Paine’s Rights of Man was prosecuted for libel not so much because of its contents but because, rather than confining his audience to ‘the judicious reader’, he had addressed ‘the lowest orders of the people – people who…cannot from their education or situation in ‘life, be supposed to understand the. subject on which he writes.’
The 1790’s: Paine And The Age Of Reason Read Post »
Following her excellent biographical study of Thomas Paine, Audrey Williamson has now given us one on another radical reformer, John Wilkes. Unlike Paine, Wilkes has been the central subject of many a learned book and article.
BOOK REVIEW: A Friend to Liberty Read Post »
Paine’s project was more appreciative of the potentialities of iron than either the Coaibrookdale Iron Bridge, based as it was on principles of wood construction, or Burden’s bridge, which, it was agreed by all observers, was based on the principles of stone construction.
THE SECOND IRON BRIDGE Read Post »
