Introduction by Eric Foner
Suggestions for Further Reading
A Note on the Text
RIGHTS OF MAN
Notes to Part One
Notes to Part Two
Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England, in 1737, the son of a
staymaker. He had little schooling and worked at a number of jobs,
including tax collector, a position he lost for agitating for an
increase in excisemen's pay. Persuaded by Benjamin Franklin, he
emigrated to America in 1774. In 1776 he began his American Crisis
series of thirteen pamphlets, and also published the incalculably
influential Common Sense, which established Paine not only as a
truly revolutionary thinker, but as the American Revolution's
fiercest political theorist. In 1787 Paine returned to Europe,
where he became involved in revolutionary politics. In England his
books were burned by the public hangman. Escaping to France, Paine
took part in drafting the French constitution and voted against the
king's execution. He was imprisoned for a year and narrowly missed
execution himself. In 1802 he returned to America and lived in New
York State, poor, ill and largely despised for his extremism and
so-called atheism (he was in fact a deist). Thomas Paine died in
1809. His body was exhumed by William Cobbett, and the remains were
taken to England for a memorial burial. Unfortunately, the remains
were subsequently lost.
Eric Foner is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia
University. A winner of the Great Teacher Award from the Society of
Columbia Graduates, Foner is an elected member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the British Academy. He has
served terms as President of both the American Historical
Association and the Organization of American Historians.
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