The French philosophe Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) was a political and social thinker of enormous depth, range, originality, and influence. The essays by eminent scholars reprinted in this volume explore significant aspects of his contributions to political, constitutional, and religious thought during the epoch of the French Enlightenment. Topics highlighted include his Persian Letters (1721), his history of Rome (1734), and the views he expressed in The Spirit of Laws (1748) on natural law, forms of government, English constitutionalism, religion, commerce, international relations, and the philosophy of history. Supplemented by a detailed introduction that contextualizes the papers selected for this volume, as well as an extensive bibliography, this work serves as an authoritative reference to the best scholarship on Montesquieu's political thought. The volume is edited and introduced by David W. Carrithers, Adolph Ochs Professor of Government at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and author of numerous publications on Montesquieu.

This volume presents Montesquieu as philosopher, novelist, historian, economic thinker, empirical political scientist and political theorist

This fresh examination of the world of Montesquieu seeks to understand the short-comings of modern democracy in light of the French philosopher's insightful critique of commercial republicanism.

This second volume continues the story told in the first by focusing on the writings of a selection of seminal thinkers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in England, the German speaking world and in France, ending with the debate around the French Revolution of 1789. Tony Burns discusses the work of Thomas Hobbes, John Selden, Sir Matthew Hale, John Locke, Samuel Clarke, Johannes Althusius, Samuel Pufendorf, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Jean Barbeyrac, the anonymous author of Militaire philosophe, Claude Buffier, l’abbé de Saint-Pierre, Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, l’abbé de Sieyès, Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant, Mary Wollstonecraft and Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon. The author concludes with an analysis of the concept of administration in the writings of Saint-Simon, as a point of transition to the discussion of the themes of bureaucracy, technocracy and managerialism in the third volume.

The first collected edition of John Cleland's correspondence, this volume provides a rare insight into a significant literary life and into jobbing authorship in the eighteenth century. All known letters by and to Cleland are included entire, alongside letter excerpts, diary entries and documents in which he is discussed by friends, enemies, family members and distant acquaintances. The volume also includes Cleland's christening record, a manuscript essay composed by Cleland in French on 'Litterateurs', and the will of Cleland's mother Lucy, whose many codicils reveal her determination to prevent her profligate son from squandering her fortune. Interspersed throughout are telling remarks about Cleland from figures such as Alexander Pope, Samuel Foote, Claude-Pierre Patu, and, most revealing and intriguing of all, vignettes by the great biographer James Boswell. The volume makes several new attributions and demonstrates for the first time the extent of Cleland's participation in the European Enlightenment.

This comprehensive five-volume set contains readable essays that describe and interpret the most important global events since the European Renaissance, some accompanied by related document excerpts and primary source materials. What were the effects of the Age of Exploration on today's ethnic groups and social structure? How did the development of moveable type pave the way for Facebook and Twitter? Why is the Reformation so critical for understanding today's religious controversies? This set will help readers answer these questions by exploring the most significant historical events of the modern world. This five-volume set covers times from the Renaissance to the present. Each volume focuses on a specific historic period and examines 12 events within those time frames that changed the world. Each entry provides an introduction that lays out factual material in a chronological manner, an in-depth essay interpreting the event's significance, and an annotated bibliography of the most important current works on the topic. Select entries are followed by primary sources pertaining to the event under consideration, such as diary entries. Targeted to both general readers as well as entry-level university students, this book also directly supports high school and undergraduate curricula, allowing students to identify and contextualize events in order to think critically about their causes, aftermath, and legacy.

Robert Crowcroft has assembled a world-class, international cast of outstanding scholars and international figures to produce a stimulating collection of essays on applied history and policy making. With contributors such as Philip Bobbitt, Margaret MacMillan, and Jeremy Black, this collection of essays addresses some of the most important geopolitical challenges confronting the world today. From reconstructing collapsed political regimes to security competition in the China Seas and the evolution of Salafi-Jihadi ideology, it explores a range of statecraft, policy, and strategy. The essays span a number of policy areas and historical problems, tackling important questions about what historians do (and should do), and considering the nature and limits of historical judgement. With some examining how applied history can be used to rethink contemporary challenges, others explore how it has been used and abused in the past. Making a splash in intellectual debate by making a definitive case for Applied History, this book demonstrates that a knowledge of the past, and the insight it provides, is imperative to effective statecraft.

In 1989, the Cold War abruptly ended and it seemed as if the world was at last safe for democracy. But a spirit of uneasiness, discontent, and world-weariness soon arose and has persisted in Europe, in America, and elsewhere for two decades. To discern the meaning of this malaise we must investigate the nature of liberal democracy, says the author of this provocative book, and he undertakes to do so through a detailed investigation of the thinking of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Tocqueville. Paul A. Rahe argues that these political thinkers anticipated the modern liberal republic's propensity to drift in the direction of “soft despotism”—a condition that arises within a democracy when paternalistic state power expands and gradually undermines the spirit of self-government. Such an eventuality, feared by Tocqueville in the nineteenth century, has now become a reality throughout the European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. So Rahe asserts, and he explains what must be done to reverse this unfortunate trend.

Highlights the life of philosopher and prolific author Chales Montesquieu and discusses two of his well-known books on political philosophy, "Persian Letters" and "The Spirit of the Laws."

With more than 1,300 cross-referenced entries covering every aspect of the American Revolution, this definitive scholarly reference covers the causes, course, and consequences of the war and the political, social, and military origins of the nation. This authoritative and complete encyclopedia covers not only the eight years of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) but also the decades leading up to the war, beginning with the French and Indian War, and the aftermath of the conflict, with an emphasis on the early American Republic. Volumes one through four contain a series of overview essays on the causes, course, and consequences of the American Revolution, followed by impeccably researched A–Z entries that address the full spectrum of political, social, and military matters that arose from the conflict. Each entry is cross-referenced to other entries and also lists books for further reading. In addition, there is a detailed bibliography, timeline, and glossary. A fifth volume is devoted to primary sources, each of which is accompanied by an insightful introduction that places the document in its proper historical context. The primary sources help readers to understand the myriad motivations behind the American Revolution; the diplomatic, military, and political maneuvering that took place during the conflict; and landmark documents that shaped the founding and early development of the United States.