Thomas Paine

Britain, America, and France in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution

J. C. D. Clark

A revisionist, demythologized history of Thomas Paine, England's greatest revolutionary
Offers a brand new account of the 'age of revolution', and of the alleged political implementation of 'the Enlightenment'
Provides a new interpretation of the American and French Revolutions
Explains how the politics of the eighteenth century (Enlightenment, natural rights) related to those of the nineteenth (utilitarianism, socialism)
Takes intellectual control of the radical and revolutionary traditions

Thomas Paine

Britain, America, and France in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution

J. C. D. Clark

Description

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was England's greatest revolutionary: no other reformer was as actively involved in events of the scale of the American and French Revolutions, and none wrote such best-selling texts with the impact of Common Sense and Rights of Man. No one else combined the roles of activist and theorist, or did so in the 'age of revolutions', fundamental as it was to the emergence of the 'modern world'. But his fame meant that he was taken up and reinterpreted for current use by successive later commentators and politicians, so that the 'historic Paine' was too often obscured by the 'usable Paine'.

J. C. D. Clark explains Paine against a revised background of early- and mid-eighteenth-century England. He argues that Paine knew and learned less about events in America and France than was once thought. He de-attributes a number of publications, and passages, hitherto assumed to have been Paine's own, and detaches him from a number of causes (including anti-slavery, women's emancipation, and class action) with which he was once associated. Paine's formerly obvious association with the early origin and long-term triumph of natural rights, republicanism, and democracy needs to be rethought. As a result, Professor Clark offers a picture of radical and reforming movements as more indebted to the initiatives of large numbers of men and women in fast-evolving situations than to the writings of a few individuals who framed lasting, and eventually triumphant, political discourses.

Thomas Paine

Britain, America, and France in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution

J. C. D. Clark

Introduction: the Age of Paine?
PART I. DISCOURSES AND CONTEXTS
1:Contexts and biography
2:Pathways of political change: from (anti-)Jacobite to Jacobin
3:Discourses and their exponents
PART II. TEXTS AND CONTINGENCIES
4:The unexpected revolution: America, 1774-1787
5:The unexpected revolution: France, 1787-1802
6:Paine, religion, and politics: the Deist legacy
PART III. DIVERGENCES AND LEGACIES
7:Receptions and reinterpretations: Paine's lasting influence
8:Conclusion: the Age of Revolution, the Enlightenment and the dynamics of reforming traditions
Appendix: Paine de-attributions
Bibliography
Index

Thomas Paine

Britain, America, and France in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution

J. C. D. Clark

Author Information

J. C. D. Clark, Hall Distinguished Professor of British History, University of Kansas

Jonathan Clark was educated as an historian at Cambridge, where he was a Fellow of Peterhouse. At Oxford he was a Fellow of All Souls College, and in the United States was a Visiting Professor at the Committee on Social Thought of the University of Chicago. Latterly he has been Hall Distinguished Professor of British History at the University of Kansas. His special interests are in the 'long eighteenth century', 1660-1832, on both sides of the Atlantic, especially in the themes of religion and politics.

Thomas Paine

Britain, America, and France in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution

J. C. D. Clark

Reviews and Awards

"Clark has done much to (re)invigorate eighteenth-century British history scholarship, and his new tome Thomas Paine will surely raise interest." - R. J. W. Mills, Queen Mary, University of London, European History Quarterly

"an ambitious project of reviving the intellectual context surrounding Paine's tracts in the North Atlantic world ... this book is a welcome contribution to scholarship" - Minchul Kim, History

"Clark provides an erudite account of Paine [...] this controversial account is likely to spark useful debate among Paine scholars and Enlightenment experts. Summing Up: Recommended." - M. G. Spencer, Brock University, CHOICE

"J. C. D. Clark has taken considerable trouble, in this carefully presented and closely argued monograph, to avoid anachronisms and unwarranted assumptions." - MICHAEL SONENSCHER, King's College, Cambridge

"Clark's book goes into the finest details about the events of Paine's and the character of his thought ... he has produced an encyclopaedic study of Thomas Paine and his environment." - Stan Newens, Europe for the Many

"Must read for any who are seriously interested in political theory, the American Revolution, and Thomas Paine and his legacy." - Journal of the American Revolution

"Clarks erudition is nothing if not formidable. His willingness to argue provocatively against the grain is refreshing... we need voices like Clarks, if only to keep us grounded." - Darrin M McMahon, Literary Review

"Ingenious and enthralling." - Colin Kidd, The Guardian

"A very substantial work of historical scholarship." - Jesse Norman, The Spectator