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Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (Paperback)

~ (Author) "On January 10, 1776, Common Sense, an unsigned forty-seven-page pamphlet, appeared in Philadelphia and redefined what the American colonists were fighting for..." (more)
Key Phrases: exceptional purpose, winter soldiers, revolutionary heritage, United States, Thomas Paine, New York (more...)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Kaye offers a masterful and eloquent study of the man he reestablishes as the key figure in the American Revolution and the radical politics that followed it. Focusing on close readings of Paine's major writings, Kaye devotes the first half of the book to Paine's role in the seething fervor for American liberty and independence and his influence on the French Revolution. In Common Sense (1763), which sold 150,000 copies in just a few months, Paine advocated self-government and democracy in the colonies, accused the British of corruption and tyranny, and urged "Americans" to rebel. He championed representative democracy and argued that government should act for the public good. Paine's contributions were not limited to his own time; Kaye traces Paine's influence on American rebels and reformers from William Lloyd Garrison and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Emma Goldman and Eugene Debs in the second half of his book. In 1980, Ronald Reagan quoted him—"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"—in his acceptance speech before the Republican National Convention. As historian Kaye (The American Radical) points out, Paine—"the greatest radical of a radical age"—would have been surprised to learn that conservatives, whose values he opposed, had used his words in their cause. 25 illus. not seen by PW. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


From Booklist

Facing a saturated market for biographies of Thomas Paine, historian Kaye opts to chronicle the effect of his legacy. Reading like a roll call of populists, reformers, and radicals, Kaye's presentation aims to repossess Paine from conservatives who "do not--and truly cannot--embrace him and his arguments." Kaye's audience may measure the assertion against the preliminary passages of this work, which outline Paine's life and paraphrase his revolutionary classics (Common Sense, The American Crisis, and The Age of Reason). Underscoring Paine's championing of exceptionalism, the idea of America's uniqueness in world history (which has conservative roots in Puritanism as well as in the radicalism espoused by Paine and preferred by Kaye), the author recounts Paine revivals that have coincided with reform movements. For a universalistic reach beyond a movement's immediate aims, Paine has been ready-made, and Kaye summarizes how Paine has inspired abolitionists, suffragettes, workingmen, socialists of the Progressive and New Deal eras, and historians. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Hill and Wang (July 25, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0809093448
  • ISBN-13: 978-0809093441
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #266,504 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Harvey J. Kaye
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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67 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Controversial Founding Father, November 8, 2005
By R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
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.
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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful read., November 4, 2005
By Lucia (New York) - See all my reviews
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 :)
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars More than a Biography, June 10, 2006
By Jim (Greenville SC) - See all my reviews

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.".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read about the true father of the American Revolution
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... Read more
Published 3 months ago by JoshInMillValley

4.0 out of 5 stars Equal liberty for all (3.6*s)
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... Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Grattan

1.0 out of 5 stars A Book to Avoid
This is one of the weakest and poorly written books I have ever read. The author fails to present a clear biography of Paine, while failing to provide insight into Paine's... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Beware of Kaye

2.0 out of 5 stars Good Topic, Average Writing
Thomas Paine was a luminary, and one of the (if not the) most forward-thinking of his era. I am sure there is a definitive biography out there, waiting to be written, that will... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Tom Bigbee

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book with a hidden tragic story
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. Read more
Published 19 months ago by J. Adams

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary sense about Thomas Paine
I'm no Paine scholar - so I do not understand the quibbles. I love this book. Where today is the person who touches the human heart to stoke that which is already in us, as... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Soren Kerk

5.0 out of 5 stars A Timely Treasure
When I ordered this book I was thinking of updating my knowledge of one of that group of men we usually think of as our "forefathers"--the ones who were there at the birth of... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Richard C. Burrows

1.0 out of 5 stars Look elsewhere for a comprehensive history.
I was recently looking through the history shelves of a local book store when I saw the cover of this book staring at me. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Christopher Raissi

5.0 out of 5 stars Common Sense Society of Fort Lee NJ
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. Read more
Published on March 16, 2007 by Thomas Meyers

2.0 out of 5 stars Well written but biased and flawed argument
Kaye's prose is solid and I certainly enjoyed the first few chapters on Paine's controversial life. The book, however, takes a turn for the worse when it launches (for half the... Read more
Published on January 14, 2007 by Adam R. Zurbriggen

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