Montesquieu revisited

Montesquieu (1689-1755) was one of the major figures of the French Enlightenment. He was a widely travelled man, unusual in those days for French intellectuals, and like de Tocqueville a century later, he brought his magnificent powers of observation to bear on what he had seen. Credited as one of the principal inventors of what we today call political science, Montesquieu is primarily known to English-speaking readers by the great work De l'esprit des lois (Spirit of the Laws). But Les Lettres Persanes (The Persian Letters) is still required reading in French lycees and universities and is considered as much a literary work as a political treatise.

In Montesquieu Revisited, Peter V. Conroy, Jr., reevaluates Montesquieu as a fully fledged "homme de lettres," no longer merely a political, social, and economic commentator. Conroy offers detailed readings of The Persian Letters and Spirit of the Laws as well as an explication of three important but largely overlooked works, Voyages in Europe, Considerations on the Romans, and My Thoughts. In his discussion of these works, Conroy shows what is unique and original in Montesquieu: his theory of climate and its effect on civilization, his desire to show the impact of values and attitudes upon historical events, his narrative strategies, and his constant analytical bent. Montesquieu emerges as a more complex figure than the conventional view of him as exemplar of the age of reason - in fact as a more truly "modern" author.