W. B. Allen studies and writes broadly in political philosophy and history, with special focus on traditions of self-government and liberalism.

Acknowledgments; Translator's Preface; Foreword; THE SPIRIT OF THE LAWS BY MONTESQUIEU Concerning the Spirit of the Laws; PART ONE, Book One Concerning Laws in General; Book Two Concerning the Laws Which Derive Directly from the Nature of the Government; Book Three Concerning the Principles of the Three Governments; Book Four That Education Laws Ought to Be Relative to the Principles of the Government; Book Five The Legislator's Laws Must Be Relative to the Principle of the Government; Book Six Consequences of the Principles of Different Governments, in Relation to the Simplicity of Civil and Criminal Laws, the Method of Judgment, and the Establishment of Penalties; Book Seven Consequences of the Differing Principles of the Three Governments, in Relation to Sumptuary Laws, Luxury, and the Status of Women; Book Eight Concerning the Corruption of the Principles of the Three Governments; PART TWO, Book Nine Concerning the Laws in the Relation They Have with Defensive Strength; Book Ten Concerning the Laws in Their Relation to Offensive Force; Book Eleven About Laws Which Create Political Liberty, in Its Relation to the Constitution; Book Twelve About the Laws Which Create Political Liberty, in Its Relation to the Citizen; Book Thirteen About the Relations Which the Levying of Taxes and the Extent of Public Revenues Hold with Liberty; PART THREE, Book Fourteen Concerning the Laws, in the Relation They Have with the Climate's Nature; Book Fifteen How the Laws of Civil Slavery Have Some Relation to the Nature of the Climate; Book Sixteen How the Laws of Domestic Slavery Have Some Relation to the Nature of the Climate; Book Seventeen How the Laws of Political Servitude Are Related to the Nature of the Climate; Book Eighteen Concerning the Laws, in the Relation Which They Have to the Nature of the Terrain; Book Nineteen Concerning the Laws in the Relation Which They Have with the Principles That Create the General Spirit, the Morals, and the Manners of a Nation ; PART FOUR, Book Twenty About the Laws in the Relation That They Have with Commerce, Considered in Its Nature and Its Distinctions; Book Twenty-One About the Laws in the Relation They Have with Commerce, Considered Under the Revolutions Which There Have Been in the World; Book Twenty-Two About the Laws in the Relation That They Have with the Use of Money; Book Twenty-Three About the Laws in the Relation Which They Have to the Number of Inhabitants; PART FIVE, Book Twenty-Four Concerning the Laws in the Relation Which They Have to the Religion Instituted in Each Country, Considered in Its Practices and in Itself; Book Twenty-Five Laws in Relation to the Religion of Each Country and Its External Politics; Book Twenty-Six Concerning the Laws in the Relation That They Have with the Arrangement of Matters over Which They Are Set Up; PART SIX, Book Twenty-Seven Concerning the Origin and Revolutions of the Roman Laws on Successions; Book Twenty-Eight Concerning the Origin and Revolutions of the Civil Laws Among the French; Book Twenty-Nine About the Manner of Composing the Laws; Book Thirty A Theory of Feudal Laws Among the Francs in the Relation That They Have with Instituting the Monarchy; Book Thirty-One A Theory of Feudal Laws Among the Franks, in the Relation That They Have with the Revolutions in Their Monarchy; THE MIND BEHIND THE LAWS: THE TRANSLATION OF POWER; Epilogue: Montesquieu and America; Notes; Bibliography