Jane E. Calvert is Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky and Director and Chief Editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project. Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he also serves as Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies.

"This book provides a critical evaluation of Paine, treating both his ideas and rhetoric seriously.  The authors refuse to diminish him as a second-rate intellectual, nor do they merely celebrate him as the American apostle of the democratic creed.  The book brings Paine up-to-date with the current historical scholarship, evaluating him as a creature of his political culture—not a timeless prophet."—Nancy Isenberg, co-author of Madison and Jefferson

Jane E. Calvert is Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky and Director and Chief Editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project. Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he also serves as Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies.

"This book provides a critical evaluation of Paine, treating both his ideas and rhetoric seriously.  The authors refuse to diminish him as a second-rate intellectual, nor do they merely celebrate him as the American apostle of the democratic creed.  The book brings Paine up-to-date with the current historical scholarship, evaluating him as a creature of his political culture—not a timeless prophet."—Nancy Isenberg, co-author of Madison and Jefferson

Jane E. Calvert is Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky and Director and Chief Editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project. Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he also serves as Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies.

"This book provides a critical evaluation of Paine, treating both his ideas and rhetoric seriously.  The authors refuse to diminish him as a second-rate intellectual, nor do they merely celebrate him as the American apostle of the democratic creed.  The book brings Paine up-to-date with the current historical scholarship, evaluating him as a creature of his political culture—not a timeless prophet."—Nancy Isenberg, co-author of Madison and Jefferson