The Spirit of the Laws is without question one of the central texts in the history of eighteenth-century thought yet there has been no complete scholarly English-language edition since that of Thomas Nugent published in 1750 This lucid translation renders Montesquieu's problematic text newly accessible to a fresh generation of students helping them to understand quite why Montesquieu was such an important figure in the early enlightenment & why The Spirit of the Laws was for example such an influence upon those who framed the American constitution Fully annotated this edition focuses attention upon Montesquieu's use of sources & his text as a whole rather than upon those opening passages towards which critical energies have traditionally been devoted & a select bibliography & chronology are provided for those coming to Montesquieu's work for the first time