Customer Reviews

Thomas Paine and the Promise of America

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The astonishing revolution that brought forth the American republic seems an unending source of curiosity; in the past year there has been one book after another about the American Revolution itself or about the Founding Fathers who eventually brought a Constitution to cap the Revolution's success. Perhaps we will never tire of examining the start of our nation. Perhaps, as Tom Paine himself wrote, even now "It is yet too soon to write the history of the Revolution." Paine himself has been written out of the Revolution many times by those who could not stand his political or religious principles, but as Harvey J. Kaye shows in _Thomas Paine and the Promise of America_ (Hill and Wang), Paine's authentically radical voice was not only an essential spark to unite the colonists against Britain, but also provided a legacy of inspiration to reformers in the succeeding two centuries.

Kaye's book encompasses two parts, one a brisk biography of Paine, and then a biography of Paine's posthumous life within American history and ideas. It was only in 1774 that Paine, upon the recommendation of Benjamin Franklin, crossed the Atlantic to Philadelphia. He was 38 years old, and quickly became a journal editor. He wrote _Common Sense_ anonymously, exhorting his countrymen not only to independence, but to republicanism. He formulated his arguments so that everyone could understand them, and everyone did; _Common Sense_ united and inspired the colonists to a new American cause. He became involved in politics again in France with the storming of the Bastille. He wrote _The Rights of Man_ which exhorted both Frenchmen and Americans to ensure revolutions so complete that slavery would be ended, women would be equals, peace would be enforced by a global union of republics, and church and state would be completely separated. _The Age of Reason_ was his assault on scripture and organized religion as mythologies imposed on humanity by clerics "to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." He scorned the Bible for its cruelty and its lack of morality, leading antagonists for centuries to berate Paine as an atheist. He was, however, like many of the most famous of the founders, a deist, but he was one who put into book form his distrust of the general religion of his society.

The religious controversy has continued and has been kept alive both by the freethinkers who have claimed Paine as their own and by Christians who not content with hating the facts of Paine's life made up scurrilous lying biographies about him and false legends such as the one about his deathbed recantation of his disbelief. Teddy Roosevelt called him a "filthy little atheist", but he was none of those three. His lack of conventional religious belief has colored how his countrymen have perceived him ever since. Mark Twain and Herman Melville admired him; Lincoln avidly read _The Age of Reason_ and may well have written a deist treatise of his own, but his friends ensured no one else ever saw it. Franklin Roosevelt was the first president since Jefferson to quote Paine by name, in a wartime radio address that included Paine's famous "These are the times that try men's souls" passage. Even President Reagan in his turn was able to quote Paine, but the radicals on the left are the ones who always admired Paine's convictions. A key story here is about the communist Howard Fast, who in 1943 published the historical novel _Citizen Tom Paine_. Paine was thus drawn into the witch hunts, and when Fast was summoned before Congress and refused to name names, he was put into jail in 1950. His book was removed from the public school libraries of New York City, and J. Edgar Hoover sent agents to major libraries instructing them to remove and destroy Fast's works. It was the sort of oppression Paine would have recognized and abhorred. Kaye's book successfully charts the development of Paine's ideas during his life, and the utility and appropriations of his ideas even into our own times.

What a great book! It starts out with a nice history of Paine's work during the early years of our Country. Then it follows the influence of his work up to present time. The second part does get tedious at times but the book is still worth reading. Well written, well researched, passionate whether you agree with the interpretation or not. NOT A GOOD BOOK FOR FANS OF CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO :)

Although I purchased this book assuming it was a biography of Paine, I discovered it was much more. While the first third of the book is a short, excellent biography, the heart if the book is a study of Paine's influence on American's liberal, progressive, radical movements and even of the Reagan conservative revival. Kaye makes it clear that his sympathies lie with the left and views Reagan's reliance on Paine's words as a highjacking, but despite this bias, the book is an objective analyses of Paine's influence throughout the 230 years of American history. One question, I have often asked is why did the conservative elite of the Colonial Era, who had so much to lose if the Revolution failed, pledge the "their lives, their fortunes and scared honor" to the cause of American Independence? Kaye offers a plausible and logical explanation: the influence of Thomas Paine's pamphlets, most notably "Common Sense.".

