内容简介
TheSpiritoftheLawsis,withoutquestion,oneofthecentraltextsmthehistoryofeighteenth-centurythought,yettherehasbeennocomplete,scholarlyEnglish-languageeditionsincethatofThomasNugent,publishedin1970.ThislucidtranslationrendersMontesqnieu'sproblematictextnewlyaccessibletoafreshgenerationofstudents,helpingthemtounderstandquitewhyMontesquieuwassuchanimportantfigureintheearlyEnlightmentandwhyTheSpiritoftheLawswas,forexample,suchaninfluenceuponthosewhoframedtheAmericanconstitution.Fullyannotated,thiseditionshouldfocusattentionuponMontesquieu'suseofsourcesandhistextasawhole.
ratherthanuponthoseopeningpassagestowardswhichcriticalenergieshavetraditionaUybeendevoted,andaselectedbibliographyandchronologyareprovidedforthosecomingtoMontesquieu'sworkforthefirsttime.