Common Sense, the Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine

by Paine, Thomas; Fruchtman, Jack; Hook, Sidney

• ISBN13: 9780451528896
• ISBN10: 0451528891
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-07-01
• Publisher: Signet Classics

Summary

Paine’s daring prose paved the way for the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War. This volume also includes The Crisis,” The Age of Reason,” and Agrarian Justice.”

Author Biography

Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England, in 1737, the son of a staymaker. He had little schooling and worked at a number of jobs, including tax collector, a position he lost for agitating for an increase in excisemen’s pay. Persuaded by Benjamin Franklin, he emigrated to America in 1774. In 1776 he began his American Crisis series of thirteen pamphlets, and also published the incalculably influential Common Sense, which established Paine not only as a truly revolutionary thinker, but as the American Revolution’s fiercest political theorist. In 1787 Paine returned to Europe, where he became involved in revolutionary politics. In England his books were burned by the public hangman. Escaping to France, Paine took part in drafting the French constitution and voted against the king’s execution. He was imprisoned for a year and narrowly missed execution himself. In 1802 he returned to America and lived in New York State, poor, ill and largely despised for his extremism and so-called atheism (he was in fact a deist). Thomas Paine died in 1809. His body was exhumed by William Cobbett, and the remains were taken to England for a memorial burial. Unfortunately, the remains were subsequently lost.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Introduction	p. xix
Common Sense
Introduction	p. 3
Of the origin and design of government in general	p. 4
Of monarchy and hereditary succession	p. 11
Thoughts on the present state of American affairs	p. 21
Of the present ability of America	p. 40
Appendix	p. 52
The Crisis
Number I	p. 71
Number III (Selections)	p. 81
Number IV (Selections)	p. 83
Number V	p. 87
Number VII (Selections)	p. 118
Number VIII (Selections)	p. 119
Number XIII	p. 121
Rights of Man
	p. 129
Prefaces	p. 130
To the French Edition	p. 130
To the English Edition	p. 132
Rights of Man	p. 135
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens	p. 217
Observations on the Declaration of Rights	p. 219
Miscellaneous Chapter	p. 222
Conclusion	p. 248
Combining Principles and Practice	p. 257
Preface	p. 259
Introduction	p. 266
Of Society and Civilization	p. 270
Of the Origin of the Present Old Governments	p. 275
Of the Old and New Systems of Government	p. 278
Of Constitutions	p. 294
Ways and Means of Improving the Condition of Europe, Interspersed with Miscellaneous Observations	p. 320
The Age of Reason
Part One (Selections)	p. 351
Agrarian Justice (Selections)	p. 371
Suggested Readings	p. 379
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