Reviews for Thomas Paine and the promise of America
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
How the essence and works of the American Revolution firebrand have been lionized, vilified, largely ignored and strangely reclaimed. Kaye (Social Change, Univ. of Wisonsin, Green Bay) marshals the essential life details of Paine (1737–1809), erstwhile British corset-maker turned privateer and an immigrant to the Colonies on the eve of what he himself would indelibly characterize as "the times that try men's souls." But this is not a towering biography; instead, the author focuses on the impact of Paine's writing, among the most widely circulated printed material both in America and Europe in his day, and on the politics and statesmanship of a revolutionary age. Paine's ability to instantly make enemies was evident even in 1776, when his "Common Sense" pamphlet was rallying the cause for independence; John Adams, for instance, was so opposed to Paine's radical democratic ideas as to openly suggest that the circumstances of the latter's parentage involved a wolf bitch in rut with a wild boar. Unrelenting, however, whenever he perceived a drift toward Federalist concentration of power, Paine even produced material insulting George Washington. But in repudiating Christian scripture with terms like "mythology" in later works, Paine set the all-time negative example for American political figures (including his like-minded friend, Thomas Jefferson) to avoid. With open bias, Kaye laments the fact that Paine spent some two centuries alienated from the mainstream. It was not modern Democrats who rediscovered Paine—the original proponent of limited government, welfare support for the indigent and, yes, even social security—it was Ronald Reagan. Invoking the line from "Common Sense" that "We have it in our power to begin the world again" at the 1980 Republican Convention, Reagan reinvented Paine for the party, an act the author avers has actually subordinated Paine's ideals. First-rate analysis of original American political thought that has survived deep ecclesiastical enmity. Copyright ŠKirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Facing a saturated market for biographies of Thomas Paine, historian Kaye opts to chronicle the effect of his legacy. Reading like a roll call of populists, reformers, and radicals, Kaye's presentation aims to repossess Paine from conservatives who do not--and truly cannot--embrace him and his arguments. Kaye's audience may measure the assertion against the preliminary passages of this work, which outline Paine's life and paraphrase his revolutionary classics ( Common Sense, The American Crisis, and The Age of Reason). Underscoring Paine's championing of exceptionalism, the idea of America's uniqueness in world history (which has conservative roots in Puritanism as well as in the radicalism espoused by Paine and preferred by Kaye), the author recounts Paine revivals that have coincided with reform movements. For a universalistic reach beyond a movement's immediate aims, Paine has been ready-made, and Kaye summarizes how Paine has inspired abolitionists, suffragettes, workingmen, socialists of the Progressive and New Deal eras, and historians. --Gilbert Taylor Copyright 2005 Booklist
Library Journal
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This provocative book is as much a call to action as a standard biography. Through roughly the first half, Kaye (social change & development, Univ. of Wisconsin, Green Bay; The British Marxist Historians) treads on familiar ground, discussing Paine's profound impact in America and Europe from the 1770s to the 1790s. By the turn of the century, Paine's support of the French Revolution and deistic attacks on established churches made him anathema to many in America. Kaye then charts Paine's subsequent reputation during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when most political, religious, and business leaders condemned him (erroneously) as a drunkard, anarchist, Socialist, and atheist. At the same time, labor organizers, farmers' alliances, abolitionists, civil rights leaders, suffragists, populists, and individuals from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Eugene V. Debs were deeply influenced by him. Last, responding to the current tide of conservatism in politics and religion, Kaye urges readers to revive Paine's fervent espousal of tolerance and social justice. He goes a bit too far in finding Paine's influence in everything "good" that has happened in the past two centuries, but he does a fine job of tracing Paine's impact upon a wide variety of causes. Highly recommended.-T.J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kaye offers a masterful and eloquent study of the man he reestablishes as the key figure in the American Revolution and the radical politics that followed it. Focusing on close readings of Paine's major writings, Kaye devotes the first half of the book to Paine's role in the seething fervor for American liberty and independence and his influence on the French Revolution. In Common Sense (1763), which sold 150,000 copies in just a few months, Paine advocated self-government and democracy in the colonies, accused the British of corruption and tyranny, and urged "Americans" to rebel. He championed representative democracy and argued that government should act for the public good. Paine's contributions were not limited to his own time; Kaye traces Paine's influence on American rebels and reformers from William Lloyd Garrison and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Emma Goldman and Eugene Debs in the second half of his book. In 1980, Ronald Reagan quoted him-"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"-in his acceptance speech before the Republican National Convention. As historian Kaye (The American Radical) points out, Paine-"the greatest radical of a radical age"-would have been surprised to learn that conservatives, whose values he opposed, had used his words in their cause. 25 illus. not seen by PW. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
This interesting and readable book asserts Revolutionary radical Thomas Paine's role as one of the most important founders of the American Republic, and cites his ideas as an important source of inspiration to democratic reformers throughout US history. Kaye (Univ. of Wisconsin-Green Bay) comes well prepared to his task, having produced numerous works on the history of radicalism and citizenship (e.g., The Education of Desire: Marxists and the Writing of History, CH, Apr'93, 30-4533). Following a brief overview of Paine's life and ideas, the author convincingly shows the centrality of Paine's legacy to liberal reformers throughout US history. His last chapters criticize US conservatives' recent efforts to usurp this legacy as a distortion of Paine's ideas. The work contains some minor problems; there are a few small factual errors, the organization is a bit irregular (particularly in the latter chapters), and a few of the connections drawn between Paine and subsequent reformers appear somewhat strained. Despite these, Kaye has achieved great success as a public intellectual exhorting the US Left to reclaim Thomas Paine for its own and draw inspiration from his ideas. This important work should be read by all audiences. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. J. C. Arndt James Madison University
