Tom Paine: A Political Life (Grove Great Lives) [Paperback]

John Keane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 21, 2003 | Series: Grove Great Lives

"More than any other public figure of the eighteenth century, Tom Paine strikes our times like a trumpet blast from a distant world." So begins John Keane's magnificent and award-winning (the Fraunces Tavern Book Award) biography of one of democracy's greatest champions. Among friends and enemies alike, Paine earned a reputation as a notorious pamphleteer, one of the greatest political figures of his day, and the author of three best-selling books, Common Sense, The Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason. Setting his compelling narrative against a vivid social backdrop of prerevolutionary America and the French Revolution, John Keane melds together the public and the shadowy private sides of Paine's life in a remarkable piece of scholarship. This is the definitive biography of a man whose life and work profoundly shaped the modern age. "Provide[s] an engaging perspective on England, America, and France in the tumultuous years of the late eighteenth century." -- Pauline Maier, The New York Times Book Review "It is hard to imagine this magnificent biography ever being superceded.... It is a stylish, splendidly erudite work." -- Terry Eagleton, The Guardian

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

English-born radical journalist Thomas Paine, who in 1774 immigrated to America, where his pamphlets helped spark the Revolution, was a world citizen who preached the abolition of despotic regimes. A staunch opponent of slavery, Paine (1737-1809) also spoke of Native Americans as his "brothers." This flesh-and-blood portrait charts a life pulsating with drama, surprises and narrow escapes, while also situating Paine's intellectual development in the context of his time. Keane, a professor of politics in London, gives us a generous, farsighted foe of hypocrisy and injustice who could also be conceited and dogmatic. In Paris, serving as a member of the National Convention, Paine was imprisoned (1793-94) and nearly guillotined during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. Upon his inglorious return to the U.S. in 1802, he was vilified as an atheist and monster. Paine slipped into depression, poverty and obscurity, but this gripping biography restores his luster and contemporary relevance. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

We are doubly blessed. On the heels of Jack Fruchtman Jr.'s solid Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom (LJ 11/15/94) comes this richly detailed, more disciplined labor of scholarship and love, an exemplar of the rewards of a gargantuan effort at historical research. As Keane corrects all prior Paine biographers, Keane's bibliographic notes prove how thoroughly he has scoured every scrap of Paine scholarship from the beginning to now. It all enriches the already overloaded life of democracy's greatest propagandist with intriguing contextual detail that ranges from the simple conditions of life to data on the readership of Paine's writings. Keane warns against biographies that "tell us more about the biographer," but his "techniques of modest writing" commit few such excesses and make for entertaining edification. In short, buy it; it's definitive.
John Berry, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (January 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802139647
• ISBN-13: 978-0802139641
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,199,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strong biography of a decidedly modern revolutionary., February 11, 2002

By 

Stephen Paul Ryder (Virginia, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tom Paine: A Political Life (Hardcover)

I will admit that I was not immediately enamored with this book. The luciferous introduction on Keane's predecessors in Paineite biography was engaging enough, but I found his systematic, nit-picky demolition of each work to be just plain egotistical. In Keane's eyes, each previous biography "failed" or "floundered" for various reasons, thereby opening a window for his own, earth-shattering tome on the subject. Granted, it has become common practice for authors to "justify" their reasons for writing "yet another biography on _______" in the preface of their books, but this sort of self-serving, hypercritical overview left me with a seriously bad taste in my mouth. I seriously worried that the 540 pages that followed would be tinctured with the same sort of pomposity - thankfully that was not the case.

The book is a solid biography, and I can very well see Paine enthusiasts flocking to this as one of the <I>best</I> biographies ever written about him. As this is the <I>only</I> biography of him I've read, I'll reserve my judgment on that question, but I will admit that it is an exceptional study of a peculiar man. What the general public knows of Paine is often just his authorship of <I>Common Sense</I>, but of course there was so much more. He penned not one but three of the best-selling books of the 18th century, and, arguably, he initiated modern political thought on the subject of democratic republicanism. Paine was born an Englishman but for most of his life considered himself a "citizen of the world," which prompted a major change in how we view national citizenship - no so much as a <I>gift</I> from the state, as was the 18th century perception, but rather a <I>promise</I> from it to preserve certain rights indigenous to its people. Yet despite his cosmopolitan leanings, Paine managed to ostracize himself from all three countries in which he declared citizenship - England, France <I>and</I> America - thanks to his revolutionary ideals and his fervent insistence on airing his views publicly regardless of their popularity. He would eventually face public execution in both England and France - the story of his brush with death in <I>La Luxembourg</I> prison during the French Reign of Terror is decidedly spine-tingling - but would survive both to end up back in America, ostracized by the generation that remembered him, and nearly forgotten by the generation that followed.

