内容简介
TheSpiritoftheLawsis,withoutquestion,oneofthecentraltextsinthehistoryofeighteenth-centurythought,yettherehasbeennocomplete,scholarlyEnglish-languageeditionsincethatofThomasNugent,publishedin1750.ThislucidtranslationrendersMontesquieu'sproblematictextnewlyaccessibletoafreshgenerationofstudents,helpingthemtounderstandquitewhyMontesquieuwassuchanimportantfigureintheearlyenlightenmentandwhyTheSpiritoftheLawswas,forexample,suchaninfluenceuponthosewhoframedtheAmericanconstitution.Fullyannotated,thiseditionfocusesattentionuponMontesquieu'suseofsourcesandhistextasawhole,ratherthanuponthoseopeningpassagestowardswhichcriticalenergieshavetraditionallybeendevoted,andaselectbibliographyandchronologyareprovidedforthosecomingtoMontesquieu'sworkforthefirsttime.