Essays

by Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was an American political commentator and activist in the latter part of the eighteenth century. His writing covered a wide range of subjects, but were centered on his core beliefs of republicanism and the inherent rights of people. An early pamphlet of his, “Common Sense,” was written soon after he arrived in America from Great Britain; with its focus on the ills of colonialism and the King’s veering between rational debate and righteous outrage, it has been cited as one of the major catalysts for the American Revolution. Later work attempted to correct the mistakes he perceived in post-revolution French government—written from experience after his election to the French National Convention—and even suggested a costed plan for a universal basic income funded by an inheritance tax.

Collected here are his essays and pamphlets written between 1776 and 1797, including the aforementioned “Common Sense” and other influential works like “The Republican Proclamation” and the “Declaration of Rights.”

131 pages, Paperback

Published September 11, 2022

About the author

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 (1776), the all-time best-selling American book that advocated colonial America's independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and The American Crisis (1776–83), 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 (1791), 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 (1793–94), 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 (1795), 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.

Reviews

[Shaun Hamman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had long heard that Thomas Paine's Common Sense had been a pivotal part of driving the American war for independence but had never heard the details of what it actually said. It was very interesting and intriguing to read an analysis and logical justification not just for why independence was needed, but for why the whole system of monarchy is fundamentally flawed. In very easy to understand terms, Paine details step-by-step his thoughts on government, society, civilization, and moral and ethical duty.

While some of his ideas I think are overly utopian, he backs up all his opinions with a solid line of reasoning. This is very refreshing when many scholars/philosophers skip over that part in deference to some hand-wavy ideal.

The further essays and writing in this collection were similarly interesting, but much less focused and written to a very different audience (Paine lived in France for a significant period of time, despite his loyalties and properties residing in America, and thus many of his writings target French revolutionaries rather than the American people).

I'm glad I read these works, though they did get a little dry after a while.