Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1382313 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 632 pages

Customer Reviews

We have it in our power to begin the world over again
This was a required reading for a graduate humanities class. John Keane's biography succinctly showed that Tom Paine (1737-1809) was the consummate revolutionary and a daring adventurer. Not only was he an important figure in the American Revolution, but he also traveled to France in 1791 to give that revolution a push. Paine traveled from England, just in time to stoke the flames of the revolution with his pamphlet Common Sense, in January 1776. To call Common Sense a sensation in the colonies is actually a bit of an understatement. It was an unparallel sensation and monumental work of Enlightenment rhetoric that quickly fanned the flames of rebellion throughout the colonies. In four months, over 120,000 copies were printed in the colonies--over 500,000 copies by years end. No other pamphlet printed in seventeenth century America came close to its success. Most importantly, Common Sense served to get the colonial patriots to drop their fear of open rebellion, and also emboldened those delegates who favored declaring independence from Britain. The delegates now had the confidence that a large segment of the colonists would support rebellion. Similar to the Declaration of Independence, the philosophical ideas in Common Sense are primarily from the English philosopher, John Locke (1632-1704). The most moving quote from the pamphlet became quite prophetic, when one considers the impact it ultimately had on the delegates in the congress, the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, and on the world. "We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I heartily recommend this timeless classic to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Reviews by Nan Kilar and Bobby Miller
If you are a Fundamentalist, dust off your sandals and flee. At best this book will confuse you even more than you already are. Thomas Jefferson wrote that he merited the same censure visited upon the author of Rights of Man "for I profess the same principles."

Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were Deists. Another thing they had in common was their contempt for the so-called mystery of God, and the pious frauds that perpetuated it in order to obtain those things they desired. One who has any knowledge of God Almighty whatsoever would be outraged at the claim that He would need or want a fallen angel to battle; that He would use a snake, of all creatures, to entice a female to sin or use a whale as a motel. Those who advocate such things fall into one of two categories: sociopaths or herd animals. The buildings they erect supposedly to honor God serve everyone involved but God. While they are gathering places for those desiring wool and those in need of shearing, they serve a far greater purpose--they allow those without the desire to serve the true God, a God that cautions them before they can even get a lie out of their mouths--a mystery to worship.

As Paine explains, "Mystery answers all general purposes, miracle followed as an occasional auxiliary. The former served to bewilder the mind, the latter to puzzle the senses. The one was the lingo, the other the legerdemain."

The Hobo Philosopher
I think that every American should read all the works of Tom Paine. The phrasing and style are of today even though these works are over 200 years old. Read John Adams or even Thomas Jefferson and you can't help but to notice. It seems peculiar to me that I even hear conservatives today quoting Tom Paine. Tom Paine was no conservative. Read Agrarian Justice and you will have all the proof that you need. If that isn't enough try The Age of Reason on for size. If there were no Tom Paine I doubt very much that there would ever have been an American Revolution. Yet Tom takes no place in "monument" parks about this country. It is very sad.

Books written by Richard Noble - The Hobo Philosopher:
"Hobo-ing America: A Workingman's Tour of the U.S.A.."
"A Summer with Charlie"
"A Little Something: Poetry and Prose"
"Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother"
"The Eastpointer" Selections from award winning column.