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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wildfire of Radical Liberal Ideas, March 10, 2009
This review is from: Rights of Man and Common Sense (Everyman's Library) (Hardcover)
When I write Liberal I mean it in the traditional sense -- We're all liberals (free men/women) in America.
Before Common Sense, the American revolution was something that the elites talked about and academics thought about but after the publishing of Common Sense, every American of his time found himself with a deep fire in his heart and a profound love and understanding for inalienable human rights and how it utterly made zero sense for for there to be Kings and Queens on earth and how utterly dispicable it was to be ruled under such terms. It made us want to be free!
Common Sense set the American landscape on Rhetorical Fire. Deep concepts from such people as Locke and Brewster and all of these obscure thinkers bubbled up and were made utterly REAL by the firey words of Thomas Paine's pamphlet.
As relevant as back then, Common Sense is a must read book for every American today. If you wonder what it means to be an American, what it truly means to be an American regardless of race, color, creed, or anything -- read Thomas Paine's Common Sense - you will understand how the divine right of kings is flawed and how we must care for and govern ourselves on earth by rule of law and rule of human and how we must cherish, protect, and be ready to even fight and die for that idea and how living in any other state is not living at all.
Its a fascinating read. The second book Rights of Man is also very interesting but was targetted more at the French Revolution than at the American Public. Definitely worth reading but it's Common Sense that makes every member of government who has ever overextended his power or felt that government and the State as superior to the people -- Common Sense makes all of those people quiver in fear. Read it, and know what it means to be an American, the idea of America. It's that profound and thankfully, its a short read.
I like this binding because its priced right and very sturdy. It's not pretentious, everyone can afford it - like Thomas Paine would have wanted it. Its a regular sized book when you combine Common Sense with Rights of Man it forms a nice book about 1.5 inches thick....and if Thomas Paine had lived today I am 100% certain that he would have titled it "Rights of People." This book looks great in a library. Comes with a dust jacket but the book is hardbound woven cloth - nice.
If you're contemplating Thomas Paine, you probably already know what I'm talking about - if you don't, take a read.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must for those who want to understand American History, October 27, 2000
This review is from: Rights of Man and Common Sense (Everyman's Library) (Hardcover)
Anyone who wishes to understand American History, namely the Revolution, needs to read this book. These essays were crutial in the development of the revolutionary movement in America. Thomas Paine is a keynote figure in this time period and helped the American cause.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Still relevant, still excellent, January 30, 2003
This review is from: Rights of Man and Common Sense (Everyman's Library) (Hardcover)
Let us, for a moment, forget the historical and literary importance of Right of Man and Common Sense. What if this book had just been published today? Would it still be worth reading? The answer is an unequival yes. Althought many parts of this deal with specific issues of Paine's time (especially Rights of Man), even after two centuries, the writings of Thomas Paine are able to stoke the fires of liberty in the soul of the reader with their passion, their fierce logic and their unexpected humor. Rights of Man comprises two long volumes written by Paine in response to English criticism of the French revolution. Although much that he says is ironic in light of events that occured after he penned these volumes, you can see the hope that the Revolution produced. He breaks government down to basic principles, pointing out the needs that government fulfills and the method by which they should be constructed. It is thought-provoking, even in the modern day and will make you look on politics of our own time with a new light. Rights of Man does drag a bit when Paine begins repeating himself, but it remains interesting and though-provoking. But Common Sense is the real treat. The pamplet that set a continent on fire is -- this was a surprise -- a thrill to read. I found myself actually laughing at Paine's sarcasm and satire -- his way of taking monarchy and absolutism and exposing them for the ridiculuous constructions that they are. Any student of history should read these volumes for their portrayal of late 18th century geopolitics. But you will find them to be unexpectedly entertaining.
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