This is an outstandingl portrait fascinating, wonderfully complex genius. I have read Common Sense and some of American Crisis. This book makes me want to read them again and the rest oif Paine's work. ( )

Thomas Paine's involvement in both the American and French revolutions solidified his place in history and Nelson’s book is one of both praise and folly. Paine had major flaws and this book does not gloss over them. Thomas Paine skillfully imparts the ideals of liberalism, the Enlightenment, and the Revolutionary War as well as thoroughly investigating the life of one our founding fathers. This was a very rewarding book.

http://lifelongdewey.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/320-thomas-paine-by-craig-nelson/ ( )

This was my introduction to Thomas Paine, insightful and informative. A bit slow in later chapters. Nice set up with a beginning chapter describing an event following Paine's death and burial. An interestng revolutionary and progressive thinker, whose impact and significance is presented in a way leaving a lasting understanding of the man, his life's mission (from his perspective) and the reasons for it. ( )

Thomas Paine was the Forrest Gump of the Enlightenment. He bumbled along through life, usually with no money, no real job, or no home of his own. Yet he was involved in the most important events, and with the most notable figures, of the Eighteenth Century.

Paine (then Pain) spent his first 37 years in England when, separated from his wife, bankrupt, and fired from his job, he decided to go to America. It was then that he precipitously met the most famous American in Europe, Benjamin Franklin, who became his lifelong friend and his immediate benefactor by providing him letters of introduction.

Arriving in America in 1774 with his cache of Franklin letters, Paine was a delegate at the first Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He began another lifelong friendship, this time with George Washington. While struggling along as a magazine writer and editor, he wrote Common Sense, which sparked the American Revolution. Although he did not fight in the Revolution, he was often at the front lines with Washington, and his line, “These are the times that try men’s souls” was the troops’ rallying cry.

Following American independence, Paine did not hold office like many of the other Founding Fathers. But he was sent to France to represent America in negotiating peace with Britain. He wrote Rights of Man, which was a world-wide best seller and sparked the French Revolution. It also earned Paine, in abstentia, a British death sentence for sedition.

During the French Revolution, Paine was elected to the French National Assembly, where he was the only member to vote against beheading Louis XVI. He got himself crosswise with Robespierre and was thrown into prison, destined for the guillotine, when the tide turned against Robespierre and American diplomacy got him released.

While waiting in France until it was safe to sail to America, Paine wrote The Age of Reason. He also provided military advice to Napoleon Bonaparte about how to invade Britain. He returned to America upon the invitation Thomas Jefferson.

Nelson does a good job with the story of Paine’s life and adventures. His “grand theme” gets a little attenuated towards the end as he tried to tie everything together. But overall this is an entertaining overview of this Founding Father. ( )

A well-written biography of Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, The Crisis, The Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason, among others. Paine was one of the primary intellectual and philosophical forces driving the American Revolution, stating complex issues in clear and simple language so that all could understand. He went on to participate in the French Revolution, although his views were sidelined by the parties responsible for the Terror and he barely escaped alive.

Reviled as a drunken atheist by his political enemies (the English crown and aristocracy and the American Federalists), Paine held fast to his Enlightenment ideals despite the changing political landscapes in which he found himself. The Age of Reason, often cited as the most damning evidence of his atheism, was actually a well-reasoned explanation of and defense of Deism, a form of religious belief that rejected all existing churches in favor of awe of and belief in a benevolent, but distant, god.

Understanding and vigorously pursuing Paine’s ideals could still serve us well today. They may be our only hope for making the world a better place for all. ( )