Man of Reason: The Life of Thomas Paine

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Pickle Partners Publishing, 02/12/2018 - 343 páginas
HERE IS THE FIRST twentieth-century biography of Thomas Paine to be based on original research in France and England as well as in this country. If for no other reason than that, Man of Reason would be a valuable book, because few men in history have been so maligned and misunderstood as this fiery defender of the rights of man. This biography will do much to dispense the mythology that has gathered about the name of Thomas Paine.

The author re-creates Paine’s stormy life as a paradoxical one of alternating acclaim and rejection by a fickle public in three countries. The first to call publicly for American independence and a constitutional convention, Thomas Paine was given no voice in drawing up either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. He campaigned for popular rights in England; and as his books circulated by the thousands, the British government hounded him from the country.

In France, he sat in the National Convention, then narrowly escaped the guillotine for allegedly “anti-revolutionary” sympathies. For eight years he worked to promote Franco-American friendship and was denounced for his efforts.

Basing this biography on his thorough research of newly discovered manuscript and printed sources, Alfred Owen Aldridge has been able to give important new insight into the man who was one of the most eloquent defenders of humanity but how died in lonely obscurity, unrecognized and unrewarded.

“The strength of Aldridge’s book lies in its thorough investigation of primary sources. The author worked to good purpose in French and British archives, not just the repositories in Paris and London, but also in various provincial collections. What Paine’s life most needed was a scholar who could find his way around in European libraries. The result is a book that supersedes all previous biographies of Paine.”—James Woodress, Science & Society
 

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Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Civil Servant 9
The Summer Time of Wit 20
An Uncivil Rebel 23
The Modern Tacitus 31
The Deane Affair 45
State Clerk and Diplomatic Agent 55
A Bonus a Bank and a Bridge 71
Feud with Cheetham 216
Last Days 219
Recapitulation 222
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 226
NOTES 227
A CIVIL SERVANT 227
AN UNCIVIL REBEL 227
THE MODERN TACITUS 228

A Political Bridge 83
The Rights of Man 94
A Republican Manifesto for France 102
The Revolution of the World 106
Continuation of The Rights of Man 110
Where Liberty Is Not 119
The Rights of Man on Trial 128
A King on Trial 132
A Firebrand an Trial 136
In Luxembourg Prison 144
Return to the Convention 155
The Age of Reason 160
Friendship with Monroe 166
Amateur Diplomat Once More 174
Relations with the Directory 178
Baltimore and Washington 191
New Rochelle and New York 196
Jarvis and Carpenter 204
The Defense of New York 211
THE DEANE AFFAIR 229
STATE CLERK AND DIPLOMATIC AGENT 230
A BONUS A BANK AND A BRIDGE 231
A POLITICAL BRIDGE 232
THE RIGHTS OF MAN 232
A REPUBLICAN MANIFESTO FOR FRANCE 233
A FIREBRAND ON TRIAL 235
IN LUXEMBOURG PRISON 236
RETURN TO THE CONVENTION 236
THE AGE OF REASON 236
FRIENDSHIP WITH MONROE 237
RELATIONS WITH THE DIRECTORY 237
BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON 238
NEW ROCHELLE AND NEW YORK 238
JARVIS AND CARPENTER 239
THE DEFENSE OF NEW YORK 239
RECAPITULATION 240
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 241
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Alfred Owen Aldridge (1915-2005) was a professor of French and comparative literature, founder-editor of the journal Comparative Literature Studies, and author of books on a wide range of literature studies. He was born in Buffalo, New York on December 16, 1915. He was awarded degrees by Indiana University, the University of Georgia for his M.S., and Duke University, where he took his Ph.D. In 1952-1953 he had started the Fulbright Program in France, which led to his undertaking a second doctorate, on the subject of “La Littérature Comparée” which he completed at the University of Paris in 1955. Following his doctorates he was employed in the department of English at the University of Maryland, then in 1967 became professor of French and comparative literature at the University of Illinois. Dr. Aldridge published widely and became well-known as a pioneer of colonial American literary studies and as an explorer of East-West literary relations. He served as president of the American Comparative Literature Association. In 1963, together with Melvin J. Friedman, he founded the journal Comparative Literature Studies, which he edited or co-edited for many years. He retired in 1986 and, following his retirement, his lifetime’s work was awarded the unusual honor by his colleagues of three festschrifts: Deism, Masonry and the Enlightenment: Essays Honoring Alfred Owen Aldridge (1987) by J. A. Leo Lemay (ed.); Aesthetics and the Literature of Ideas: Essays in Honor of A. Owen Aldridge (1990) by François Jost and Melvin J. Friedman (eds.); and Crosscurrents in the Literatures of Asia and the West: Essays in Honor of A. Owen Aldridge (1997) by Masayuki Akiyama and Yiu-nam Leung (eds.). Dr. Aldridge died on January 29, 2005, aged 89. The A. Owen Aldridge Prize, an annual prize-paper written by a graduate student and published by Comparative Literature Studies, was established in his memory.

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