Front cover image for Thomas Paine : enlightenment, revolution, and the birth of modern nations

Thomas Paine : enlightenment, revolution, and the birth of modern nations

Despite being a founder of both the United States and the French Republic, the creator of the phrase "United States of America," and the author of three of the biggest bestsellers of the eighteenth century, Thomas Paine is perhaps the least well known--and the most controversial--of the American founding fathers. Author Nelson's portrait brings him to life against the backdrop of the Revolutionary era and the intellectual exhilaration of the Age of Enlightenment. Nelson traces Paine's path from his years as a struggling London mechanic to his journey to seek his fortune in the New World; from his early career as a crusading pamphleteer to his emergence as the heroic voice of revolutionary fervor on two continents; from his escape from execution in Paris during The Terror to his final years in America, where the once-lionized patriot spent his final days impoverished and in dementia.--From publisher description
Print Book, English, 2007
Penguin Books, New York, 2007
Biographies
396 pages, [16] pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 22 cm
9780143112389, 9780670037889, 0143112384, 0670037885
153576175
The mission of atonement
Begotten by a wild boar on a bitch wolf
Pragmatic utopians
Hell is not easily conquered
The Silas Deane affair
The missionary bereft of his mission
Droits de l'homme, ou droits du seigneur?
The sovereigns among us
The religion of science
The perfidious Mr. Morris
Utopian dissolves
Provenance
"First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin ... 2006"--Title page verso