Offering more detailed explanatory notes than earlier versions, this edition reprints together for the first time all of Paine's introductions to the versions published in his lifetime. In his own richly informed Introduction, Claeys elucidates the historical context and the subsequent influence of Paineâ s text, as well as the major problems in interpreting Paineâ s theory. Instructors will find this new edition a worthy counterpoint to the Hackett edition of Burkeâ s Reflections on the Revolution in France, edited by J. G. A. Pocock.