Thomas Paine This simple quotation from Founding Father Thomas Paine's "The American Crisis" not only describes the beginnings of the American Revolution, but also the life of Paine himself.
Throughout most of his life, his writings inspired passion, but also brought him great criticism. He communicated the ideas of the Revolution to common farmers as easily as to intellectuals, creating prose that stirred the hearts of the fledgling United States.
Paine had a grand vision for society: he was staunchly anti-slavery, and he was one of the first to advocate a world peace organization and social security for the poor and elderly. But his radical views on religion would destroy his success, and by the end of his life, only a handful of people attended his funeral.
A. J. Ayer. Thomas Paine. University of Chicago Press. 1990. 206pp.
Steven Blakemore. Intertextual War: Edmund Burke and the French Revolution in the Writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Paine, and James Mackintosh. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.1997. 256pp.
Gregory Claeys. Thomas Paine: Social and Political Thought. Routledge. 1989. 257pp.
Paul Collins. The Trouble with Tom: The Strange Afterlife & Times of Thomas Paine. New York: Bloomsbury. 2005.
Olivia E. Coolidge. Tom Paine, Revolutionary. New York: Scribner. 1969. 213pp.
Samuel Edwards. Rebel! A Biography of Tom Paine. Praeger. 1974.
Samuel Edwards. Rebel! A Biography of Tom Paine. Praeger. 1974.
Jack Fruchtman, Jr.. Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows.1994.
David F. Hawke. Paine. New York: Harper & Row. 1974. 500pp.
Harvey J. Kaye. Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. Hill and Wang. 2005. 336pp.
John Keane. Tom Paine: A Political Life. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. 1995. 644pp.
Edward Larkin. Thomas Paine and the Literature of Revolution. Cambridge University Press. 2005. 205pp.
Joseph Lewis. Thomas Paine: Author of the Declaration of Independence. New York: Freethought Press Association. 1947. 315pp.
Scott Liell. 46 Pages: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, and the Turning Point to Independence. Running Press. 2004. 240pp.
Craig Nelson. Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations. Viking Press. 2006. 396pp.
Hesketh Pearson. Tom Paine, Friend of Mankind: A Biography. Hamish Hamilton. 1937. 318pp.
Ellery Sedgwick. Thomas Paine. Small, Maynard & Company. 1899. 150pp.
David A. Wilson. Tom Paine and William Cobbett: The Transatlantic Connection. McGill-Queen's University Press. 1988. 240pp.