Tom Paine and Revolutionary America

In Tom Paine and Revolutionary America, Eric Foner examines the social and intellectual world in which the titular Revolution-era writer lived and worked. Unlike other biographies of Paine, Foner focuses on the larger schools of thought and philosophical movements in Revolutionary America rather than presenting Paine as operating in a vacuum. Foner draws upon Paine's own writing as well as other political broadsides from the era. Perhaps the most interesting part of Foner's biography is his lengthy epilogue, in which he examines Paine's work following the American Revolution and the controversy that surrounded his writing after he returned from France. Foner's work will appeal to academic historians while remaining readable enough for show more non-historians as well. show less

A classic study of the career of the foremost political pamphleteer of the Age of Revolution, and a model of how to integrate the political, intellectual, and social history of the struggle for American independence.