The Spirit of Laws

The Baron of Montesquieu (1689-1755) was born in a family of provincial French nobles in the late 17th century. At a young age, he already expressed interest in writing and reflection. He began journaling, a habit he kept through his whole life. He was educated in history and the classics at the Collège de Juilly, a private Catholic school, before studying law at the University of Bordeaux and subsequently climbing the ranks through the French judicial system. During this time, Montesquieu also inherited substantial land, in which he carefully cultivated vineyards to sell wine internationally. He spent time in the fashionable Parisian salons where many key figures of the French Enlightenment gathered to discuss science, politics, and philosophy.

In 1728, he left France to tour several European countries. He stayed in England for two years and returned to France in 1731. As is evident in The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu developed great admiration for the English political system, which he frequently uses as a model of right action. In the remaining two decades of his life, Montesquieu dedicated much time to his writing and political research. He died of a fever in 1755 in Paris.

His writing career took shape with the anonymous publication of the Persian Letters in 1721. This epistolary novel (a book of fictional letters) relays the correspondence of two fictional Persians who endeavor a nine-year journey across Europe. Through their natural distance from European mores, the Persian characters are able to humorously convey their sense of culture shock. The book was a major literary success.

Today, Montesquieu is most widely known as the author of The Spirit of the Laws, a sizable treatise on political philosophy originally published in 1748. The first English edition was produced in 1750, and it profoundly influenced the founding fathers of the United States. It became one of the most cited books in the decades surrounding the American Revolutionary War despite its inclusion in the Catholic Church’s index of banned books in 1751. Central to its influence in America is Montesquieu’s theory of the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances between branches of government. The Anti-Federalists, including Thomas Jefferson, were also indebted to Montesquieu’s understanding of republican government and its ideal animating principle: virtue.

Montesquieu wrote a defense of the Spirit of the Laws in 1750, as well as a treatise on Roman government (a subject The Spirit treats frequently). After his death, a revised edition of the Spirit of the Laws was published.