The texts in this volume illustrate John Stuart Mill's engagement with contemporary discourses, ranging from his early publications to the work of the Elder Statesman. The critical impetus against authority that characterizes Mill as an intervener and agitator runs like a red thread through these texts, which engage with contemporaries such as Auguste Comte, Thomas Carlyle, and William Hamilton. His sharpest criticism targets any form of abuse of power, including tyranny, despotism, and totalitarianism. However, Mill presents himself not only as a vehement critic of any usurpation of power and the idea of immutable predestination but also as a well-founded theorist of transformation and a public intellectual who advocated for his beliefs in open competition.