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Thomas Paine: Thomas Paine : Collected Writings: Common Sense / The American Crisis / Rights of: (Library of America #76) (Hardcover); #76) Edition
Thomas Paine's collected writings - Common Sense; The Crisis; Rights of Man; The Age of Reason; Agrarian Justice.
- GenresPolitics
Unknown Binding
First published January 7, 2013
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About the author
Thomas Paine
1,503 books1,856 followersThomas 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.
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.
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October 15, 2025
Thomas Paine is the greatest American hero of the Revolution, and beyond. These collected writings, superbly edited by the Library of America, make clear his incredible courage and profound insights into politics, economics, religion, and the law; all the more outstanding since unlike his contemporaries, Jefferson, Washington and Adams he was neither farmer, soldier, lawyer or statesman. He was, however, a pamphleteer of genius whose golden prose reached a global audience and still speaks to us. On the necessity of launching the American Revolution: "Not all the treasures of the world could make me endorse an offensive war, but, if a thief breaks into my house I shall throw him out, by force if necessary". Revolutionaries and draft resisters, kindly take note. THE RIGHTS OF MAN is Paine's stinging riposte to Burke's conservative manifesto, REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE, while THE AGE OF REASON, written in part in a French jail cell where Paine awaited execution, rips apart the Bible and all religious superstition: "If the dead walked the streets of Jerusalem after the resurrection of Christ, where did they go, and why did no one notice this?" The collected pamphlets showcase Paine's call for slave abolition and defense of women's rights, among other hot topics. Thomas Paine was truly a man for all seasons.
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