Charles W. Mills's The Racial Contract argues that the social contract tradition, from Hobbes through Rawls, has always had an unacknowledged racial dimension. Mills, a philosopher who taught at CUNY and Northwestern, contends that the political and moral equality theorized by contract philosophers was never truly universal but implicitly restricted to white Europeans. The actual contract underlying modern politics, he argues, is an agreement among whites to categorize nonwhites as subpersons, appropriate their land and labor, and maintain white supremacy while denying its existence. Mills draws on the history of colonialism, slavery, and segregation to show how this racial contract has operated, and he examines how mainstream philosophy has evaded engaging with race. The book is philosophical in method but draws extensively on history and sociology; Mills writes accessibly for readers outside academic philosophy. The Racial Contract challenges readers to see canonical texts differently and to recognize how racial exclusion has been foundational rather than incidental to Western political thought. Published in 1997, the book has become a touchstone for critical race theory and political philosophy. Essential reading for anyone grappling with the relationship between liberal political theory and the history of racism.