Author name: Jack Fruchtman Jr.

Jack Fruchtman holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University where he studied with the famed political philosopher, J. G. A. Pocock. He has taught at Maryland's Towson University since 1978. An author of seven books, including studies of the political thought of Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, and Thomas Paine, he has edited, co-edited, or annotated another four, such as Hanoverian Britain: An Encyclopedia. He is currently professor of political science and director of the program in Law and American Civilization at Towson.

Marker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with the inscription, ‘At his print shop here, Robert Bell published the first edition of Thomas Paine’s revolutionary pamphlet [Common Sense] in January 1776. Arguing for a republican form of government under a written constitution, it played a key role in rallying American support for independence.’ Erected in 1993 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission – Photo by J. J. Prats

“Common Sense” and its Meaning Today

Jack Fruchtman Jr. / January 26, 2021

Resources Essays

When power is concentrated in the hands of the few that, by very definition, is an example of tyranny. To allow oil companies, the trucking industry, or whatever to do whatever they want because we believe that they will do the right thing is to fall into the trap.

“Common Sense” and its Meaning Today Read Post »

“A Democrat” is a 1791 intaglio by George Moutard Woodward. A French patriot, standing near a lamp-post hung with a noose and a decapitated head, Paine’s Rights of Man in his pocket. – American Philosophical Society

How ‘American’ was Thomas Paine?

Jack Fruchtman Jr. / January 1, 2000

Resources Essays

Paine’s ideas about his own national consciousness evolved from this time onward in ways that paralleled the way in which Americans were thinking about themselves. In 1776, he understood that a true national consciousness had to move beyond politics and constitution making.

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and England

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