This book brings to light the way in which basic ideas of the Enlightenment were invented and how a French aristocrat discovered the foundations of modern democracies. A life devoted to the study of law, science, and the histories of all societies made it possible for Montesquieu to show how liberty was the thing most at stake in political thought.

"This is where the difficulties begin: for as they get closer to Montesquieu, biographers feel somehow obliged to give substance to the persons with whom they must deal, even when they know nothing, or not much, about them. Each of them repeats his predecessor and enhances the whole, to the point where it is sometimes difficult to locate the first source of most of the traits attributed to Montesquieu's parents and even to Montesquieu himself. In this proliferation of amiable approximations and exaggerations, themselves often based on the aristocratic pride that "forgets" certain details the better to stress everything that serves the family honor, they have to clear themselves a path."--