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”The mere independence of America were it to have been followed by a system of government modeled after the corrupt system of English government would not have interested me with the unabated ardor it did. It was to bring forward and establish the representative system of government, as the work itself will show, that was the leading principle with me in writing.��
~Thomas Paine

The central thesis of this short book is that Thomas Paine was far more than the firebrand propagandist of the Revolution, the role he is usually credited with. The author emphasizes Paine’s role as a political thinker, imagining and suggesting new forms of government in his Common Sense, his pamphlet that stirred the colonists to revolution for independence. And he further credits Paine with inspiring John Adams to write Thoughts On Government in response to Paine’s Common Sense, which the curmudgeonly and conventional Adams griped was ”far too democratical.��. Adams�� pamphlet ultimately had a far more direct impact on the development of the American Constitution and form of government, but by casting Paine as the impetus for Adams to first publish his thoughts, the author further credits Paine’s direct political impact.

This book was less than what I was hoping for. It suffers from being far too respectful and staid. While it adequately lays out the conflict between Adams�� and Paine’s political ideas, it utterly fails to convey the bitterness of the conflict (even as it directly quotes some of the acerbic Adams�� nasty slurs on Paine). Despite a title that promises an emphasis on conflict, what it delivers is a respectful reiteration of the early formation of the American government out of the conflicting ideas present in the Revolution. This wasn’t what I was expecting, and I feel it was a missed opportunity for a far more interesting book.

What this book hints at but underplays, as it strives to remain respectful of all, is the underlying conflict in the idea of America that has been present from its origins. That conflict is bitter and irreconcilable. It is the Yin and Yang of our national character, and remains in increasingly bitter conflicts about what exactly America is and what ideals it represents to the present day. Adams didn’t just disagree with Paine’s democratical ideas �� he despised and hated Paine the man because of them. Paine learned to give back in kind, eventually alienating even old friends like George Washington with the bitterness of his personal attacks. John Adams vs Thomas Paine was the perfect exemplar of this ongoing conflict over the idea of America, but the author simply used it to deliver a conventional history lesson on America’s origin.