The Rights of Man (1791)

Thomas Paine's the Rights of Man is a classic political treatise that defends natural rights in plain, clear, and occasionally funny English. The first part of Rights of Man is a classical liberal defence of the French Revolution and a determined rebuke of Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France." The second part of Rights of Man is a manifesto of political radicalism, split 1/3 of Paine's objection to hereditary government and 2/3 his scheme for a prototypical social welfare state. While I found myself agreeing with Paine more than I disagreed, I think readers should keep in mind that whether we agree with him or not his republican visions have helped to shape modern democratic government. In terms of relevance, to understand the foundations of the modern state we must look back at its genesis with Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, J. S. Mill, and Thomas Paine.

I know that this is a classic, and I should be waxing lyrical about it, particularly as my politics tend to the socialist, BUT, the thing that strikes me most with this book is the naivety. We twenty-first century beings are too World weary to accept that ANY system of government is going to lead to the promised land, let alone this dated set of pie in the sky doctrines.
Paine's main tenet is that less is best on the government front and, whilst I do anguish about some of the nanny knows best mentality of the UK at the moment, it is also painfully true that a sort yourselves out approach only leads to the fittest crushing the minnows.
I also found the constant sniping at Mr. Burke tedious: Paine does not need to decry an alternative viewpoint, just give us his own.
I really expected to be uplifted by this work but failed to learn much of anything from its pages (I leave others to decide if this was due to my stupidity or the more streetwise attitudes of the present day). ( )

Thomas Paine was born at Thetford in the County of Norfolk in England, January 29, 1736, the son of Joseph Paine, a stay-maker of the Quaker faith, disowned by them on his marriage to an Anglican. His mother Frances Cocke, was the daughter of an attorney. [I.13-14]
The "Introduction" by Henry Collins is a biography of Paine, reviewing all his work, not merely the Rights of Man. The Rights was initially published in two parts here presented together. Part I is dedicated to George Washington, and was published in 1791 three months after Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France". It is more than a mere reply, however. It sets forth the general principles of government. He develops the concepts of rights and balancing of powers.
Part II, dedicated to Lafayette, appeared in 1792. Paine shows that hereditary government is in its nature tyrannical, leading necessarily to extravagance and high taxation for lack of popular controls. He attacked primogeniture as necessarily leading to strife and warfare, and introduced the concept of social security financed by progressive taxation. He develops the concept of the "Constitution" as the basis for a society with powers checked and balanced.
Few writers have so accurately predicted the future, and lived so much of history they influenced. Ironically, shortly after publishing this study of the failures of monarchy, Louis XVI was captured by the Girondists, and Paine cast the single vote in the National Assembly against execution. [37-38] In his words, "Kill the monarchy, but not the King!".
The Rights was the last publication before Paine was arrested and imprisoned in the Luxembourg. The first section of his next great work, the Age of Reason, was published while Paine was "still in gaol" [39], and the Reign of Terror began in earnest.

This book is a classic of democratic theory, of rights theory, and more importantly, of American political thought. Written in the context of the American & French revolutions, and speaking so forcefully against the corruption of political power as to cause its author to be tried & convicted in absentia of seditious libel in England, this book ought to be read by any person who values their civil liberties and has enough experience in the world to recognize their slowly dwindling status in the contemporary political landscape.

Paine was a masterful writer, who successfully blended rhetoric, wit, and philosophy to create a treatise which is both forceful and easily accessible to the lay person. Large chunks of this book are devoted to a personal fued between Mr. Paine and Edmund Burke of England, and so the writing tends to go off on tangents at times - however, even those asides addressed to Mr. Burke are brilliantly written and worth the reading if only for the chuckles they elicit. In terms of its theoretical value, Rights of Man cannot be over-praised. This ambitious work sets out to:
- explain the evolution of civil rights out of natural;
- vindicate the contract theory of political authority;
- exterpate the British aristocracy while defending the motivations behind the French Revolution;
- explain and defend the necessity of a constitution to any legitimate, ongoing state;
- highlight the corruption inherent to the pairing of money and political power (a section of the book which bears particular relevance to today's political scene); and
- defend a conception of the state that is minimal in both military might and taxation of the middle and lower classes, in favor of a peaceful coexistence with rival states.

The present political context only adds value to this classic of political thought. A true masterpiece, it has only matured in its wisdom and insight since its writing more than 200 years ago.

A note about this edition (Citadel Press, with a biographical introduction by Philip Foner):
I loved the biographical intro in this edition. It was well-written, and illuminated quite a bit of Paine's history that I was woefully uninformed about. Get your hands on this copy, if you can find it. ( )

Paine was a careful but very exciting writer and democratic theoritician. Very good slice of history worth reading. ( )