Our collection of articles, records and reviews with book reviews related to Thomas Paine.
This is unquestionably an excellent biography of the great radical, but it is far from being the definitive biography. In fact I do not think the author had in mind writing such a biography, rather it is, as its name indicates, a book which lays emphasis on Paine’s political ideas and influence.
It is not my attention to review the poetry, this has been around for many years and Thomas Paine has been commented upon by many others, rather it is to commend this book to TPS members who will find much in it of Paine interest.
It is refreshing to read an essay about Thomas Paine which not only places him in his historical context but also emphasises his relevance oday. This essay is part of a book which was compiled in 1991, when the fall of the Berlin Wall had just come down.
BOOK REVIEW: Thomas Paine – At the Limits of Bourgeois Radicalism Read Post »
Paine, Scripture, and Authority is an important work, particularly as it is the first book for many years to focus on The Age of Reason. Yet for all its value it pays too much attention to what the authors see as Paine’s personal motivation
This paperback should prompt many to re-think their attitudes towards weaker non-human species generally. It is fitting to conclude with a quotation from Paine’s, The Age of Reason: ‘The moral duty of man consists in imitating the moral goodness of God, manifested in the creation towards all his creatures”
The book is certainly a very stimulating read, tending to present a sophisticated new view of Paine. It has a good chronology and bibliography, good insights into how the repression of the 1790s was and the sad course of the French Revolution, combined to defeat the Paineite movement.
BOOK REVIEW: Thomas Paine, Political And Social Thought Read Post »
I think the only new revelation that emerged from Professor Vincent’s research is the fact that Paine attended masonic meetings in France and in America, although it is doubtful that he was actually a mason himself.
BOOK REVIEW: Thomas Paine Ou La Religion Se La Liberte Read Post »
THIS very readable work is in a way a memorial to the late George Spater, a member of the Thomas Paine Society who wrote a very fine two volume biography of William Cobbett which was published in 1982.
BOOK REVIEW: Citizen Of The World, Essays On Thomas Paine Read Post »
Unfortunately this new book, although well written and giving a reasonably comprehensive insight into the background events which the author feels influenced the development of Paine’s thinking, I do not think it gets above the routine.
I have no hesitation in stressing the fact that this is a very important work, perhaps the most important in the field of freethought published for many years, which will become an essential reference tool not just to those associated with organised unbelief but all serious scholars and researchers interested in the field.
I find the material Professor Alves selected offers a balanced group which introduces readers not simply to the debate, but even propel them further. This is an important work not just of value to university students, for which it is intended, but also to historians, educationalists and the general reader.
THIS book unquestionably establishes its author, who is a Vice-President of the TPS, as the world’s leading Paine scholar. It is a comprehensive examination of the intellectual content of Paine’s works as a whole.
