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Thomas Paine biography |
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THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809), writer and revolutionary, wrote the populist pamphlet, Common Sense, a clarion call for American independence and democracy. ... Paine published Common Sense in January 1776, six months before the Continental Congress declared independence from Britain. ... Paine showed how any mind with a vivid vision and an understanding of mass media can effectively transform civilization for everyone. Early Life Thomas Paine was born 29 January 1737 in Thetford, England, the son of a Quaker corset maker unhappily married to an Anglican attorneys daughter. ... Paine left home at age 19 for a brief career as a privateer when a war broke out in 1756. He did not abide his fathers Quaker doctrines of absolute nonresistance, and he never declared himself as a member of the Society of Friends, nor did his pious aunt persuade Paine to declare for the Anglicans. ... Paine was intrigued by the philosophes, the French social thinkers and encyclopedae creators who upheld scientific reasoning over irrational religious dogma. ... Paine lived in the spirit of his times. Barely educated in youth (his grammar was never perfect), Paine loved ideas, absorbing insights from eclectic sources. ... Paine could think outside the lines. ... From 1757 to 1774, Paine successively worked in various towns as a corset maker, excise man, school teacher, and again as excise man with side ventures as a tobacconist and grocer. ... The charge apparently was trumped up because Paine was lobbying Parliament to increase the wages for all excise men, a rude and unusual action. ... Cut off from steady income, deep in debt, Paine declared bankruptcy. ... Along the way, Paine married twice, both marriages childless. ... The separation later would be used by enemies to discredit him, and loneliness seemed to plague him, but being without a mate did give Paine the liberty to follow his path. ... thomas paine BIOGRAPHY Early Life America England France Old Age WRITINGS WEBSITES US HISTORY Global Sense network democracy Analyzing ICANN Global Sense Governance Voices gTLD Links DNS Players DNS Articles Esther Dyson Interview Tom Paine TALK ABOUT IDEAS Tom Paine Forum . ... American Times Out of work and out of love, Paine now looked westward to America. Hed met Ben Franklin while agent for excise men, and Franklin was impressed enough to give Paine letters of introduction, asking his friends in Philadelphia to help this "ingenious, worthy young man." In October 1774, at age 37, Paine sailed from England and landed in Philadelphia on 30 November. ... Thomas Paine first published Common Sense anonymously in Philadelphia on 10 January 1776. ... Word spread that Paine was the author of Common Sense, so a second edition under Paines name was published on February 14th. Paine likely consulted with his friend Franklin about the pamphlet, but the work was his own, published at his own risk. ... Common Sense giving gave Paine fame at age 40, and perhaps the greatest sense of fulfillment in his entire life as he saw his essay inspire Americans declare their independence. Attacked by American loyalists like William Smith, Paine defended himself in Pennsylvania Magazine under the name "Forester. ... As the war dragged on and public support faded, as freezing troops fled from Valley Forge, Paine sat alone in the cold leaning over a drumhead, goes the legend, and he wrote the first in a series of essays called, The American Crisis, opening with the immortal words, "These are the times that try mens souls. ... Paine was rewarded for his literary efforts. ... Forced to resign his post by political pressure, some say Paine was hired at $1000 per year to write anonymous articles favoring France in American newspapers. ... thomas paine BIOGRAPHY Early Life America England France Old Age WRITINGS WEBSITES US HISTORY Global Sense "You will do me the justice to remember, that I have always strenuously supported the Right of every Man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. ... " Thomas Paine Age of Reason English Fare Paine gave up the clerks job in 1781 to join John Laurens on a trip to France to raise more military support funds, returning with needed army stores. Paine was not paid for foreign service, but his expenses for travel were covered. However, when peace came and American independence was won, Thomas Paine again was a poor man. ... A difficult personality, losing friends faster than he could influence people, still a restless spirit but now with coins in his pocket, Paine returned to England in 1887 seeking investors to construct an iron bridge, his own invention. Paine was in Yorkshire, talking about the benefits of modern technology, when the French masses stormed the Bastille. His bridge eventually did get built, although Paine lost money in the process. ... ) Common Sense standing up and his bridge not falling down helped Paine enter into polite society. ... Paine visited Paris in late 1789 to see the new regime for himself, then returned to London to spread his views about French democracy. A tale of travel between the two cities for the next three years, wherein Paine cast himself as an agent for world revolution, speaking and debating in parlors and in print with his heroes -- the liberals like Burke, Fox, Condorcet -- over the virtues and vices of the French and American revolutions, the merits of monarchies, and the human capacity for self rule. |
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