This book’s primary purpose is to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, a seminal book in classical liberal thought. Persian Letters is a delightfully rich, sympathetic satire of commercial society’s promise and discontents, covering a wide range of issues and themes that shaped the direction of liberal modernity. It consists of a series of letters largely written by two Persian travelers to Paris, who allow modern readers to view Parisian life from the perspective of an outsider. The volume includes contributions from prominent scholars of Montesquieu’s and early career scholars who have recently unearthed new and exciting avenues for understanding this important hinge-figure in modern political thought.

The texts in this volume date from 1769 with one unusual memoire from 1770. At the age of 75, Voltaire was still extremely active, developing and deepening familiar themes in his writings. After an epistolary dispute with the bishop of Annecy, we present five more works in his ongoing battle against the infame, concentrating on the threat to society produced by religious dogma and intolerance, and on abuses of ecclesiastical power. The volume ends with a contribution by the patriarch to Choiseul's plan to create a port on Lake Geneva that would be a haven for those suffering persecution in Geneva for demanding more civil rights. The memoire is accompanied by maps annotated by Voltaire.