Keane doesn't devolve into hero-worship, despite several initially-worrisome hyperbolic descriptions of him as "the <I>greatest</I> American revolutionary." Instead, the author deals with each of Paine's failings in a forthright manner. Paine was certainly a man driven by ego, though certainly an ego unaffected by cares for money, power, or public approbation. To put it simply, he just <I>knew</I> he was right, and he would never back down from any of his arguments, regardless of their popularity. Even his most unpopular anti-Christian sentiments displayed in the <I>Age of Reason</I> could not be moved, despite the efforts of many to make him recant on his deathbed. As for Paine's legendary alcoholism, Keane suggests it was just that - a legend. According to Keane, Paine never drank to excess when in social situations. He only drank himself into stupors later on in life when the pain of gout and bedsores became unbearable. This may or may not have been the case - I lean towards may <I>not</I> - but in the end it is of comparatively little importance when calculating the worth of a man whose ideas have arguably shaped many of our own modern ideas on government and civil rights.

All told, the biography earns four stars from me on a scale of five. The rating falls short of the final star more because of style than substance. Keane's prose is certainly readable, and in most cases enjoyable, but it was a bit dry and academic for my tastes in several places. On top of that there was some strange editorial snafus, including several instances of sloppy repetition and an imprecise policy of when and when not to translate from the original French. In one chapter Keane includes an <I>entire paragraph</I> of French extracted from a letter (p. 405), with no accompanying translation, and yet in the next he feels it necessary to include a parenthetical translation of the decidedly uncomplicated <I>Dissertations sur les Premiers Principes de Gouvernement</I> as, surprisingly, or not, "Dissertations on the First Principles of Government" (p. 423).

Regardless of my editorial trifles, the book is strong and well recommended to anyone interested in picking up a book on the life and works of Tom Paine. You'll find his life, in many respects, reads like an adventure novel, and his ideas on government and society are surprisingly, shockingly, modern.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant, engaging biography; meticulously well-researched., May 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Tom Paine: A Political Life (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed Keane's biography of Thomas Paine. I thought it was well-written and fast paced. Keane did an excellent job of writing an engaging tale, which read at times like an exciting adventure novel, without sacrificing any of the complexity of the events and historical developments at issue in the book. Keane's book can be enjoyed on several different levels. First of all, for those not particularly steeped in Paine specifically or the Enlightenment Era generally, this book provides an excellent, panoramic introduction and overview. The tale can be enjoyed at a "basic" level because Paine's life was so touching and exciting. He lives a hand-to-mouth existence and was present or a witness at many major historical events including both the American and the French Revolutions. He also nearly died at the guillotine in France! So, enjoy this for the sheer events which the book describes. On another level, the book really put Paine's contributions as a writer, thinker and all-around intellectual into context for me. He played a key, maybe THE key, role in articulating and then subsequently popularizing the ideals for which Americans fought the American Revolution. Paine then went on to write other political tracts which influenced events and the intellectual history of Europe. Here was a man who influenced developments and intellectual history on two continents. I wish he would be remembered more in this country. His life and death will touch the reader - very poignant, very emotionally touching stuff to read. So, enjoy this book as biography, as history (e.g., American Revolution, French Revolution), as intellectual history, as adventure story set in the eighteenth century. It is all of these. Keane has done a fine job. Excellent research, excellent writing style

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great visionaries of civic democratic society, and quite a character at that, July 13, 2005

By 

Rudy Mann - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tom Paine: A Political Life (Grove Great Lives) (Paperback)

This is the kind of biography that makes reading history worthwhile. The writing style is intelligent and clear, marshalling innumerable facts and interesting anecdotes. It gives us the full scope of Paine's remarkable life - a man who was one of the intellectual midwives at the birth of the era of democratic revolution.

He fought for free political expression as a citizen of three countries in the throes of revolutionary change: born in England where he fought against monarchy, moved to America where he became a writer of inspirational tracts for independence, and finally, made citizen of France during the violence of the Revolution where he argued, at great risk to himself, to spare the life of King Louis XVI. If his positions seem contradictory they actually reflect a philosophy of consistant political moderation.

Secondly, this biography is a story about the struggle to realize ideas against great odds. Everywhere he went he was fortunate to escape death at the hands of his murderous foes. In spite of these threats, Paine fought tirelessly for his ideals.

Thirdly, the author gives contempory meaning to Paine's goals. Paine was against religious literalism because he saw the adherence to strict doctrine as an obstacle to extablishing a civic society in which people could live together harmoniously.
This position was a cause of much suffering for Paine at the end of his life as his anti-traditional ideas incited deep personal hatred. Without needing to conclude whether he was misguided or not, suffice to say, the difficulty he tried to tackle remains with us today...in the headlines. And I don't think we've come all that far in solving the problem he recognized. That he saw its importance at the inception of modern civic society makes him a visionary of the highest importance worthy of our respect whether we agree with the totality of his ideas or not.