What Climate Did to Consent, 1748–1818

During the eighteenth century, climate led a dual life as both a major concept within political theory and a central motif of formal-aesthetic discourses. This article brings together the work of Montesquieu and Mary Shelley to explore how fiction's fascination with extreme climates and sublime landscapes tapped into the questions of embodiment, mass behavior, and race that climate raised for political theorists.