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Thomas Paine was one of the key political thinkers, writers and conversationalists of the Enlightenment. Credited with either formulating or certainly popularising the notion that the source of power lies in The People and that the government - any government - is only legitimate by the mandate of the population. Born in England a commoner, not very academically successful, trained as a staymaker and worked as excise officer (so did Rabbie Burns, what is it with the 18th century democrats and tax collection?); he soaked in the cafe culture of Enlightenment London but came to prominence after his arrival in America with nothing but a recommendation letter from Benjamin Franklin. He went on to become an incredibly popular pamphletist and his [[''Common Sense]]''

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.