The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu

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Dialogue aux Enfers entre Montesquieu and Machiavelli (in the original French Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu) is a satirical book by Maurice Joly which was first published in Geneva, Switzerland in 1864. It was written in protest to the regime of Napoleon III.

In the book Niccolò di Bernardo Machiavelli and Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brede et de Montesquieu engage in dialectical argument, with Machiavelli taking the case for the power of the state as ultimate authority and Montesquieu putting forth a contrasting liberal thesis. The book was banned by the Napoleonic regime and confiscated upon distribution into France. Joly was imprisioned for fifteen months for having authored the work.

The book does not delve into the matters of race or religion, but elements of the text were nonetheless plagiarized and republished as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an infamous and fictional anti-Semitic propaganda text.