The Thomas Paine Reader

Description

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.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)Thomas Paine (1737-1802) was born at Thetford, Norfolk in England, as a son of a Quaker. He immigrated to America in 1774. There he published works criticising the slavery and supporting American independence. He became very popular but returned to England where he became involved in the French Revolution. After that he returned to America, where he died. 

Isaac Kramnick is a professor of Government at Cornell University and has edited of The Federalist Papers and The Thomas Paine Reader.GB