Kaye's biographical narrative of Paine's life, which comprises the first half of this work, is the best currently in print. Past errors and mischaracterizations are corrected and Paine's extraordinary revolutionary career is accurately surveyed in an easily read, well-cited, and very accessible text. The second half of Kaye's work traces the political and social influences of Paine and his "paineite" disciples from the latter half of the 19th century to the present time. Featured prominently are the many activists in women's suffrage, black abolition, labor reform, land reform,and civil rights who have invoked Paine's ideology of democratic reform. From "Red" Emma Goldman to "Far Right" Ronald Reagan, Americans have invoked Paine's name and claimed his legacy. Kaye recounts them all and, in the process, reminds America and the world of Paine's great contributions to the history of individual liberty, justice, and equality.

It is the position of the author that Paine was essentially the first well-known radical democrat in America, exported those views to both England and France in the 1790s, and has inspired those seeking to counter the forces of oppression ever since. Though Paine was a latecomer to the revolutionary cause in the colonies, having arrived only in Nov, 1774, there is little dispute that his pamphlet "Common Sense," 1776, was a break with a pattern of caution that many followed in regards to separation with England. His excoriation of the English government including the King, which reached vast numbers of colonists, was a huge factor in increasing revolutionary fever to a level sufficient for a formal Declaration of Independence only six months later.

This book is not a biography, per se, of Paine. The first third of the book follows the political part of his life. The author's first purpose is to demonstrate the significant influence that Paine's writings had on the revolutionary effort in America and in Europe. His sixteen "American Crisis" papers during the War helped to recharge American resolve during very trying times for the American military. "Rights of Man," 1792, was highly critical of the vast class disparities existing in British aristocratic society, which resulted in his conviction of sedition in absentia. "Age of Reason," written in France in 1795, denounced institutionalized churches "as human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." "Agrarian Justice," 1796, explained poverty as being a consequence of exploitation and the power of private property. It is a body of work that to that time in history may not have been matched in sheer audaciousness.

Paine was controversial in the colonies from the beginning. The author suggests that had his identity been known when "Common Sense" was published, that is, not being a member of the respected elite, that his writings may well have had a lesser hearing and impact. His advocacy of equality and democracy earned him the enmity of many elites, including John Adams. But his "Age of Reason," coming well after the U.S. achieved independence was far more harmful to his reputation and standing. Many who admired his republicanism were abhorred by his apparent turn towards religious infidelity. He died a scorned man.

The remainder of the book is concerned with the efforts of various groups over the next two centuries to overcome various forms of suppression or discrimination, many being led by individuals with varying degrees of knowledge of the work of Paine. Among those groups are "workingmen's advocates, abolitionists, freethinkers, suffragists, anarchists, populists, socialists, progressives, labor and community organizers, peace activists, and liberals." Among those the author attempts to connect to Paine are Lincoln, Walter Lloyd Garrison, Mark Twain, Eugene Debs, and FDR. In cycling through the struggles of these groups, the extent of Paine's influence is rather vaguely drawn. The author shows that in different eras Paine's reputation was either rising or falling: some writing laudatory biographies, some denigrating him; some trying to establish memorials and statues, others rejecting the same.

The author notes that in times of national crises, there is often a nostalgic turn to the founding. Even conservatives, who as a rule are less than fond of democracy and freethinking, are willing to invoke a carefully sanitized Paine, especially the Paine that is a strong advocate for liberty and new beginnings. Ronald Reagan at his nomination in 1980 famously recalled Paine's words: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." More typical of conservatives, however, is Theodore Roosevelt's labeling of Paine as a "filthy little atheist." The author makes the assumption that Paine is a leading "Founding Father," the equal of Jefferson, Adams, or Washington. Perhaps it could be argued that though he certainly was a luminary of the period, his lack of holding legislative or executive positions undermines his inclusion at that level.

In addition, perhaps the author overstates Paine's radicalism, at least as understood in modern times. Paine was opposed to all-powerful governments and to excessive wealth, especially aristocratic wealth, and its potential to oppress. But he was fully in favor of commerce, which, when played out, can certainly result in great economic disparity. His time was before Marxian thought. The author's broad use of "radicalism" is seen in his contention that most all Americans have been radicals since Paine's time - a statement that begs to be explained. Americans are mindful of personal liberties and rights, certainly the right to vote as a part of formal democracy, but radical democratic measures, such as worker control of factories or the state, have seldom been advanced.

