiography, and his Reverie...