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Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations

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"The ruling class is the rich, who really command our industry, our commerce, and our finance. And those people are so able to manipulate our democracy that they really control the democracy."

No, these words weren't written by Thomas Paine, but by Walter Cronkite. One strongly suspects, however, that if Paine were alive and well in 2006, he would issue a similar indictment of our present plutocracy.

In his new biography of Thomas Paine, Craig Nelson writes: "While Franklin, Paine, and Jefferson would be crestfallen that the modern-day American federal government is the reserve of a new aristocracy--multimillionaire plutocrats and their corporate sponsors--Adams and Hamilton would be just as shocked to learn that their admired ruling elite no longer even pretends to lives of virtue."

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) helped foment the American Revolution through his powerful and, for the times, incendiary, writings, most notably his first great work, Common Sense (published in 1776; its working title had been Plain Truth).

In this work, Paine attacked the divine right or kings and urged the American colonists to rebel against "Mother England," throw off its slavish dependence on a tyrannical government, and establish "the United States of America" (a phrase which he originated), a new nation that would have freedom of expression, assembly, association, education, and religion.

Craig Nelson calls Paine "the Enlightenment's premier evangelist," "the apostle of the Enlightenment," and its "greatest missionary," pointing out that Paine was the most popular author of the 18th century, his other works including The American Crisis, The Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason.

During the darkest days of the colonists' struggle for independence, Paine wrote, in The American Crisis, these now-famous words: "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

George Washington was so impressed by these inspiring words that he ordered them to be read to his troops on Dec. 25, 1776, prior to his crossing of the Delaware.

An eyewitness of both the American Revolution and the French Revolution, Paine was indefatigable in his advocacy of meritocracy, as opposed to the despotisms of monarchy and aristocracy. "We have it in our power," he wrote," to begin the world over again."

At first he was welcomed as a hero by the French, who fought for "liberty, equality, and brotherhood," but was later condemned during Robespierre's Reign of Terror, spending ten months and nine days in a Paris prison, and narrowly escaping execution by the guillotine. Mob rule, Paine discovered, has its own despots.

Nelson advances the intriguing theory of a manic-depressive Paine: "The course of his biography, with its episodes of buoyant enthusiasm and mute withdrawal as well as eyewitness accounts of his alternately overwhelmingly voluble and determinedly silent bheavior, imply that Paine may have suffered from a form of bipolar disorder. His letters include reports of months spent alone and never leaving his house, while his life story repudiates that easy flow common to biographical narrative, instead changing course in leaps and jolts."

Paine's publication of The Age of Reason (1794), a skeptical critique of the Bible and Christianity, led many of his detractors to marked him as "a filthy, dissolute, and drunken atheist." John Adams dismissed Paine as "a disastrous meteor" and "a mongrel between pig and puppy, begotten by a wild boar and a bitch wolf." Few men in American history have been so vilified, and yet so admired, as Paine.

Paine was not an atheist but a deist. He believed that God, as First Cause, created the world, but then withdrew into a lofty transcendence, having little or no interest in, or care for, his creatures. One can see, however, how a conservative religionist would brand Paine as an atheist, for he rejected the God of providence and prayer, calling men and women to grow up intellectually (according to the Enlightenment tradition) and rely on their own judgments rather than trusting in the outworn dogmas of a superstitious tradition.

Craig Nelson's admirable biography rehabilitates an often slandered patriot, restoring him to the mantle of American hero, a tribute Paine so rightfully deserves. Thomas Paine is a highly enjoyable and enlightening work, written with political and philosophical acumen.

Nelson gives us a renewed respect for Thomas Jefferson and a confirmation of our low opinion of John Adams. Most importantly, he gives us a new appreciation of Paine's influence on the shaping of our nation.

We need more men like Thomas Paine today.

Thomas Paine is portrayed vividly, honestly and intelligently by Nelson.

This book is about the man, Paine, his times, situations, his life and his influence. No other reference put me in the scene so well. It paints a vivid picture of Paine's personal life, his morals, strengths, weaknesses, and his crucial, world changing yet fragile relationships with prominent and powerful people. This book helped me understand the motivations that made Paine the most compassionate, dangerous, controversial, loved, respected, despised and important man of the 18th century.

The massive amount of research Nelson has assembled is more than impressive, it is awesome because he wove it into an a book that is not merely fact filled, but instead is alive in detail and fascinating in style. I could feel the tension and excitement of the situations Paine either initiated or wound up in. Nelson's writing style is a great lesson for many history writers. I was very impressed. Nelson is a nonfiction artist.

I felt that I was reading a screenplay, complete with scenery and a cast of award winning characters. It made me wonder why Paine has never been portrayed in a feature length movie. Few people on earth have had a more interesting, diverse, exciting, dangerous and important life. Maybe then, when a movie based on this book is produced, Paine will receive the recognition he deserves.

