even before Paine had adopted so truculent a tone, his writings had served as a touchstone to distinguish different emphases among reformers
To the founding fathers of the United States, breaking free from the trammels of precedent, it seemed sufficient to find certain truths ‘self-evident’.
freedom of the press, of public meeting, of trade union organization, of political organization and of election, were either severely limited or in abeyance
Luddism [...] was a form of direct action which arose in specific conditions, which was often highly organized and under the protection of the local community, and as to which we should be chary of generalization.
with an eye for Brechtian values – the fatalism, the irony in the face of Establishment homilies, the tenacity of self-preservation.
