MONTESQUIEU

Written by an eminent French politician, the former Prime Minister Alain Juppé, this biographical essay sheds light on a leading luminary of the Enlightenment.

Montesquieu. His name is part of our world heritage, but his fame contrasts with our ignorance about his life (1689-1755) and the relegating of his work to relative oblivion, with the exception of “The Spirit of the Laws” (1748). Yet his life was fascinating and his work remains essential because he was the first to articulate the fundamental principles of the balance and separation of powers. A founding father of political liberalism and sociology, Montesquieu was also a skillful polemicist (“Persian Letters”, 1721) and a major historian (“Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their decline”, 1734). Alain Juppé sets out to rediscover him in this fast-paced and elegant biographical essay, underlining the modernity of Montesquieu's thought in the light of his own political experience. Originally published in 1999, the book has been revised and expanded with the addition of a new preface. Alain Juppé served as Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 and has had several other ministerial posts since 1986. He has been the mayor of the city of Bordeaux since 2006 (and also from 1995 to 2004). “Under the guise of a biography of Montesquieu, he has written an essay on justice and politics, subtle and subversive.” Christophe Barbier, L'Express.,