Bertrand Russell was a late-Victorian/Edwardian intellectual whose longevity, productivity, and occasional notoriety have set him apart from even the most durable of his contemporaries. However, while it is perhaps appropriate that someone who first achieved prominence as a mathematician should enjoy a career of such statistical extravagance, it is – given the nature of Russell's philosophical enterprise – somewhat inappropriate (if understandable) that so much of his work has been more often summarised than analysed. Russell's contributions to philosophy are the exception; carefully examined within a limited context – namely that of the history of the subject – they have been (largely in accord with his own wishes) effectively quarantined from his other writing. Most of the non-philosophical output can be incorporated under the heading ‘Russell's social and political thought’, a term which includes all gradations from political philosophy to popular journalism; yet even the most substantial of these works have not been included in the political philosophy ‘canon’: students travelling from Rousseau to Rawls rarely encounter Russell. Not thought weighty enough to warrant close analysis, these books are thus excluded from the context of ‘subject’ and, within the more general context of Russell's own career, are often used merely to signpost seventy years of remorseless productivity.

Aside from all else, Russell's philosophy and his social and political thought differ on one fundamental point, namely, that the former aspired to be ‘scientific’ whereas the latter was unmistakably ideological.