| French
writer and jurist, born in the Château of la Brède, and educated
at the Oratorian school at Juilly and later at Bordeaux. He became counselor
of the Bordeaux parliament in 1714 and was its president from 1716 to
1728. Montesquieu first became prominent as a writer with his Persian
Letters (1721; trans. 1961); in this work, through the device of letters
written to and by two aristocratic Persian travelers in Europe, Montesquieu
satirized contemporary French politics, social conditions, ecclesiastical
matters, and literature. the book won immediate and wide popularity; it
was one of the earliest works of the movement known as the Enlightenment,
which, by its criticism of French institutions under the Bourbon monarchy,
helped bring about the French Revolution. The reputation acquired by Montesquieu
through this work and several others of lesser importance led to his election
to the French Academy in 1728. His second significant work was Considérations
sur les causes de la grandeur et de la décadence des Romains (Thoughts
on the Causes of the Greatness and the Downfall of the Romans, 1734),
one of the first important works in the philosophy of history. His masterpiece
was The Spirit of Laws (1748; trans. 1750), in which he examined the three
main types of government (republic, monarchy, and despotism) and states
that a relationship does exist between an area's climate, geography, and
general circumstances and the form of government that evolves. Montesquieu
also held that governmental powers should be separated and balanced to
guarantee individual rights and freedom. |