The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
A major actor in the American Revolution, the English intellectual Thomas Paine (1737-1809) is best remembered for his pamphlet Common Sense (1776), which advocated American independence from Britain. Although accorded honorary French citizenship in 1792 for his republican Rights of Man, Paine was later imprisoned and narrowly escaped the guillotine. It was around this time that he started to write The Age of Reason, originally published in two parts between 1794 and 1795. In Part 1, Paine outlines his personal religious views and attacks institutional faith as a human invention, while Part 2 analyses the Bible and highlights its contradictions. The work was met with great hostility in Britain and denounced as espousing atheism, while in America it led to a short-lived revival of deism but was also much reviled. This reissue includes both parts and affords valuable insight into radical freethinking during the age of revolutions.Thomas Paine (1737-1809), a pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical, liberal, intellectual, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, was a pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical, liberal, intellectual, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He went to America on Benjamin Franklin's recommendation, just in time to advocate the American Revolution with his strong and widely read tract, Common Sense. Later in life, he had a significant impact on the French Revolution. He wrote Rights of Man as a primer on Enlightenment ideals. In 1792, despite his incapacity to communicate in French, he was elected to the French National Assembly.
He was seen as a Girondist ally, but the Montagnards, particularly Robespierre, were growing dissatisfied with him. In December 1793, he was captured and imprisoned in Paris; he was released in 1794. His work The Age of Reason, which championed deism and criticized Christian ideas, made him famous. While in France, he also published Agrarian Justice, a pamphlet that analyzed the origins of property and proposed a proposal similar to a guaranteed minimum income.
He stayed in France until 1802, when he accepted an offer from Thomas Jefferson, the newly elected president of the United States.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781108045476 |
| ISBN 10 | 1108045472 |
| Title | The Age of Reason |
| Author | Thomas Paine |
| Series | Cambridge Library Collection - Philosophy |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Year published | 2013-06-06 |
| Number of pages | 182 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |