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Jump to navigationJump to searchThomas Paine: His Life, His Time and the Birth of the Modern Nations by Craig Nelson (view source)
Revision as of 13:40, 9 May 2018
, 13:40, 9 May 2018no edit summary
is credited with implanting the idea of independence and a republican government firmly in the heads of the American colonials and arguably formed the basis for the Declaration of Independence.
He supported the American Revolution throughout and then went back to Europe, where he got involved in another one in France and wrote [[''The Rights of Man]] '' - one of the books that shook the world with its savage rejection of hereditary privileges, staunch republicanism and ideas of welfare state; an astonishing bestseller that sold half a million copies in its first 10 years and which still informs the agenda of many modern political controversies.
During the French Revolution's Terror, under the shadow of the guillotine, Paine produced his last major work, a manifesto of enlightened personal spirituality and a protest against the corrupt and corrupting nature of organised religion [[The Age of Reason]] which has still a lot of relevance today, and sadly, probably more now than 30 years ago.
