The Life of Thomas Paine
With a History of his Literary, Political and Religious Career in America, France, and England

Published in 1892, this two-volume biography of Thomas Paine (1737–1809) confirmed his importance in the American and French revolutions.

Moncure Daniel Conway (Author)

9781108045360, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 March 2012

500 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.8 cm, 0.63 kg

Moncure Daniel Conway (1832–1907), the son of a Virginian plantation-owner, became a Unitarian minister, but his anti-slavery views made him controversial. He later became a freethinker, and following the outbreak of the Civil War, which deeply divided his own family, he left the United States for England in 1863. This two-volume biography of Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was published in 1892, and was followed by a four-volume edition of his works, which did much to inspire a reassessment of Paine's importance in the 'age of revolutions'. Conway clearly identified with Paine's radicalism as well as his activities on both sides of the Atlantic. Volume 2 begins with the execution of Louis XVI, which Paine had opposed in the French Convention. Paine's subsequent career in Britain and America is then traced until his death in 1809, and Conway also considers his impact on his contemporaries, and his legacy.

1. 'Kill the King, but not the man'
2. An outlawed English ambassador
3. Revolution vs. constitution
4. A garden in the Faubourg St Denis
5. A conspiracy
6. A testimony under the guilllotine
7. A minister and his prisoner
8. Sick and in prison
9. A restoration
10. The silence of Washington
11. The Age of Reason
12. Friendships
13. Theophilanthropy
14. The Republican Abdiel
15. The last year in Europe
16. The American inquisition
17. New Rochelle and the Bonnevilles
18. A New York Prometheus
19. Personal traits
20. Death and resurrection
Appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ]