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

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

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

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

by Craig Nelson

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Overview

A fresh new look at the Enlightenment intellectual who became the most controversial of America's founding fathers

Despite his being a founder of both the United States and the French Republic, the creator of the phrase "United States of America," and the author of Common Sense, Thomas Paine is the least well known of America's founding fathers. This edifying biography by Craig Nelson traces Paine's path from his years as a London mechanic, through his emergence as the voice of revolutionary fervor on two continents, to his final days in the throes of dementia. By acquainting us as never before with this complex and combative genius, Nelson rescues a giant from obscurity-and gives us a fascinating work of history.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781101201787
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 09/04/2007
Sold by: Penguin Group
Format: eBook
Pages: 432
Sales rank: 481,405
File size: 903 KB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

About The Author
Craig Nelson is the author of four previous books, including The First Heroes and Let's Get Lost. His writings have appeared in Salon, The New England Review, Blender, Genre, and a host of other publications. He was an editor at HarperCollins, Hyperion, and Random House for almost twenty years and has been profiled by Variety, Interview, Manhattan, Inc., and Time Out.

Table of Contents

Thomas PaineA Note
Acknowledgments

1. The Mission of Atonement
2. Begotten by a Wild Boar of a Bitch Wolf
3. Pragmatic Utopians
4. Hell Is Not Easily Conquered
5. The Silas Deane Affair
6. The Missionary Bereft of His Mission
7. Droits de l'Homme, ou Droits du Seigneur?
8. The Sovereigns Among Us
9. The Religion of Science
10. The Perfidious Mr. Morris
11. Utopian Dissolves
12. Provenance

Notes
Sources
Index

What People are Saying About This

"Thomas Paine has had many biographers, but this is the first book to recover him in his own electrical style. Nelson's account brings Paine to life with all the flaws and foibles flaming away amidst the greatness. The story is poignant and the prose is incandescent."
---Joseph J. Ellis, author, most recently, of His Excellency: George Washington

From the Publisher

"Craig Nelson's lovely new biography provides cogent reasons why the man who wrote Common Sense has often been neglected by the cheerleaders for the American Revolution."
-Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A rewarding new biography . . . as much a primer on the Enlightenment as it is the story of the stay-maker from Thetford-and all the better for it."
-The New Yorker

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