From Publishers Weekly
Focusing on the first 37 years of the controversial Englishman's life, before he came to Philadelphia in 1774, British journalist Powell traces the origins of Paine's radical politics. While the biography also encompasses the familiar period of Paine's career, spent fueling the American and French independence movements with his writingswhich led to his being outlawed in England and imprisoned in Francethe author devotes a major portion of his monograph to recreating Paine's backgrounda period of transition Power considers analogous to our own. He depicts the contrasts between private affluence and public squalor which deeply affected Paine's thinking. War service and years as an excise officer in London and the provinces, and his readings of Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau and Burke, further aroused his revolutionary and egalitarian inclinations and led to his emigration to the Colonies under Franklin's auspices. A year after his arrival, Paine wrote Common Sense. Illustrations not seen by PW. December 30
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This admiring biography traces Paine from his birth in England in 1737 to his death in America in 1809. As one would expect, most of the book is devoted to Paine's writings and activities in the American and French revolutions. Scholars will find nothing new here. Furthermore, the research is slim, and there are many small errors. The author states, for example, that Benjamin Franklin was U.S. ambassador to France in 1776; in fact, Franklin was merely one of three American commissioners sent there that year. The book also goes too far in making it seem that Paine was at the center of events in the two revolutions. Thus one cannot recommend this book highly for the general reader either. Thomas J. Schaeper, History Dept., St. Bonaventure Univ., N.Y.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
