Emile, or On Education

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Emile, or On Education (French: Émile, ou De l'éducation), first published in 1762, is a treatise on the nature of education and on the nature of man written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who considered it to be the "best and most important" of all his writings. Due to a section of the book titled "Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar", Emile was banned in Paris and Geneva and was publicly burned in the first year of its publication. It was forbidden by the Church, being listed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. During the French Revolution, Emile served as an inspiration upon the development of a new national system of education. After the American Revolution, Noah Webster used content from Emile in his best-selling schoolbooks and also used it to argue for the civic necessity of broad-based female education.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Public domain