John Rawls reignited modern political philosophy with his 1971 book A Theory of Justice, prompting a wave of new thought and critiques on his ideas. In this book, he puts together the purest and most concise representation of his ideology after decades of debate and reflection.

The essence of Rawls thinking boils down to his two principles of justice and the veil of ignorance. Rawls argues that everyone should be entitled to the maximum liberties that can be afforded to everyone, and that surplus should be redistributed to those most in need first. He also proposes that the most just distribution of resources and policies would come from decision makers operating behind a "veil of ignorance" where they must act as if they could be any if the people in a society.

The veil is a creative theoretical device though it has little practical utility. I also find Rawls poorly grounds the ideology behind is egalitarianism, and he proposes no solution to its economic intractability. Rawls' writing is also highly repetitive and overly academic. Important historically, but find these topics are now better covered by reading about Amartya Sen or the Nordic model.