His Early Life
• Thomas Paine was born on January 29, 1737, in a poor family, in rural Norfolk, England.
• Paine was educated at Thetford Grammar School since1744.
• Paine died at the age of 72, at 59 Grove Street in New York City on the morning of June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity.
• In late 1776 Paine published the American Crisis pamphlet series, to inspire the Americans in their battles against the British army.
• In 1777, Paine became secretary of the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs.
During the French Revolution
• Paine lived in France for most of the 1790s, becoming deeply involved in the French Revolution.
• He wrote the Rights of Man (1791), in part a defense of the French Revolution against its critics.
• Paine wrote his last important treatise Agrarian Justice in 1797.
His Death
• In 1802, Paine returned to America, only to find that his patriotic services had been forgotten in the wave of resentment against his " atheistical" (无 神 论 ) beliefs and the reaction of conservatives against the French Revolution.
• Theme: Common Sense presented the American colonists with an argument for freedom from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided. Paine wrote and reasoned in a style that common people understood; forgoing(摒弃) the philosophy and Latin references used by Enlightenment( 启 蒙 ) era writers, Paine structured Common Sense like a sermon and relied on Biblical references to make his case to the people. He connected independence with common dissenting Protestant(新教) beliefs as a means to present a distinctly American political identity. Historian Gordon S. Wood described Common Sense as, "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era".
• The pro-independence monograph pamphlet Common Sense he anonymously published on January 10, 1776, has gained him the title The Father of the American Revolution.
• He wrote his first pamphlet The Case of the Officers of the Excise in 1772.
Thetford Grammar School
During the American Revolution
• In 1774, Paine moved to London, where George Lewis Scott introduced him to Benjamin Franklin. Later Paine immigrated to the British American colonies in time to participate in the American Revolution.
• The pamphlet was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, before the American Revolution. Common Sense, signed "Written by an Englishman", became an immediate success.
Common Sense
the most incendiary and popular pamphlet
• There were mainly two reasons:
• For one, while the average Colonist was more educated than their European counterpart, European and Colonial elites agreed that common people had no place in government or political debates. By aiming for a popular audience, and writing in a straightforward and simple way, Paine made political ideas tangible for a common audience. This brought average Americans into political debate, creating a whole new political language. Paine's new style of political writing avoided using complex Latin phrases, instead opting for a more direct, concise style that helped make the information accessible to all.
Paine’s burial location
Paine’s Major Works
Common Sense(1776)《常识》 The American Crisis (1776) Rights of Man (1791)《人权论》 The Age of Reason(1793)
Common Sense (1776)
• He has been lived as stay-maker(裁缝), excise officer(税务员) and schoolteacher.
• In 1768, Paine was appointed to Lewes where he first became involved in civic matters. There he joined excise officers asking Parliament( 英 国 国 会 ) for better pay and working conditions.
French Revolution
• The book Rights of Man , an abstract political tract critical of monarchies(君主政体) and European social institutions, which finally appeared on March 13, 1791, with the help of his friends, and sold well.
• The second reason involves the way the vast majority of people felt about the idea of independence from British rule. Except for a few radical thinkers, the people of the colonies were "up on the fence" about freedom. Individuals were in conflict with themselves. Common Sense was an unequivocal call for independence, and many Americans wavering between reconciliation with and independence from Britain were won over to separation by Paine's powerful polemic against monarchy.