Montesquieu: Selected Political Writings

“Professor Richter has long been one of our most knowledgeable commentators on the French intellectual tradition. Having written on Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and Durkheim, he is well positioned to provide us not only with an historically informed translation of Montesquieu’s major writings, but also with an excellent introduction to what is important about Montesquieu as a thinker.”
     —Lawrence Dickey, University of Wisconsin

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Montesquieu
Translated and Edited by Melvin Richter

1990 - 299 pp.

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Format ISBN Price Qty
Paper 978-0-87220-090-6
$17.00
Instructor Examination (Review) Copy 978-0-87220-090-6
$4.00

The essential political writings of Montesquieu—a substantial abridgment of The Spirit of the Laws, plus judicious selections from The Persian Letters and Considerations of the Romans’ Greatness and Decline—are masterfully translated by Melvin Richter. Prefaced by a new fifty-page introduction by Richter for this revised edition, The Selected Political Writings displays the genius and virtuosity of Montesquieu the philosopher, social critic, political theorist, and literary stylist, whose work commands the attention of all students of the Enlightenment and of modern constitutional thought.

 

Reviews:

“Professor Richter has long been one of our most knowledgeable commentators on the French intellectual tradition. Having written on Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and Durkheim, he is well positioned to provide us not only with an historically informed translation of Montesquieu’s major writings, but also with an excellent introduction to what is important about Montesquieu as a thinker.”
     —Lawrence Dickey, University of Wisconsin

 

“I am delighted that you are getting out a new edition of Melvin Richter’s translation. Again and again when I have had occasion to give serious attention to Montesquieu, I have turned to this work.”
     —Samuel H. Beer, Harvard University

 

“Richter has done us a real service by providing a version that is both scholarly and handy for teaching. The translation is generally sound, often clearer and more readable than the older version. There is a useful introduction and a helpful and reliable set of notes. . . . Richter’s version will now become the standard version for many of us.”
     —Nannerl O. Keohane, Political Science Review VI (1976)

 

“It is the best translation in English of any work by Montesquieu. . . . I strongly recommend it.”
     —Paul A. Rahe, University of Tulsa

 

“The best introduction to Montesquieu and the most accessible student edition. Professor Richter’s new Introduction is invaluable.”
     —Anthony Pagden, Kings College, Cambridge

 

Contents:

Preface. Introduction. Selected bibliography.

I. Selections from the Persian Letters.
Myth of the Troglodytes. Sequel to the myth of the Troglodytes. Seraglio sequence. A note on chronology in the Persian Letters.

II. Selections from Considerations on the Causes of the Roman’s’ Greatness and Decline.
Ch. III, How the Romans could expand; ch. VI, The means used by the Romans to subjugate all other peoples; ch. VIII, The internal divisions that always existed at Rome; ch. IX, Two causes of Rome’s downfall; ch. XVIII, The new maxims adopted by the Romans.

III. Selections from The Spirit of the Laws.
Montesquieu’s Introduction; Preface; bk. I, Laws in general; bk. II, Laws that derive directly from the nature of the government; bk. III, The principles of the three governments; bk. IV, The laws governing education in a state ought to be relative to the principle of government; bk. V, The laws provided by the legislator ought to be relative to the principle of government; bk. VIII, Corruption of principle in the three governments; bk. IX, The relation of laws to the power of defense; bk. XI, Laws that comprise political liberty: their relation to the constitution; bk. XIV, The relation between laws and the nature of climate; bk. XV, How the laws of civil slavery are related to the nature of the climate; bk. XIX, Laws: their relation to those principles that form the general spirit, mouers, and manieres of a nation; bk. XXIII, How laws are related to the number of inhabitants; bk. XXIV, How laws are related to every country’s established religion (considered intrinsically and in terms of its practices); bk. XXV, How laws are related to established religions and their provisions for maintaining orthodoxy.

Notes. Glossary of proper names. Index.