|
All of Paine's masterpieces are included here: The Rights of Man, a magnificent defence of the French Revolution against Edmund Burke and, according to A.J.P. Taylor, 'the best statement of the democratic belief in any language'; Common Sense, whose 'sound doctrine and unanswerable reasoning' won thousands to the side of the American rebels; and The Age of Reason, a notoriously fierce attack on traditional Christianity. Paine's extraordinary versatility and power are equally obvious in his shorter but deeply influential occasional writings - on the abolition of slavery and capital punishment, on constitutional and agarian reform, on George Washington, bridge-building and many more other topics.
|
