Thomas Paine and the Promise of America - Hardcover

Kaye, Harvey J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080908970X ISBN 13: 9780809089703

Publisher: Hill and Wang, 2005

Synopsis

America’s unfinished revolution

The revolutionary spirit that runs through American history and whose founding father and greatest advocate was Thomas Paine is fiercely traced in Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. Showing how Paine turned Americans into radicals—and how we have remained radicals at heart ever since—Harvey J. Kaye presents the nation’s democratic story with wit, subtlety, and, above all, passion.

Paine was one of the most remarkable political writers of the modern world and the greatest radical of a radical age. Through writings like Common Sense—and words such as “The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth,” “We have it in our power to begin the world over again,” and “These are the times that try men’s souls”—he not only turned America’s colonial rebellion into a revolutionary war but, as Kaye demonstrates, articulated an American identity charged with exceptional purpose and promise.

Beginning with Paine’s life and ideas and following their vigorous influence through to our own day, Thomas Paine and the Promise of America reveals how, while the powers that be repeatedly sought to suppress, defame, and most recently co-opt Paine’s memory, generations of radical and liberal Americans turned to Paine for inspiration as they endeavored to expand American freedom, equality, and democracy.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

The revolutionary spirit that runs throughout American history and whose founding father and greatest advocate was Thomas Paine is fiercely traced in THOMAS PAINE AND THE PROMISE OF AMERICA. Showing how Paine turned Americans into radicals---and how we have remained radicals at heart ever since---Harvey J. Kaye presents the nation's democratic story with wit, subtlety, and, above all, passion.

Paine was one of the most remarkable political writers of the modern world and the greatest radical of a radical age. Through writings like Common Sense---and words such as "The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth, " "We have it in our power to begin the world over again," and "These are the times that try men's souls"---he not only turned America's colonial rebellion into a revolutionary war but, as Kaye demonstrates, articulated an American identity charged with exceptional purpose and promise.

Beginning with Paine's life and ideas and following their vigorous influence through to our own day, Thomas Paine and the Promise of America reveals how, while the powers that be repeatedly sought to suppress, defame, and most recently co-opt Paine's memory, generations of radical and liberal Americans turned to Paine for inspiration as they endeavored to expand American freedom, equality, and democracy.

About the Author:

Harvey J. Kaye is professor of Social Change and Development at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, an award-winning author and the editor of numerous books on history and politics.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hill and Wang
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 080908970X
• ISBN 13: 9780809089703
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336