Book cover for Thomas Paine and the promise of America
Description
America's unfinished revolution The revolutionary spirit that runs through American history and whose founding father and greatest advocate was Thomas Paine is fiercely traced inThomas Paine and the Promise of America. Showing how Paine turned Americans into radicals--and how we have remained radicals at heart ever since--Harvey J. Kaye presents the nation's democratic story with wit, subtlety, and, above all, passion. Paine was one of the most remarkable political writers of the modern world and the greatest radical of a radical age. Through writings likeCommon Sense--and words such as "The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth," "We have it in our power to begin the world over again," and "These are the times that try men's souls"--he not only turned America's colonial rebellion into a revolutionary war but, as Kaye demonstrates, articulated an American identity charged with exceptional purpose and promise. Beginning with Paine's life and ideas and following their vigorous influence through to our own day,Thomas Paine and the Promise of Americareveals how, while the powers that be repeatedly sought to suppress, defame, and most recently co-opt Paine's memory, generations of radical and liberal Americans turned to Paine for inspiration as they endeavored to expand American freedom, equality, and democracy.
Publisher Hill and Wang
ISBN10 080908970X
ISBN13 9780809089703
Number of Pages 313
File Size DL-235MB
Shelf Number HM197
Grade Range
Ages 18 - 99
Format Audio Plus Download, EPub Download