This examination of Paine's commitment to democracy and republicanism aims to show how the clear, direct style of his rhetoric is intimately bound up with the power of his political and religious ideas. Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was oulawed and burnt in effigy in his native Britain. Paine believed that government, at best a necessary evil, should be by and for the people, exercising minimal interference in society. He drafted one of the first blueprints for a welfare state and argued for the progressive taxation of property to secure a basic provision for all. His "Common Sense" (1776) was seen by some as the most important pamphlet of the American Revolution and his "Rights of Man" (1791-2) the most famous defence of the French Revolution. "The Age of Reason" (1795), his last major work, proved as damaging to the established Church as his political thought was to governments. Mark Philp has also written "Godwin's Political Justice".
- ISBN10 019287666X
- ISBN13 9780192876669
- Publish Date 1 June 1989 (first published 1 March 1989)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 30 April 1999
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oxford University Press
- Imprint Oxford Paperbacks
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 144
- Language English