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Definition: Paine, Thomas from Philip's Encyclopedia

Anglo-American revolutionary political writer. He emigrated from England to Pennsylvania in 1754. His pamphlet Common Sense (1776) demanded independence for the North American colonies. He returned to England in 1787, and published The Rights of Man (1791-92), a defence of the French Revolution. Accused of treason, he fled to France in 1792. He became a French citizen and was elected to the National Convention, but later imprisoned (1793-94). He returned to the USA in 1802.


Paine, Thomas

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
1737–1809, Anglo-American political theorist and writer, b. Thetford, Norfolk, England. The son of a working-class Quaker, he became an excise officer and was dismissed from the service after leading (1772) agitation for higher salaries. Paine emigrated to America in 1774, bearing letters of introduction from Benjamin Franklin , who was then in England. He soon became involved in the clashes between England and the American colonies and published the stirring and enormously successful pamphlet Common Sense (Jan., 1776), in which he argued that the colonies had outgrown any need for English domination and should be given independence. In Dec., 1776, Paine wrote the first of a series of 16 pamphlets called The American Crisis (1776–83). These essays were widely distributed and did much to encourage the patriot cause throughout the American Revolution . He also wrote essays for the Pennsylvania Journal and edited the Pennsylvania Magazine. After the war he returned to his farm in New…
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Full text Article Paine, Thomas

From Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World
The revolutionary firebrand Thomas Paine argued...
The Anglo-American writer, philosopher, and abolitionist Thomas Paine is best known for his 1776 pamphlet advocating American independence, Common Sense. Paine was born in Thetford, England, on January 29, 1737. His mother, Frances, belonged to the Church of England, and his father, Joseph, was a…
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Full text Article Thomas Paine

From Great Thinkers A-Z
Thomas Paine was a political theorist who tried to put his theories into action. His aim was to free human beings from oppressive government, oppressive religions and oppressive poverty. His method was to appeal to reason, so that all people could recognize truth and justice. His achievements were…
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Full text Article Paine, Thomas

From Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature
A journalist and pamphleteer, P. was one of the driving forces of the American Revolution. Born in Britain of working-class parents and living at the edge of poverty, P. possessed a keen sense of injustice and inequality that drove him to advocate American independence and republicanism and later…
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Born in Thetford, England, Thomas Paine began life as a corsetmaker, his father’s trade. He showed an interest in philosophy and science as a young man, and this interest led him to become an influential thinker during the American and French Revolutions. Paine worked as both a corsetmaker and an…
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Full text Article Paine, Thomas

From Political Philosophy A-Z
Born in Norfolk, and for the first thirty-seven years of his life an unknown artisan, Thomas Paine became a leading figure in the American rebellion against Britain, and also played a role in the French Revolution. Following his desperate emigration to America in 1774, he established a reputation as…
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Full text Article Paine, Thomas

From The Great American History Fact-Finder
English-born Revolutionary, political philosopher, and writer. Paine's influential pamphlet Common Sense (1776) was the first to advocate independence for the American colonies. During the American Revolution he wrote a series of sixteen pamphlets called The Crisis (1776–83), which helped inspire…
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Full text Article Paine, Thomas

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article PAINE, THOMAS (1737-1809)

From The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment
Thomas Paine was among the most radical of American Enlightenment thinkers. Some of his ideas, such as political independence for some of the British North American colonies, were realized in his time and became permanent features of the modern world. Others, such as an ideal of reasonable and…
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Full text Article PAINE, THOMAS 1737-1809

From Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850
Thomas Paine was a radical thinker and polemicist. While steeped in the political discourses of eighteenth-century Britain, his writings helped to transform the language and style in which political issues could be addressed. He involved himself as an author and an activist in the turbulent events…
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Full text Article Paine, Thomas (1737–1809),

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History
revolutionary, inventor, and political philosopher. Paine was born in Thetford, England, in 1737 and first became a political activist after trying his hand at stay-making, privateering, shop-owning, teaching, and government tax collecting. In 1772, he joined other excise officers seeking better…
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