The Spirit of the Laws—Montesquieu’s huge, complex, and enormously influential work—is considered one of the central texts of the Enlightenment, laying the foundation for the liberally democratic political regimes that were to embody its values. In his penetrating analysis, Thomas L. Pangle brilliantly argues that the inherently theological project of Enlightenment liberalism is made more clearly—and more consequentially— in Spirit than in any other work. In a probing and careful reading, Pangle shows how Montesquieu believed that rationalism, through the influence of liberal institutions and the spread of commercial culture, would secularize human affairs. At the same time, Pangle uncovers Montesquieu’s views about the origins of humanity’s religious impulse and his confidence that political and economic security would make people less likely to sacrifice worldly well-being for otherworldly hopes. With the interest in the theological aspects of political theory and practice showing no signs of diminishing, this book is a timely and insightful contribution to one of the key achievements of Enlightenment thought.

The significance of Machiavelli's political thinking for the development of modern republicanism is a matter of great controversy. In this volume, a distinguished team of political theorists and historians reassess the evidence, examining the character of Machiavelli's own republicanism and charting his influence on Marchamont Nedham, James Harrington, John Locke, Algernon Sidney, John Trenchard, Thomas Gordon, David Hume, the Baron de Montesquieu, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. This work argues that while Machiavelli himself was not liberal, he did set the stage for the emergence of liberal republicanism in England. By the exponents of commercial society he provided the foundations for a moderation of commonwealth ideology and exercised considerable, if circumscribed, influence on the statesmen who founded the American Republic. Machiavelli's Liberal Republican Legacy will be of great interest to political theorists, early modern historians, and students of the American political tradition.

Excerpt from The Liberal Tradition: A Study of the Social and Spiritual Conditions of Freedom N ow once again the familiar cycle of depression, militarism, war has further raised the temperature and shortened the perspec tive. In time of stress we naturally counteract our suffering with the thought Of better days to come; and as the strain increases we advance the date. We draw spiritual as well as financial drafts upon the future, never doubting that they will be honored at maturity. In proportion as the means we must now employ are costly and terrible, so the more clear and close must be the vision Of our ends. Thus readily we credit the assurances Of politicians that the immediate sequel to a tornado Of destruction will be a more abundant life for everybody, and mortgage our incomes, our property, and the blood of our children to a dream: lucky indeed we Shall be if that dream does not again become a nightmare. For purposes of war it is enough that we will the supreme end, vic tory, leaving the means - the strategy and tactics - to our gen erals; but for purposes Of peace free people must master means as well as ends. For the means will Shape the ends - as the history of modern Germany reminds us. In the battle of the faiths that is now actively involved, as it Was three centuries ago, in the battle Of the nations, those whose position is weak or ill defined will stand no chance at all. The faith Of the liberal is the hardest to define because it is the boldest and the biggest. Rationalist utopias can exhibit (on paper) all the scientific neatness Of the prison, the hospital, or the factory: lib eralism does not propose to model the life of society on the prison or the hospital, and even looks askance at too many factories. Coi lectivists are fond Of the argument We did it in war, why can't we do it in peace? Liberals do not propose to model the life Of society on the army or the Wehrwirtschaft. In all the hard bright schemes that have crystallized out Of modern materialism the ordi nary human being is put in his place with a platonic knee, or some thing more urgent, at his back; the reason being that there is so much more to human nature than what the doctrinaires have any use for. But out Of that more come both the folly and the wisdom, the passion and the insight, the virtue and the fun Of human life; and the liberal will never sacrifice the full range Of personal living to the symmetry of a mere political or economic system. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The inheritor of two sometimes conflicting strains of the great American liberal tradition, Packer explores the ideals that shaped the lives of his forebears and describes his own struggle to carry on their tradition in our time, when large numbers of Americans have lost faith in politics.