This book is NOT a first reader on Tom Paine. Paine's actual works are not included. Read Paine's works directly instead (many other sources exist) to get an introduction to Paine's ideas and the power of his pen. Come to realize how much American citizens owe Tom Paine by reading what flowed from his own pen, by learning at least that Paine was a MAJOR and critical influence and motivator of our respected founding fathers AND the common man, THEN read Nelson's book.

Nelson brings us closest to experiencing Paine's story. It is a valuable addition to my Tom Paine collection and should be in yours.

This book is a beautifully written account of the life of one of the great rabble rousers in history. "Common Sense" represents one of the great documents of American history and this biography of its author relates well the ideas and values of the Enlightenment that found such profound expression in it. As the author notes, however, Paine's role in the American Revolution has never been properly appreciated. For one, his staunch commitment to the principles of Republicanism represented a threat to the nation state. When the Massachusetts legislature disbanded in 1776 and declared all inhabitants to be in a "State of Nature" Paine was thrilled. John Adams and most of the other founding group were horrified.

Overall, Nelson's "Thomas Paine" is a really an outstanding exploration of many of the founding themes of the United States, exploring in an insightful and sometimes provocative manner the relationship of the ideals of the Enlightenment to the establishment of the nation. It also offers an important analysis of the role of personal ideals in relation to civic responsibility. At what point, for instance, does a person of honor and integrity begin to oppose a government engaged in actions viewed by the person as reprehensible? If one decides that opposition is required, what type of action follows--civil disobedience, armed insurrection, and the like? I find these fascinating questions and no less salient today than when Paine wrestled with them in the eighteenth century. Nelson's book raises fundamental issues in the context of American history and governance.

Craig Nelson's book is a beautifully written account of the life of Thomas Paine. It is the first biography I've read about the man so am unable to judge it against others, but am quite certain that anyone, familiar with Paine and the revolutionary era or not, would enjoy this story of the life of an American and inevitably World hero.

Through this tale of revolution, struggle, and the rise and decline in the public eye, Nelson's Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolutions, and the Birth of Modern Nations will reveal some of the more subtle, usually unspoken physical, political, and financial costs that were endured by a man that strove to give freedom to the world. However, conveying this personal struggle only provides an even more inspirational picture of the revolutionary. Nelson's book will demonstrate how Paine, by presenting us through the tip of a pen with the then radical, progressive ideas of liberty that would soon drastically alter the nature of human civilization, broke down the barriers of oppression that stood in the way of the enlightenments greatest philosophical revelation: Democracy. However, in doing so, the story of Thomas Paine's life will reveal a barrier still in place today, unbroken, which impeded and continues to restrict the climax of that 18th century ideal. But for attempting to bring it down as well, being the 200 years-ahead-of his time revolutionary he was, lived his last 10 years hated, forgotten, and unwanted. And until recently, has remained so.

"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon." ~Thomas Paine

Surmising from Nelson himself, there seems to be little direct historical record of Thomas Paine extant.

Therefore, much of the book involves an extrapolation of the events and people surrounding Paine to produce a picture of the man, and more importantly, the period he lived.

A large part of Nelson's work discusses the fascinating "Age of Reason" that Paine lived amongst, and that went-on to produce a host of characters and revolutions. Indeed, I would recommend this book to readers looking for a "ground level" perspective of the history of the American Revolution, from it's birth, to it's execution, to it's ramifications. The evolving European, and predominately British, evolution of political thought is also explored.

Nelson fleshes out much of the philosophy and ideas of the times, through the lense of Paine. The coffee shops, gentleman's clubs, gazettes of the 18th century are opened through the person of Thomas Paine, and a fascinating world is imaged.

The result is a biography that is limited in it's direct presentation of the central character, but a compelling picture of the unique world he lived in.

To parahphrase the Rod Stewart song, some guys - some founders - have all the luck. Today, bookstore history sections are littered with biographies of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton; even the long neglected Adams and Franklin have experienced their just resurgence. Yet, there have been precious few biographies (or even books with large portions devoted to) Thomas Paine, one of history's great provocateurs and a prime mover of both the American and French Revolutions. Craig Nelson, though, has written a very throrough, gripping work that will hopefully restore Paine to the eminence that he knew during his lifetime.

Wait! Did I just say, "the eminence he knew during his lifetime"? Most of us, after all, were taught that Paine was a man who America (and everyone else) had a love/hate relationship - a lower-caste rabble rouser that was, at most, pretty well liked in his early years, and violently dismissed in his later years.

