<Tr> <Th> Publication date </Th> <Td> 1651 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> ISBN </Th> <Td> 978 - 1439297254 </Td> </Tr> <P> Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common - Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil--commonly referred to as Leviathan--is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588--1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668). Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan . The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory . Leviathan ranks as a classic western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince . Written during the English Civil War (1642--1651), Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign . Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature ("the war of all against all") could only be avoided by strong, undivided government . </P> <P> After lengthy discussion with Thomas Hobbes, the Parisian Abraham Bosse created the etching for the book's famous frontispiece in the géometrique style which Bosse himself had refined . It is similar in organisation to the frontispiece of Hobbes' De Cive (1642), created by Jean Matheus . The frontispiece has two main elements, of which the upper part is by far the more striking . </P>

Who wrote leviathan detailing his ideas about a state of nature