Publisher's Synopsis
The Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) was one of the greatest thinkers of all time. He was a leading member of the French Enlightenment and laid the foundations for thought in many of the social sciences. His greatest book, 'The Spirit of the Laws', was the first detailed survey of the customs and cultures of the world and their deeper structures. It build on other important work in his 'Persian Letters', 'Considerations on the Decline of the Romans'. His wide learning and analytic brilliance does not always make his work easily accessible. But if we consider all the work together, and combine the life with the writing, it is possible to see deep insider the mind of one of the most profound thinkers of modern times and someone who shaped our modern world.
