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The Thomas Paine Reader

Author Thomas Paine
Introduction by Michael Foot, Isaac Kramnick
Paperback
$21.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Classics
5.1"W x 7.8"H x 1"D   | 13 oz | 32 per carton
On sale Dec 01, 1987 | 544 Pages | 9780140444964
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This major collection demonstrates the extent to which Thomas Paine was an inspiration to the Americans in their struggle for independence, a passionate supporter of the French Revolution and perhaps the outstanding English radical writer of his age. It contains all of Paine's major works including Rights of Man, his groundbreaking defence of the revolutionary cause in France; Common Sense, which won thousands over to the side of the American rebels; and the first part of The Age of Reason, a ferocious attack on Christianity. The shorter pieces—on capital punishment, social reform and the abolition of slavery—also confirm the great versatility and power of this master of democratic prose.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England, in 1737, the son of a staymaker. He had little schooling and worked at a number of jobs, including tax collector, a position he lost for agitating for an increase in excisemen’s pay. Persuaded by Benjamin Franklin, he emigrated to America in 1774. In 1776 he began his American Crisis series of thirteen pamphlets, and also published the incalculably influential Common Sense, which established Paine not only as a truly revolutionary thinker, but as the American Revolution’s fiercest political theorist. In 1787 Paine returned to Europe, where he became involved in revolutionary politics. In England his books were burned by the public hangman. Escaping to France, Paine took part in drafting the French constitution and voted against the king’s execution. He was imprisoned for a year and narrowly missed execution himself. In 1802 he returned to America and lived in New York State, poor, ill and largely despised for his extremism and so-called atheism (he was in fact a deist). Thomas Paine died in 1809. His body was exhumed by William Cobbett, and the remains were taken to England for a memorial burial. Unfortunately, the remains were subsequently lost. View titles by Thomas Paine
The Thomas Paine Reader - Edited by Michael Foot and Isaac Kramnick Editors' Introduction: The Life, Ideology and Legacy of Thomas Paine
Paine's Writings:
1. The Case of the Officers of Excise (1772)
2. African Slavery in American (1775)
3. Reflections on the Life and Death of Lord Clive (1775)
4. Liberty Tree (1775)5. Common Sense (1776)
6. The American Crisis (1776-83)
7. Public Good (1780)
8. Six Letters to Rhode Island (1782-3)
9. Letter to the Abbé Raynal (1782)
10. Dissertations on Government, the Affairs of the Bank, and Paper Money (1786)
11. The Rights of Man (1791-2)
12. Letter Addressed to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation (1792)
13. An Essay for the Use of New Republicans in Their Opposition to Monarchy (1792)
14. Reasons for Preserving the Life of Louis Capet (1793)
15. The Age of Reason, Part One (1794)
16. Dissertation on First Principles of Government (1795)
17. Agrarian Justice (1795)
18. Letter to George Washington (1795)
19. To the Citizens of the United States (1802-3)
20. The Construction of Iron Bridges (1803)
21. Constitutional Reform (1805)

About

This major collection demonstrates the extent to which Thomas Paine was an inspiration to the Americans in their struggle for independence, a passionate supporter of the French Revolution and perhaps the outstanding English radical writer of his age. It contains all of Paine's major works including Rights of Man, his groundbreaking defence of the revolutionary cause in France; Common Sense, which won thousands over to the side of the American rebels; and the first part of The Age of Reason, a ferocious attack on Christianity. The shorter pieces—on capital punishment, social reform and the abolition of slavery—also confirm the great versatility and power of this master of democratic prose.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author

Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England, in 1737, the son of a staymaker. He had little schooling and worked at a number of jobs, including tax collector, a position he lost for agitating for an increase in excisemen’s pay. Persuaded by Benjamin Franklin, he emigrated to America in 1774. In 1776 he began his American Crisis series of thirteen pamphlets, and also published the incalculably influential Common Sense, which established Paine not only as a truly revolutionary thinker, but as the American Revolution’s fiercest political theorist. In 1787 Paine returned to Europe, where he became involved in revolutionary politics. In England his books were burned by the public hangman. Escaping to France, Paine took part in drafting the French constitution and voted against the king’s execution. He was imprisoned for a year and narrowly missed execution himself. In 1802 he returned to America and lived in New York State, poor, ill and largely despised for his extremism and so-called atheism (he was in fact a deist). Thomas Paine died in 1809. His body was exhumed by William Cobbett, and the remains were taken to England for a memorial burial. Unfortunately, the remains were subsequently lost. View titles by Thomas Paine

Table of Contents

The Thomas Paine Reader - Edited by Michael Foot and Isaac Kramnick Editors' Introduction: The Life, Ideology and Legacy of Thomas Paine
Paine's Writings:
1. The Case of the Officers of Excise (1772)
2. African Slavery in American (1775)
3. Reflections on the Life and Death of Lord Clive (1775)
4. Liberty Tree (1775)5. Common Sense (1776)
6. The American Crisis (1776-83)
7. Public Good (1780)
8. Six Letters to Rhode Island (1782-3)
9. Letter to the Abbé Raynal (1782)
10. Dissertations on Government, the Affairs of the Bank, and Paper Money (1786)
11. The Rights of Man (1791-2)
12. Letter Addressed to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation (1792)
13. An Essay for the Use of New Republicans in Their Opposition to Monarchy (1792)
14. Reasons for Preserving the Life of Louis Capet (1793)
15. The Age of Reason, Part One (1794)
16. Dissertation on First Principles of Government (1795)
17. Agrarian Justice (1795)
18. Letter to George Washington (1795)
19. To the Citizens of the United States (1802-3)
20. The Construction of Iron Bridges (1803)
21. Constitutional Reform (1805)

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