"Bruce L. Kinzer offers a rich examination of personal and political themes in the life of John Stuart Mill, one of the most influential liberal thinkers of the nineteenth century. By investigating young Mill's formative period and his relations with his father, Harriet Taylor, and Thomas Carlyle, Kinzer casts light on the challenges Mill faced in understanding himself and what he wished to become. Kinzer's political explorations probe issues central to the appreciation of Mill as an engaged political thinker and actor and offers an insightful portrait of a complex and towering figure."--BOOK JACKET.

Bruce Kinzer offers a rich examination of personal and political themes in the life of the most influential liberal thinker of the Nineteenth century. He investigates young Mill's formative period and his relations with his father, Harriet Taylor, and Thomas Carlyle. Kinzer explores issues that bear upon our understanding of Mill as an engaged political thinker and actor and offers a complex portrait of Mill's life and politics.