Thomas Paine and the Literature of Revolution

This book examines how Thomas Paine created a new literature of politics bridging political philosophy and everyday knowledge.

Edward Larkin (Author)

9780521841153, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 June 2005

216 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.49 kg

"Only in htel ast few decades have scholars begun to take a balanced view of Paine, and a recent spate of books and articles on his tempestuous career and powerful pen bode well for a fuller understanding of this itnriguing individual. Among the best of these recent works, Edward Larkin's literary study of Paine's prose is a much needed complement of the political, historical, and philosophical emphases of other books and articles. Larkin reconstructs the significance of Paine's editorship of the Pennsylvania Magazine as a touchstone for the idea of an inclusive American public." - Ben Ponder, Northwestern University The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

Although the impact of works such as Common Sense and The Rights of Man has led historians to study Thomas Paine's role in the American Revolution and political scientists to evaluate his contributions to political theory, scholars have tacitly agreed not to treat him as a literary figure. This book not only redresses this omission, but also demonstrates that Paine's literary sensibility is particularly evident in the very texts that confirmed his importance as a theorist. And yet, because of this association with the 'masses', Paine is often dismissed as a mere propagandist. Thomas Paine and the Literature of Revolution recovers Paine as a transatlantic popular intellectual who would translate the major political theories of the eighteenth century into a language that was accessible and appealing to ordinary citizens on both sides of the Atlantic.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Inventing an American public: the Pennsylvania Magazine and revolutionary American political discourse
2. 'Could the Wolf Bleat Like the Lamb': Paine's critique of the early American public sphere
3. Writing revolutionary history
4. The science of revolution: technological metaphors and scientific methodology in Rights of Man and The Age of Reason
5. 'Strong Friends and Violent Enemies': the historical construction of Thomas Paine through the nineteenth century
Epilogue: Paine and nineteenth-century American literary history
Works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK], Regional studies [GTB]