Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom [Paperback]

Jack Fruchtman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 1996

The leading Thomas Paine expert in the U.S. presents both a biography of the controversial Founding Father and an analysis of his works. Known as "the Voice of the Revolution, " Paine was a truly original thinker, a man whose magnificient, freedom-loving spirit is richly captured in this major biography.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Radical journalist Thomas Paine (1737-1809), whose pamphlet Common Sense (1776) steeled American colonists to break with England, was a revolutionary, a statesman, an outspoken opponent of slavery and an advocate of democracy. He fought for constitutional safeguards to protect the unemployed and the working poor, for free public education, old-age benefits and public assistance. Born in England, Paine moved to Philadelphia in 1774, later shuttling between England, France and America. A moderate delegate to France's National Convention, he was imprisoned amid the Reign of Terror; and although Robespierre ordered his execution, Paine was released after 10 months. Disillusioned, poor and frustrated he turned to drink, Freemasonry and spiritualism. In Paris in 1797, he founded the Theophilanthropists, a humanistic ethical society seeking global moral renewal. Resettling in the U.S. in 1802, Paine feuded bitterly with Federalists who scorned him and his Jeffersonian friends. Political science professor Fruchtman (Towson State Univ., Md.) has written a spirited, riveting biography that cogently argues that Paine was a pantheist who saw God's handiwork in all nature and in humanity's struggles to improve the common good. Illustrated.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

With new insights into Paine's troubled, if triumphant, life comes new understanding of his writings, those seeds of our revolution. One can't read this long-overdue, revealing, and moving biography without feeling both the admiration and the same frustrations Fruchtman (Thomas Paine and the Religion of Nature, Johns Hopkins, 1993) did, coming away angered that "the problems...tragically remain today." The role of the true revolutionary is exposed, and Fruchtman's study succeeds better than most in giving us deeper understanding of that lonesome role and its purpose. We haven't yet come even half way as a society to meet Paine's vision. In the whole work, and especially in his last chapter, "Assessment," Fruchtman comes very near to that indistinct line between biographer and champion. His solid work corrects earlier lies about Paine, and if he slips into exhortation, it is only because no one could know Paine so well and not be so affected. Paine's spirit lives, restrained only by scholarly discipline, making for a highly readable, highly recommended work.
John Berry, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (June 5, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568580630
• ISBN-13: 978-1568580630
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #549,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best biography on Thomas Paine!, June 1, 2000

By 

Chad Bagley "Chad" (Shanghai China/Provo, UT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom (Paperback)

Thomas Paine is one of the great unsung heroes of early American history. He didn't come from an affluent family, he never held high public office, and he never had any money. There are no monuments in Washington D.C. or Philadelphia dedicated to Mr. Paine, he's not on any currency and he's affectively been eclipsed by many other revolutionary heroes- that are quite frankly his inferiors. Thomas Paine has been shortchanged in history because he was a drunk, an atheist and an all around unpleasant person (well...if he didn't like you, anyway).

Despite his shortcomings, and the numerous attacks that have come from his critics, Tom Paine was the conscience of the American revolution. He wrote several pamphlets and articles that called the American populous to action and galvanized revolutionary thought, not only during America's fight for independence, but also for the French who were about to engage in their own revolution.

Jack Fruchman has done a fine job of giving us Mr. Paine with all his imperfections and accomplishments. I recommend that every serious student of American history read this biography of one of our great patriots, thinkers and writers. I just admonish you not to forget to read the words of Thomas Paine himself. His thinking is as important and relevent today as it was 225 years ago.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive book on Paine, September 24, 2000

By 

"jugadora" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom (Hardcover)

The American Revolution's roots in the British which many people thought was 'betrayed' by parliament when it restored the monarchy, the roots of common British and American democratic ideals emerging from the dissenting religions and their notions of justice and equality (it's said that British socialism has more Methodism than Marx in it), the frustrations and ideals of British republicans who invested so much of their hope in the American colonies (not then 'United') shows that even in the l8th century (and presumably before and since) there is a community of men and women who, irrespective of nationality, place justice and liberty above all other human aspirations. What we learn from this book was that Tom Paine wasn't just a great British radical, a great founding father of the American Revolution, an active member of the revolutionary French Tribunal -- he was a critic of all unearned or abused authority wherever he saw it -- from George III to George Washington -- and that he foresaw a world in which every soul enjoyed the same rights and liberties. It was his internationalism, his understanding of the drawbacks as well as the virtues of populist democracy, that made him so relevant to modern readers. You can be sure that Tom Paine would have been at the Seattle demonstrations and would have no doubt been considerably more eloquent in his criticisms of international big business than anyone alive today! He speaks to us as clearly and as authoritatively as he spoke to his first readers -- who made his work best-sellers in America, Britain and France -- and this is the first book I have read which does its great subject the justice he deserves. He shouldn't just have a statue in Washington -- he should have one in London and Paris. It is his ideas of common liberty and justice which unite people around the world, perhaps even more now than in his own day. Read this book and you will understand how valuable democracy is and how hard it was to win, how hard it remains to keep it vital and uncorrupted. Everyone interested in modern politics should read this book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good look at a revolutionary figure, December 10, 2001

By 

mrliteral - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom (Paperback)

In the hierarchy of founding fathers, Thomas Paine is not in the top echelon, but he is significant. His principal contribution was Common Sense, a pamphlet that spurred the independence movement in the early days of the Revolution.

One of the themes that seemed to run through Paine's life was a commitment to ideology that often had negative effects. While he was a man who backed his words with actions, he did it at a cost: he had few lifelong relationships, he was often broke and he even spent a year in jail, with the threat of execution constantly hanging over him. In the conflict between idealism and practicality, Paine favored the former.

Fruchtman's biography does a good job in describing this important historical figure. At times slow (I feel because there are points in Paine's life that aren't very interesting), it is overall a good, educational read. It makes me feel that if Paine had exercised a little bit more common sense in his own life, he might have been even a greater man.