Major Works

• On the Spirit of the Laws

  - Recommended edition: Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, baron de. The Spirit of the Laws. Edited and translated by Anne M. Cohler, Basia C. Miller, and Harold Stone. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989.
  Excerpt from the recommended edition: I began by examining men, and I believed that, amidst the infinite diversity of laws and mores, they were not led by their fancies alone. I have set down the principles, and I have seen particular cases conform to them as… More

• Persian Letters

  - Recommended Edition: Bilingual edition by Tony Richardson and John Davidson, Jiahu Books, 201

Commentary

• Book I of Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws

  - Lowenthal, David. “Book I of Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws.” The American Political Science Review 53, no. 2 (June 1, 1959): 485–498.
  The Spirit of the Laws has a design or system, and only in its light are the parts fully intelligible. To uncover this design, we must begin by studying that apparently incoherent and alternately simplistic and obscure masterpiece of profound and benevolent… More

• Montesquieu’s Philosophy of Liberalism: A Commentary on the Spirit of the Laws

  -
  Pangle, Thomas L. Montesquieu’s Philosophy of Liberalism: a Commentary on the Spirit of the Laws. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
  From the publisher: This first comprehensive commentary on The Spirit of the Laws uncovers and explicates the plan of Montesquieu’s famous but baffling treatise. Pangle brings to light Montesquieu’s rethinking of the philosophical groundwork of… More

• Confronting the Constitution: The Challenge to Locke, Montesquieu, Jefferson, and the Federalists from Utilitarianism, Historicism, Marxism, Freudianism, Pragmatism, Existentialism

  -
  Bloom, Allan David, and Steven J Kautz. Confronting the Constitution: The Challenge to Locke, Montesquieu, Jefferson, and the Federalists from Utilitarianism, Historicism, Marxism, Freudianism, Pragmatism, Existentialism. Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 1990.
  The 17 essays in this volume examine first the precepts of the Founding Fathers and their mentors. Then the most significant preconstitutional ideas are outlined, together with analyses of how they harmonize with the Constitution and how they undermine it.

• Natural Law, Natural Rights, and Classical Liberalism: On Montesquieu’s Critique of Hobbes

  - Zuckert, Michael. "Natural Law, Natural Rights, and Classical Liberalism: On Montesquieu's Critique of Hobbes." In Natural Law and Modern Moral Philosophy, edited by Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr., and Jeffrey Paul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
  Zuckert gives an account of Montesquieu’s conception of natural law and relation to Hobbes.

• Montesquieu’s Science of Politics: Essays on The Spirit of the Laws

  - Carrithers, David W., Michael A. Mosher, and Paul A. Rahe, eds. Montesquieu’s Science of Politics: Essays on The Spirit of Laws. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001.
  From the publisher: Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws is one of a handful of classic works of political philosophy deserving a fresh reading every generation. The product of immense erudition, Montesquieu’s treatise has captured since its first… More

• Montesquieu’s Complex Natural Right and Moderate Liberalism: The Roots of American Moderation

  - Carrese, Paul. “Montesquieu’s Complex Natural Right and Moderate Liberalism: The Roots of American Moderation.” Polity 36, no. 2 (January 1, 2004): 227–250.
  The diversity in twentieth-century scholarship on Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws helps to confirm his own appreciation for complexity, synthesis, and balance in both political theory and practice. This is the overlooked meaning of… More

• Laws, Passion, and the Attractions of Right Action by Sharon Krause

  -
  Krause, Sharon R. “Laws, Passion, and the Attractions of Right Action in Montesquieu.” Philosophy & Social Criticism 32, no. 2 (March 1, 2006): 211–230.
  This article examines Montesquieu’s concept of natural law and treatment of legal customs in conjunction with his theory of moral psychology. It explores his effort to entwine the rational procedural quality of laws with the substantive principles that… More

• Montesquieu’s Natural Rights Constitutionalism by Paul Rahe

  -
  Rahe, Paul A. “Montesquieu's Natural Rights Constitutionalism.” Social Philosophy and Policy 29, no. 02 (2012): 51–81.
  When Woodrow Wilson, in the course of his campaign for the Presidency in 1912, attacked Thomas Jefferson and Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, he knew what he was about—for the constitutionalism articulated by the latter and… More

• Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas

  - Berlin, Isaiah. Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas. Edited by Henry Hardy. 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2013.
  From the publisher: In this outstanding collection of essays, Isaiah Berlin, one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century, discusses the importance of dissenters in the history of ideas—among them Machiavelli, Vico, Montesquieu, Herzen, and Sorel.… More