Reading Thomas Paine gives you some insight into what it felt like to live through the pre-revolutionary period and revolutionary war in America, and why Great Britain's legislation was interpreted the way it was. He gives a lot of weight to America's moral purity, as opposed to Great Britain's, and also spends some pages on the folly of a land war in an occupied country, as well as the state of currency and finance in the confederacy of states. He is hopeful from the outset, even when battles are not being won, and his optimism and devotion to the idea of republican independence are contagious.

Paine didn't spend much time in the colonies before hostilities broke out, and that may have added to his anti-colonial zeal or not. It's helpful, while reading this, to have a battle timeline handy since the original Crises were often written in response to military and diplomatic events. ( )

I have a large collection of historical books that are considered either 'classics' or are just informational texts to inform us more of history (or to provide context, etc. etc). This is just one of those and it seems weird to review Thomas Paine. He's Thomas Paine. ( )