Today Daniel Defoe is known as the author of great novels--Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1721), A Journal of the Plague Year (1722), Roxana (1724), and others less well known. In his own time, however, his reputation was based on his nonfiction prose. The undisputed premier journalist of the early eighteenth century, he earned the title given him by the Moderator, "The Goliath of a party." At his death, his obituaries paid tribute to "Mr. Daniel Defoe, sen. a person well known for his numerous and various writings. He had a great natural genius; and understood very well the trade and interest of this Kingdom." None mentioned Robinson Crusoe, but his sacrifices for "civil and religious liberty" attracted notice.

Nineteenth-century writers consistently paid tribute to the man who was among the first to write "the doctrine on which ... all free political constitutions rest." They acknowledged "the debt which the people ... owe...