⇒ Download Thomas Paine Enlightenment Revolution and the Birth of Modern Nations Craig Nelson Books

Thomas Paine Enlightenment Revolution and the Birth of Modern Nations Craig Nelson Books

Download As PDF : Thomas Paine Enlightenment Revolution and the Birth of Modern Nations Craig Nelson Books

Thomas Paine Enlightenment Revolution and the Birth of Modern Nations Craig Nelson Books

You honestly can't go wrong reading this one. Craig blends everything so smoothly, you forget you're reading history. Thomas Paine is a fantastic character and learning how he came to be himself is such an enjoyable journey. Aside from being at the pinnacle of PR and Propaganda for early America and colonies, the guy goes off and writes about important issues which still affect us to this day. Ever wonder about religion and whether Christianity was or should have been the foundation of this country? Read this book and Paine's Age of Reason which in my opinion is a healthy basis for viewing all religions. Paine makes very clear arguments and one could argue is responsible for the right to free speech and a free press. In this glum world today where partisan antics and fights rule the day and dialogue is shouted down, we need a bit of Paine.


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Thomas Paine Enlightenment Revolution and the Birth of Modern Nations Craig Nelson Books Reviews

This was a very enjoyable book on a fascinating and under explored subject. At least it was fascinating once it got past what I felt to be a fairly slow start. For a while I was wondering if I had made a poor selection as the book seemed to focus little on Paine and more generally on the times and the other characters of the day. I was suspecting the author might have been padding due to some lack of research material.

In good time my fears were allayed and the book began to carry forth under its own steam and from then on out as the pace was set the story became captivating and enriching to read.

Thomas Paine of course plays at minimum a cameo role in any history of the nation's founding or in any biography of its founders. I love to read of the lives of our founding fathers and have read multiple biographies on most of them. I am ashamed to say that I waited this long to read a book fully dedicated to this most indispensable of founders.

The author succeeds in portraying Thomas Paine in all of his human character - enlightened, passionate, abrasive, loyal and vain. I didn't get the sense, as often happens, that the subject was placed upon a pedestal by his historian without blemish, rather by simply cataloguing the life of this amazing and faulty character the reader has but little choice to hoist him upon that pedestal under the test of virtue.

I recommend this book to anyone who, like me realizes there is a hole in the story where Thomas Paine is concerned, and seeks to fill said hole with knowledge of his life.
"Thomas Paine" by Craig Nelson is a thoughtful yet entertaining biography of the Revolutionary War hero Thomas Paine. Positioning Paine within the intellectual vanguard of the Age of Enlightenment, Mr. Nelson demonstrates the crucial role that Paine played in inspiring the colonists' radical struggle for independence. This carefully researched and accessible work succeeds in reintroducing readers to a remarkable man who dedicated his life to human progress through politics.

Mr. Nelson bookends the narrative with the strange tale of Paine's bones which were first recovered by William Cobbett and then sold and resold many times over. This particular narrative serves as a metaphor underscoring the changing opinions that posterity has attributed to Paine; indeed, we learn that Cobbett was virulently opposed to Paine's democratic principles during Paine's lifetime only to later became an ardent admirer after Paine's death. No doubt Cobbett was not unusual for his varying reactions to a message that helped set in motion a series of profound socio-political changes throughout the transatlantic world.

Mr. Nelson's solid scholarship and vivid prose helps us imagine Paine passionately debating the great issues of the day with his fellow revolutionaries. Paine appears as one of the boldest and most visionary of his peers, publicly calling for an end to slavery, supporting women's rights and envisioning a welfare state at a time when most others were silent on these issues. Of course, it was Paine's remarkable talent in transcribing Enlightenment ideals into fiery populist rhetoric that made him indispensible, helping to win broad support for a cause that faced significant challenges and memorably rallying the soldiers at a particularly dark moment in the war.

But Mr. Nelson takes Paine's story well beyond this familiar terrain to England and France, where Paine continued to risk all for the principles he held dear. Mr. Nelson makes clear that Paine was immersed in the kind of political turmoil and intrigue that makes today's world seem rather tame by comparison, including a narrow escape from England after authoring the seditious 'Age of Reason' and a remarkable stint in the French legislature where his principled stand for human dignity and democracy ended with a brutal imprisonment. Through it all, Paine became the 18th Century's most widely read author, pointing the way forward for the great mass of people through the Age of Revolution into today's democratic world that, in many ways, has yet to fulfill Paine's utopian vision.

Tragically, Paine's unyielding defense of reason earned the enmity of small-minded religious demagogues who propagandized against the defenseless Paine in posterity. Fortunately, Mr. Nelson's book joins several other more recent works that correct this unjust historic distortion, helping to restore Paine to his proper place among the Founding Fathers as one of their most uncompromising and important leaders.
Nonfiction Steve gave a wonderful review. However, I disagree that it is not for a first-time reader of Thomas Paine.
Reading this book, would only encourage a first-time reader to study Thomas Paine's writings.
I have only recently skimmed through his major works Common Sense & the Age of Reason.
This book was extremely valuable in helping me understand the works of Thomas Paine.
More importantly, it gave me a history lesson I never received in school.
I understand the American Revolution so much better, not only from the American perspective, but also from a global perspective.
I cannot say much more than has already been said in the other 5 Star ratings.
This book will give the reader a better understanding of the man Thomas Paine, and the time period.
Unbelievable how one man could shape our history so greatly!!
More time should be spent in Primary/Secondary school on Thomas Paine, along with the other "Founders of our Country".
I do not know how we can study Thomas Jefferson & George Washington without studying Thomas Paine, as well.
I can only thank the author for writing such a brilliant biography, and giving credit to such a neglected but highly important figure of the American Revolution.
You honestly can't go wrong reading this one. Craig blends everything so smoothly, you forget you're reading history. Thomas Paine is a fantastic character and learning how he came to be himself is such an enjoyable journey. Aside from being at the pinnacle of PR and Propaganda for early America and colonies, the guy goes off and writes about important issues which still affect us to this day. Ever wonder about religion and whether Christianity was or should have been the foundation of this country? Read this book and Paine's Age of Reason which in my opinion is a healthy basis for viewing all religions. Paine makes very clear arguments and one could argue is responsible for the right to free speech and a free press. In this glum world today where partisan antics and fights rule the day and dialogue is shouted down, we need a bit of Paine.