Montesquieu and England: Enlightened Exchanges 1689-1755 (The Enlightenment World)

Gonthier sets Montesquieu's work in the context of early eighteenth-century Anglo-French relations. She takes a comparative approach to show how Montesquieu's engagement with English thought and writing persisted throughout his writing career. He was particularly influenced by the social and political theories of Hobbes and Locke, the writings of the Earl of Shaftesbury, Francis Hutcheson, and essays that appeared in Addison and Steele's Spectator and Bolingbroke's Craftsman. Gonthier argues that Montesquieu's work is a site of intellectual and cultural exchange between England and France during the early Enlightenment.