This latter part - this dismissal of Paine in his later years - is true by Nelson's book. But Nelson is concerned to highlight the fact that not only was Paine liked during his heydays in America, Britian, and France, but he was truly adored. Every single pamphlet he wrote - American Crises, Common Sense, Rights of Man (first and second), and Age of Reason - was more cherished than, and outsold, the previous.

If anyone disliked Paine, it was the upper caste of society. Paine, after all, wrote works that unapologetically spoke in the common language of common folk and appealed as much to their sypahties as any other. Nelson is quick to tell us that while all of Paine's books were "best-sellers" (selling 10 times what even the best best-sellers sold), Paine's importance may have been downplayed in history most likely due to the fact that it was the lower classes, not the elite, that loved him most. The latter group, after all, wrote most of the history.

But Nelson also tells us that while Paine was adored in the lower ehelons of society, he was still well liked by most of the founders. Nelson gives us many glimpses of adoring letters sent to Paine by Washington, Jefferson, Govournor Morris, and - yes - even John Adams. Paine was offered government office more than once and was even offered to be a paid propogandist for the American and French governments (he declined). When in France, he was a legislator. Far from a man who was mildly liked!

Of course, Nelson also notes Paine's faults. He often came off, in an age of manners, as coarse and uncouth. He was less skilled at making friends and keeping them than were his counterparts like Jefferson and Franklin. Nelson even speculates that Paine was manic depressive, owing to his oscillating history of fits and starts: prodigous output and grand ambitions would be followd by self-deprecation - sparkling polemics followed by unexplained vitriolic jabs.

From Paine's role as a prime mover of the American revolution, to his invention of a bridge in Britian, to his near death imprisonment in France, Craig Nelson has given us an exciting book on an exciting life. Thomas Paine, quite literally, is the founder that most of us never knew but that all of us should get to know.

In "Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, And The Birth Of Modern Nations", biographer Craig Nelson provides a fully detailed and comprehensive description of the life and times of one of America's most influential patriots in the American Revolution. He was the author of 'The Age of Reason'; 'Common Sense'; and 'The Rights of Man', three of the most important treatises to provide the philosophical underpinnings to America's colonial struggle for emancipation from a dominate and dominating England. Now this outstanding biography is available as a complete and unabridged audiobook on thirteen compact discs and which is very ably narrated by Paul Hecht, with a total running time of 15.75 hours. Masterfully produced and flawlessly recorded, "Thomas Paine" is a welcome and enthusiastically recommended addition to academic and community library collections.

Craig Nelson has presented a dramatically trenchant detailed story of Thomas Paine, and the revolutionary spirit afoot during the late seventeenth century in America and in France justaposed to the staid constitutional British monarchy.
The author dramatically describes Paine's frenetic political literary and personal life in a manner that will engage the reader from page one to the book's end. Much historical research and detail are provided in a familiar narrative style that transports the reader to the intentions and incidences so commonly known by most readers yet with such interesting add-ins not familiar to most.
A true treasure of a book that I would recommend to any student of American history and that age.

This was a very enjoyable book on a fascinating and under explored subject. At least it was fascinating once it got past what I felt to be a fairly slow start. For a while I was wondering if I had made a poor selection as the book seemed to focus little on Paine and more generally on the times and the other characters of the day. I was suspecting the author might have been padding due to some lack of research material.

In good time my fears were allayed and the book began to carry forth under its own steam and from then on out as the pace was set the story became captivating and enriching to read.

Thomas Paine of course plays at minimum a cameo role in any history of the nation's founding or in any biography of its founders. I love to read of the lives of our founding fathers and have read multiple biographies on most of them. I am ashamed to say that I waited this long to read a book fully dedicated to this most indispensable of founders.

The author succeeds in portraying Thomas Paine in all of his human character - enlightened, passionate, abrasive, loyal and vain. I didn't get the sense, as often happens, that the subject was placed upon a pedestal by his historian without blemish, rather by simply cataloguing the life of this amazing and faulty character the reader has but little choice to hoist him upon that pedestal under the test of virtue.

I recommend this book to anyone who, like me realizes there is a hole in the story where Thomas Paine is concerned, and seeks to fill said hole with knowledge of his life.

Nelson does a thorough job in exploring Mr. Paine's life. Of interesting note is that the pace of the book seems to mimic the waxing and waning of Mr. Paine's alleged mental illness and bouts with alcohol....as do Mr. Paine's writings. No doubt Thomas Paine's inability to sustain consistent relationships had something to do with his personality and mental illness. One of the few criticisms of the book I have is Nelson's jumping back and forth in the time period without putting in the occasional date as a point of reference. I also wished he had explored the contentious relationsip between Gouverneur Morris and Paine a little more thoroughly. Overall the book is a good read. Not only does it give the reader a better view of this important figure in American History it also provides a glimpse into the difficult lives of people during that period in regards to living wages, debt, and travel.