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The Spirit of the Laws\xa0not only systematizes the foundational ideas of \u201cseparation of powers\u201d and \u201cbalances and checks,\u201d it provides the decisive response to the question of whether power in the nation-state can be limited in the aftermath of the Westphalian settlement of 1648. It describes a civilizational change through which power becomes domesticated, with built-in resistance to attempts to absolutize (or make total) political power. As such, it is the Bible of modern politics, now made more accessible to English readers than it ever has been.\nThere have been in English only two prior translations of this work that first appeared in 1748. The deficiencies of those two efforts have been broadly identified in the scholarship. Although the text is still used with regularity in university instruction (having been recovered after a lull in the 1950s and 60s), it deserves \u2013 and now receives \u2013 a presentation that enhances its usefulness in the analysis both of politics and the philosophical foundations of human life.\nMontesquieu\u2019s singularity \u2013 the first secular argument against race-based slavery and only the second secular argument against the servitude of women \u2013 provides a special heritage for the modern word to preserve and a key to making operational those fundamental insights within the context of sustained political and cultural development. The replacement of blood and tribe with the universal attributes of humanity (while recognizing the highly variable ecologies of communities) constitutes the single-most important moral and political development of the modern world. And\xa0The Spirit of the Laws\xa0bears a primary responsibility for that accomplishment.\xa0Montesquieu's 'The Spirit of the Laws':\xa0A Critical Edition\xa0(Anthem Press, 2024)\xa0is a worthy translation.\nW. B. Allen studies and writes broadly in political philosophy and history, with special focus on traditions of self-government and liberalism.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law