Tom Paine: A Political Life"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 -- Pauline Maier, The New York Times Book Review "It is hard to imagine this magnificent biography ever being superceded....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 |
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LibraryThing Review
Avis d'utilisateur - datrappert - LibraryThingThe fascinating life of one of the greatest Americans. This book covers Paine's triumphs, his failures, and his many frustrations. He was hardly an unflawed character. But he was fearless, even taking ... Consulter l'avis complet
TOM PAINE: A Political Life
Avis d'utilisateur - KirkusAn aptly subtitled biography of the trailblazing political polemicist: This detailed account finds virtually no trace of a personal life. After his wife's death in childbirth in 1760, argues Keane ... Consulter l'avis complet
Table des matières
| ix | |
| 1 | |
| 3 | |
| 36 | |
| 81 | |
| 83 | |
The Birth of America | 108 |
War | 138 |
The Woes of Peace | 241 |
France and England 17871802 | 265 |
Rights of Man | 267 |
Executing a King | 345 |
Prison to Dictatorship | 382 |
America 18021809 | 453 |
Growing Old in America | 455 |
Notes | 537 |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
Advertiser affairs American appeared army Assembly attack become Benjamin bridge British called cause citizens civil claimed colonies Committee Common Sense Congress considered constitution continued Convention death despotism early effect elected enemy England English fact followed forced foreign France French George hands History independence individuals interest James January Jefferson John Journal July June king later letter liberty living London March means meeting months Morris natural never November offered Paine's pamphlet Paris party Pennsylvania Philadelphia political present principles proposed published Quakers Reason reported republican Revolution Robert September ship society Street Thetford Thomas Paine thought tion told town turned United vote Washington weeks writing written wrote York
Fréquemment cités
Page 120 - O! ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the Globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. 0! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.
Page xiii - When it shall be said in any country in the world, my poor are happy : neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive ; the rational world is my friend, because I am the friend of its happiness: when these things can be said, then may that country boast of its constitution and its government.
Page 293 - Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field ; that, of course, they are many in number ; or that, after all, they are other than the little, shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour.
Page 221 - Public good: being an examination into the claim of Virginia to the vacant western territory, and of the right of the United States to the same. To which is added, proposals for laying off a new state, to be applied as a fund for carrying on the war, or redeeming the national debt.
Page 144 - 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.
Page 100 - I happened to come to America a few months before the breaking out of hostilities, I found the disposition of the people such, that they might have been led by a thread and governed by a reed. Their suspicion was quick and penetrating, but their attachment to Britain was obstinate, and it was at that time a kind of treason to speak against it.
Page 120 - To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon as folly and childishness. There was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease.
Page 119 - ... fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true; for I answer roundly that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power taken any notice of her.
Page 293 - The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure: and he that hath little business shall become wise. How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plough, and that glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen, and is occupied in their labours, and whose talk is of bullocks?
Informations bibliographiques
| Titre | Tom Paine: A Political Life Grove Great Lives |
| Auteur | John Keane |
| Édition | réimprimée |
| Éditeur | Grove Press, 2003 |
| ISBN | 0802139647, 9780802139641 |
| Longueur | 644 pages |
| Exporter la citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |