From his migration to America in 1774 to his death in New York City in 1809, Thomas Paine's ideology was at the centre of American political and social debate. This six-volume facsimile edition brings together rare texts from books, periodicals and newspaper contributions to unearth the contemporary American response to Thomas Paine.

From his migration to America in 1774 to his death in New York City in 1809, Thomas Paine's ideology was at the centre of American political and social debate. This six-volume facsimile edition brings together rare texts from books, periodicals and newspaper contributions to unearth the contemporary American response to Thomas Paine.

From his migration to America in 1774 to his death in New York City in 1809, Thomas Paine's ideology was at the centre of American political and social debate. This six-volume facsimile edition brings together rare texts from books, periodicals and newspaper contributions to unearth the contemporary American response to Thomas Paine.

From his migration to America in 1774 to his death in New York City in 1809, Thomas Paine's ideology was at the centre of American political and social debate. This six-volume facsimile edition brings together rare texts from books, periodicals and newspaper contributions to unearth the contemporary American response to Thomas Paine.

From his migration to America in 1774 to his death in New York City in 1809, Thomas Paine's ideology was at the centre of American political and social debate. This six-volume facsimile edition brings together rare texts from books, periodicals and newspaper contributions to unearth the contemporary American response to Thomas Paine.

From his migration to America in 1774 to his death in New York City in 1809, Thomas Paine's ideology was at the centre of American political and social debate. This six-volume facsimile edition brings together rare texts from books, periodicals and newspaper contributions to unearth the contemporary American response to Thomas Paine.

A volume of Thomas Paine's most essential works, showcasing one of American history's most eloquent proponents of democracy. Upon publication, Thomas Paine’s modest pamphlet Common Sense shocked and spurred the foundling American colonies of 1776 to action. It demanded freedom from Britain—when even the most fervent patriots were only advocating tax reform. Paine’s daring prose paved the way for the Declaration of Independence and, consequently, the Revolutionary War. For “without the pen of Paine,” as John Adams said, “the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain.” Later, his impassioned defense of the French Revolution, Rights of Man, caused a worldwide sensation. Napoleon, for one, claimed to have slept with a copy under his pillow, recommending that “a statue of gold should be erected to [Paine] in every city in the universe.” Here in one volume, these two complete works are joined with selections from Pain's other major essays, “The Crisis,” “The Age of Reason,” and “Agrarian Justice.” Includes a Foreword by Jack Fruchtman Jr. and an Introduction by Sidney Hook

Speck's biography examines Paine's work afresh, in light of new thinking about the role of religion in the formation of his political ideology, and also places Paine within the recently-developed context of 'Atlantic History'.

The enormous popularity of his pamphlet Common Sense made Thomas Paine one of the best-known patriots during the early years of American independence. His subsequent service with the Continental Army, his publication of The American Crisis (1776-83), and his work with Pennsylvania's revolutionary government consolidated his reputation as one of the foremost radicals of the Revolution. Thereafter, Paine spent almost fifteen years in Europe, where he was actively involved in the French Revolution, articulating his radical social, economic, and political vision in major publications such as The Rights of Man (1791), The Age of Reason (1793-1807), and Agrarian Justice (1797). Such radicalism was deemed a danger to the state in his native Britain, where Paine was found guilty of sedition, and even in the United States some of Paine's later publications lost him a great deal of his early popularity. Yet despite this legacy, historians have paid less attention to Paine than to other leading Patriots such as Thomas Jefferson. In Paine and Jefferson in the Age of Revolutions, editors Simon Newman and Peter Onuf present a collection of essays that examine how the reputations of two figures whose outlooks were so similar have had such different trajectories.