Bøger af Thomas Paine

"These are the times that try men's souls," begins Thomas Paine's first Crisis paper, the impassioned pamphlet that helped ignite the American Revolution. Published in Philadelphia in January of 1776, Common Sense sold 150,000 copies almost immediately. A powerful piece of propaganda, it attacked the idea of a hereditary monarchy, dismissed the chance for reconciliation with England, and outlined the economic benefits of independence while espousing equality of rights among citizens. Paine fanned a flame that was already burning, but many historians argue that his work unified dissenting voices and persuaded patriots that the American Revolution was not only necessary, but an epochal step in world history.

Thomas Paine was Deist, a believer in God, but highly critical of priests and appeals to the authority of holy books. 'The Age of Reason', written over two hundred years ago, sets out to examine the Christian bible critically and logically, an act of considerable bravery given the power of the Christian Church in those times. The work was outlawed in Great Britain as potentially seditious and liable to upset the social balance of the country, but it became a runaway bestseller in America. Many of Paine's criticisms and analyses remain relevant today and the book has become a classic in the literature of Free Thinking.

"The American Crisis" was a series of pamphlets published from 1776 to 1783 during the American Revolution by 18th-century Enlightenment philosopher and author Thomas Paine. The first volume begins with the famous words "These are the times that try men's souls". There were sixteen pamphlets in total together often known as "The American Crisis" or simply "The Crisis". Thirteen numbered pamphlets were published between 1776-1777 with three additional pamphlets released between 1777-1783. The writings were contemporaneous with the early parts of the American Revolution, during the times that colonists needed inspiring, and were written in a language the common man could manage. They are indicative of Paine's liberal philosophies. Paine signed them with one of his many pseudonyms, "Common Sense." The writings bolstered the morale of the American colonists, appealed to the English people's consideration of the war with America, clarified the issues at stake in the war, and denounced the advocates of a negotiated peace.

Before his arrest and imprisonment in France, knowing that he would probably be arrested and executed, Paine, following in the tradition of early eighteenth-century British deism, wrote the first part of "The Age of Reason," an assault on organized "revealed" religion combining a compilation of inconsistencies he found in the Bible with his own advocacy of deism, calling for "free rational inquiry" into all subjects, especially religion. "The Age of Reason" critique on institutionalized religion resulted in only a brief upsurge in deistic thought in America, but would later result in Paine being derided by the public and abandoned by his friends.

"Common Sense" presented the American colonists with a powerful argument for independence from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided. Paine wrote and reasoned in a style that common people understood; forgoing the philosophy and Latin references used by Enlightenment era writers, Paine structured "Common Sense" like a sermon and relied on Biblical references to make his case to the people. Historian Gordon S. Wood described "Common Sense" as, "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era."