A former advocate, he became known with the publication of his Lettres Persanes (1721), a satire of French society from the perspective of two Persian travellers visiting Paris. Montesquieu’s reputation rests chiefly on L’Esprit des lois (1748), a comparative study of political systems in which he championed the separation of judicial, legislative, and executive powers as being most conducive to individual liberty, holding up the English state as a model. His theories were highly influential in Europe in the late 18th century, as they were in the drafting of the American Constitution.