This edition of Beccaria' s ON Crimes and Punishments and other writings presents a radically new interpretation of his thought. Drawing on recent Italian scholarship, Richard BellanW shows how Beccaria wove together the various political languages of the Enlightment into a novel synthesis, and argues that his political philosophy, often regaMed as no more than a precursor of Bentham's, combines republican, contractarian, romantic and liberal as well as utilitarian themes. The result is a complex theory of punishment that derives from a sophisticated analysis of the role of the state and the nature of human motivation in connnercial society. The translation used in this edition is based on the fifth Italian edition and provides English - speaking readers with Beccaria' s own ordering of his text for the first time. A number of pieces from his writings on political economy and the history of civilisation which were not previously available in English are also included. Richard Belhmy is Professor of Politics in the School of Economic and Social Studies, University of East Anglia. He has edited Gramsci' s Pre - Prison Writings for this series, and his other publications include Modem Italian Social Theory ( Polity Press, 1987), victorian Liberalism (Routledge, 1990) and Liberalism and Modern Society(Polity Press, 1992)