Book description
This major collection demonstrates the extent to which Thomas Paine
(1737-1809) 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 The 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 (Part One), 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.
Thomas Paine was born in 1737, and emigrated to America in 1774 at
the persuasion of Benjamin Franklin. In 1776 he published the
influential Common Sense, which established his reputation as a
revolutionary thinker and as political theorist for the American
Revolution. In 1787 Paine returned to Europe and became involved in
Revolutionary politics. He was imprisoned in France and nearly
executed. In 1802 he returned to America where he lived in poverty
until his death in 1809.
Michael Foot was born in 1913 and read PPE at Oxford. He was Editor
of hte Evening Standard and of Tribune. He was elected to Parliament
as a Labour MP in 1945 and became Labour Party leader in 1980, until
his resignation in 1983. He retired from parliament in 1992.
Isaac Kramnick was born in 1938 and educated at Harvard. He is
currently Professor of Government at Cornell University. He has edited
Godwin, Madison and Thomas Paine for Penguin Classics.
