"An interesting perspective on Paine as a `secular preacher.'... Drawing from a wide range of Paine's writings, Fruchtman explores three broad themes in Paine's writing: nature, action, and progress... It will be difficult to read Common Sense again without thinking of its masterly protagonist as homilist."--Albert H. Wurth, Jr., Journal of American History.
"No book in print does a better--or even comparable--job of laying out Paine's doctrine and tracing the web of his ideas."--Wilson Carey McWilliams, Rutgers University.