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Tom Paine; bit of a dude
Topic Started: Jun 8 2009, 05:02 AM (97 Views)
eco
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We need someone of his calibre now, methinks...

Reminds me that I've long wanted to read his work more thoroughly, not just in snippets.

1770-odd to 1848 was a truly extraordinary period. I almost miss my A level history lessons...
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Gruenberg
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aka Kleinschnauzer
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We went out for a drink to celebrate the anniversary the other day.

That said, eco, I'm not sure you've missed out on a lot by not reading him at great length. (I've read Common Sense, not the other two lengthy works.) I respect Paine as a pamphleteer but not really as an essayist or as a systematic thinker. He didn't have a particularly coherent outlook and he is much less interesting as a republican than some of his Continental predecessors and Anglo-American contemporaries. Part of the reason a conservative like Glenn Beck can claim Paine, a socialist, as one of his own is that Paine was kind of all over the place. (And part of the reason is Beck is a dick.)

As a religious sceptic and a critic of European monarchy Paine had no equal at the time, but today I would see him more as someone who'd write great letters to Private Eye and put in an entertaining appearance on QI than someone to thoroughly reform the British political system.

Nonetheless, here's a short Paine profile from a year ago.
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eco
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Cheers, that's really interesting. And I see what you mean about him being a better pamphleteer. Probably why I like him; I'm not great at attention to detail, ahem.

Odd to see 'Common Sense' regarded as his most famous work, I've never heard of it. 'The Rights of Man' and 'The Age of Reason' are the pieces I'm more familiar with (though not intimately, natch).
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Allech-Atreus
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I think Common Sense is more widely-read because it was so influential in the American Independence movement.
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