"With the publication of his splendid new edition (and study) of Mandeville's notorious A Modest Defence of Publick Stews, the charming and erudite Primer makes a statement about the hidden core of eighteenth-century studies. With a surgical precision and a surgical wit befitting the puckish physician from Leyden, Primer thoroughly reviews Mandeville's contexts, sources, and ideas while also explaining the dark ambiguities and light wit that shimmer throughout this strangely direct, alarmingly commonsensical work. Primer's lovingly prepared text should easily become a standard scholarly edition." - Kevin L. Cope, Louisiana State University

"Irwin Primer's book provides more than welcome annotated texts of A Modest Defence of Publick Stews (both editions of 1724). It is valuable also for the inclusion of other relevant Eighteenth Century texts and especially for Primer's introduction and commentaries on literary, economic, and social aspects of its subject." - Maurice Goldsmith, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand