Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
A Note on Citations
Introduction
Part I. The Ideas of Montesquieu's Modern European Predecessors
1. The Greatness of Machiavelli and the Despotic Disease of His Politics- Both Princely and Republican
2. Montesquieu's Attack on the Political Errors of Hobbes
Part II. Christian Ideas
3. Religious Ideas and the Force of Christian Ones in Modern Europe
4. The Ideas of Early Christianity, Their Absorption in Roman Law, and Their Abusive Reverberations in Modern Europe
Part III. The Ideas of the Ancient Legislators
5. Montesquieu's Opposition to Plato's Belles Idées and Their Diffusion
6. Aristotle's "Manner of Thinking" and the Deleterious Use of His Ideas
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index