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Thomas Paine

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Born: February 08 1737

Died: 0707 06 18091809

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Thomas Paine was an English-American political activist, author, political theorist and revolutionary. As the author of two highly influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, he inspired the Patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era rhetoric of transnational human rights. He has been called "a corset maker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination".

Born in Thetford, England, in the county of Norfolk, Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 with the help of Benjamin Franklin, arriving just in time to participate in the American Revolution. His principal contributions were the powerful, widely read pamphlet Common Sense , the all-time best-selling American book that advocated colonial America's independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and The American Crisis , a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series. Common Sense was so influential that John Adams said, "Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain."

Paine lived in France for most of the 1790s, becoming deeply involved in the French Revolution. He wrote the Rights of Man , in part a defence of the French Revolution against its critics. His attacks on British writer Edmund Burke led to a trial and conviction in absentia in 1792 for the crime of seditious libel. In 1792, despite not being able to speak French, he was elected to the French National Convention. The Girondists regarded him as an ally. Consequently, the Montagnards, especially Robespierre, regarded him as an enemy.

In December 1793, he was arrested and imprisoned in Paris, then released in 1794. He became notorious because of his pamphlet The Age of Reason , in which he advocated deism, promoted reason and freethinking, and argued against institutionalized religion in general and Christian doctrine in particular. He also wrote the pamphlet Agrarian Justice , discussing the origins of property, and introduced the concept of a guaranteed minimum income. In 1802, he returned to America where he died on June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity.

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Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine

Books from Thomas Paine

Common Sense

Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings

Common Sense and Other Writings

Rights of Man

The Age of Reason

Collected Writings: Common Sense / The Crisis / Rights of Man / The Age of Reason / Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters

The Crisis

Rights of Man, Common Sense and Other Political Writings

The Age of Reason (Writings of Thomas Paine, Vol 4)

The Writings of Thomas Paine 1 1774-79

THOMAS PAINE COMPLETE WORKS - ULTIMATE COLLECTION - Common Sense, Age of Reason, Crisis, The Rights of Man, Agragian Justice, ALL Letters and Short Writings

Rights of Man and Common Sense

Thomas Paine Collection

Two Classics of the French Revolution: Reflections on the Revolution in France/The Rights of Man

The United States Constitution: A Round Table Comic Graphic Adaptation

Agrarian Justice: With a new Foreword, "Social Security, Thomas Paine, and the Spirit of America"

Common Sense/The Crisis

BANNED! An Anthology of Banned Books (14 books)

Common Sense/Declaration of Independence

Paine and Jefferson on Liberty