Customer Reviews

Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies (Forgotten Books)

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Incredible insight from so long ago. Thomas Paine wrote without regard to "political correctness" or fear of reprisal apparently. This collection of his
thoughts should be a must read for anyone who is interested in social and religious issues. It's as timely today as it was in the 1700s.

Just finished Common Sense. Great insight to the time preceeding the American Revolution. Rating strictly on the writings of Thomas Paine - 5 stars.
The introduction of the book is a copy and paste from wikipedia.org and it sites the source as such. On the title page it also says that all the books they offer can be read for free on line at the publishers website. If I could go back I would read the works online instead of paying for this book.

This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of the French Revolution. For Thomas Paine, the eighteenth century was the Age of Enlightenment because for the first time humankind was throwing off the millstones of religious dogmatism and political despotism. Paine essentially believed that the rights of man encompassed, "...all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the natural rights of others" (Paine, 68).

Paine's Rights of Man was an eloquent yet blistering rebuttal to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. Paine got right to the crux of the disagreement he had with Burke when he admonished him for his argument that governmental enactments of previous generations had the force and authority to bind citizens for all time. An example that Burke used was the English Parliament of 1688, which he praised as a model of the type of reform French citizens should emulate. Paine's answer was swift and cutting "Radical Enlightenment" reason. "Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave, is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies" (41-42). Paine also took Burke to task for his narrow understanding of French socio-political and economic problems leading up to 1789. Unlike Burke, Paine understood that the French Revolution, unlike the others that took place in Europe, was not just a revolt against the king. "Between the monarchy, the parliament, and the church, there was a rivalship of despotism, besides the feudal despotism operating locally, and the ministerial despotism operating everywhere" (48). Thus, what Paine witnessed, Alexis de Tocqueville and Georges Lefebvre observed, agreed with, and commented on, in their history's years later. The institutions that Burke defended in his Reflections, such as the nobility, Church, and monarchial rule, all became "fodder" for Paine's "grist mill" in his defense of France's new constitution.

Paine abhorred the institution of nobility and supported its dissolution for several reasons.
"Because the idea of hereditary legislation is as inconsistent...and absurd as an hereditary mathematician....Because it is continuing the uncivilized principle of governments founded in conquest, and the base idea of man having property over man, and governing him by personal right" (83). No friend to tradition, Paine took Burke to task for defending the notion of, "...hereditary rights, and hereditary succession, and that a Nation has not a right to form a Government for itself" (Paine, 116). Paine defended the French constitution's eradication of tithes to the Catholic Church and it "...hath abolished or renounced Toleration, and Intolerance also, hath established UNIVERSAL RIGHT OF CONSCIENCE" (85). Finally, Paine unleashed a most scathing attack against Burke's suggestion that France should reform its absolutist monarchy into a benign form of constitutional monarchy similar to what Britain enjoyed. "All hereditary government is in its nature tyranny" (172). "It occasionally puts children over men, and the conceits of nonage over wisdom and experience. In short, we cannot conceive a more ridiculous figure of government, than hereditary succession" (173).

Thus, Paine's Radical Enlightenment polemic, which sold more than 200,000 copies throughout Europe, was his reasoned and articulate project towards developing a better world. Consequently, there is no doubt that Paine, whose Radical Enlightenment pen proved to be "mightier than the sword" of despotism both in the American and French Revolutions, understood the importance of the nurturing relationship that Enlightenment philosophes had on the French Revolution. "But all those writings and many others had their weight; and by the different manner in which they treated the subject of government...by their moral maxims and systems of economy, readers of every class met with something to their taste" (Paine, 94).

Recommended reading for anyone interested in political philosophy, enlightenment history, and the French Revolution.

This is a good read for anyone wanting to understand the state of mind at the time of the revolution and also anyone just interested in the ideas of Thomas Paine. He has a logical method of deduction that leads to his conclusions that is hard to argue with and enlightening to comprehend.

This is a must read for anyone who loves liberty and hates being lied to by the establishments that enslave us all.

Pick up and read this before it's banned!

Amazon came through with flying colors as I was hoping to have the book in time for a Christmas gift. The book was out of stock, but came in stock a the last minute. Amazon shipped it overnight at no extra charge. Great job!

Got this book to make a comparison with Broke by Glenn Beck after some friends told me about his book. In fairness, GB uses many of the exact same phrases and words as Thomas Paine. Nothing earth shaking or startling there, nothing wrong either! IMHO, Mr Paine had very good and sound advice all around.

I bought this to become better informed about our founding fathers, and the world as seen through the eyes of early Americans. Would buy it again

While the collection is large, I was very disappointed to find the Publisher's Preface to be a cut and paste from wikipedia. I expected something more scholarly and since such little effort was put into the preface, I have to wonder how much thought went into putting together the collected works. Perhaps I should have checked wikipedia first instead of paying the publisher for the book.

This guy is a tough read. Hard to put alot of this into perspective given that it was written 200 years ago. This guy is obviously smart, and the knowledge he possesses is a good insight into the availability of information at that time and his level of intelligence. He would be rolling over in his grave if he saw what the religious right was trying to do in this country today. His perspectives are enlightening and sometimes frightening given what was at risk.
Paine's writings are a good review of how many of the founding father's felt about our country, oppression, religion and the rights of man. A definite must read.