The book is an informative overview of Paine's life as a writer of controversial tracts, in addition to being an overview of many of the main movements in American society attempting to overcome discrimination or entrenched parts of the status quo in need of reform - often drastic. There is a degree of repetitiveness about the book, as the various groups are cycled through in brief fashion with only a tenuous attachment to Paine being established. Rather than showing a direct connection between Paine and those movements, what is more evident is that Paine-like individuals have frequently risen to the occasion in our history, though with mixed results and then disappearing from our collective consciousness, just like Paine. Book just slips in as a four-star book.

I wanted to know more about Paine and this book certainly filled the bill. It not only gives a serviceable biography of Paine, but also articulates every use of Paine's work that apparently can be found in a Lexis/Nexis or similar database.

Paine is an enigmatic character in that is refreshingly absolute in his beliefs; no equivocating for him. While the topic is American freedom and self determination, he is everyone's hero. When he goes on to champion Deism, organized labor, and what many would call socialism or communism, fissures occur and factions appear. Accordingly, everyone has the opportunity to quote Paine for some aspect of their beliefs, left or right.

And as for that (left and right, I mean), the book calls you to be awake for the nuances between what a democrat was then and what one is now. The gymnastics between the terms conservative (in the midst of a revolution), republican, federalist, Jacobian, and so was a lot for me (only a casual historian) to keep up with, but exercise is good, I guess.

One disturbing underlying theme of the book is the malleability of history-- at one point we find Paine in favor, at another out of favor. I guess I was somewhat asleep to the degree to which history is a slave to fashion.

This is a brilliant work that breathes new life into the legacy of Tom Paine and links his writings to our lives as Americans today. We in the Borough of Fort Lee, New Jersey are proud that Paine began to write "The American Crisis" while in Fort Lee as an aide to General Nathaniel Greene. The retreat to victory through New Jersey in November 1776 was one of the darkest periods of the American Revolution. Paine's words in The Crisis inspired this young nation so much so that General Washington had "The Crisis" read by his offcers to his men prior to the crossing of the Delaware.

We in Fort Lee are presently forming "The Common Sense Society" to promote the ideals of Tom Paine and to work with the Borough of Fort Lee to erect a statue to Paine in our Monument Park where Paine encamped with the American Army in 1776. This would be only the sixth statue of Paine in the world and the fourth in the United States.

This book will give you the background you need to really appreciate Paine. Harvey Kaye, the author, is a scholarly writer and can be trusted to share accurate and insightful information. Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute interviewed Mr. Kaye on BookTV and interrupted Mr. Kaye repeatedly to state his own views and opinions. Mr. Novak was interruptive and argumentative. I miss Brian Lamb's interviews. Mr. Kaye, the author, was a gentleman throughout the interview. In the end, the work of Thomas Paine should be read by us all.

This book takes a surprising amount of time to read due to the 'hidden' density of the writing. It is a superlative history of one of our most important founding fathers. The impact of 'Common Sense' by Paine simply can hardly over stated. This book is not a dry or boring read, it simply takes more time than I had expected.

The gnawing knowledge that America largely ditched Paine after he dutifully served his purpose is disturbing. He contributed the proceeds from Common Sense to buy mittens for our troops. When imprisoned in France and marked for execution, precisely noyone rode to the rescue. The reason that Paine was largely forgotten is that he had acquired a reputation for not being a man of solid faith. In spite of a remarkable literary career, Paine was destined to die a poor man with a poorly attended funeral. It does seem that he liked to imbibe in the spirits more than he ought to have.

Teddy Roosevelt went on to describe Paine as a "filthy little athiest". He was actually none of the above.

Paine and Samuel Adams suffered the same fate. Both were men of tremendous talent with the pen. Both worked tirelessly. Both played inestimable roles in our freedom. Both tend to be forgotten by mainstream historians. Neither one was an aristocrat. Are historians largely elitist snobs?

I heard Harvey Kaye on Bill Moyers Journal and decided to read the book on my summer vacation. A true eye opener about the true father of the American revolution and how the polictics of personal destruction pre-date the 24x7 cable news cycle.

A great read about a great and doubt difficulat man.