The seventeenth-century work of political philosophy that brought us the concept of the social contract. Considered by many to be as influential and provocative as Machiavelli's The Prince , Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan , written during the English Civil War, argues that only a people united under a strong sovereign can resist the forces of chaos. Exploring such concepts as the state of nature and the need to escape it, the value of a commonwealth, the advantages of a monarchy, and the role of religion in civil society, Leviathan is a controversial and challenging landmark in the history of political thought.