Thomas Paine, Craig Nelson
Thomas Paine, Craig Nelson
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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Thomas Paine
Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations

Author: Craig Nelson

Narrator: Paul Hecht

Unabridged: 15 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 03/11/2011


Synopsis

John Adams told Thomas Jefferson that "history is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine." Thomas Edison called him "the equal of Washington in making American liberty possible." He was a founder of both the United States and the French Revolution. He invented the phrase, "The United States of America." He rose from abject poverty in working-class England to the highest levels of the era's intellectual elite. And yet, by the end of his life, Thomas Paine was almost universally reviled. He had run afoul of Washington, broke with Robespierre and narrowly escaped the guillotine, and was all but exiled from his native England.

About Craig Nelson

Craig Nelson is the author of Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness and the New York Times bestseller, Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon, as well as several previous books, including The Age of Radiance (a PEN Award Finalist chosen as one of the year’s best books by NBC News, the American Institute of Physics, Kirkus Reviews, and FlavorWire), The First Heroes, Thomas Paine (winner of the Henry Adams Prize), and Let’s Get Lost (shortlisted for W.H. Smith’s Book of the Year). His writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, National Geographic, The New England Review, Popular Science, Reader’s Digest, and a host of other publications.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alan on March 17, 2025

Superb. More than just a well crafted biography of an American founding father, this book is a fascinating thrill ride through the Age of Enlightenment's republican revolutions in America and France of the late eighteenth century. Paine's outsized and enduring influence on politics and human rights......more

Goodreads review by Todd on June 15, 2009

Thomas Paine, revolutionary figure, pamphleteer and author of 'Common Sense', 'The Ascent of Man' and 'The Age of Reason' among others was a complex and contradictory figure of the war for independence. Alternately celebrated and reviled he was the best selling author of his day who donated the prof......more

Goodreads review by Jon on September 28, 2020

For me this one was tough sledding; I often found reasons to not pick it up, but I can’t quite say why. It is well written and (mostly) engaging. It has some interesting facts that were new to me. Part of the problem, as the author explains, is that there is little reliable first hand evidence about......more

Goodreads review by Katherine on May 31, 2017

There were a few minor historical inaccuracies (for example where Marat was stabbed), but overall an excellent read. It is, however, massively contextual, and you learn far more about other figures and the times of Thomas Paine than Thomas Paine himself. However, as a history lover, I really enjoyed......more

Goodreads review by Rossrn on April 03, 2008

I wasn't too familiar with Paine's life and only knew of his writings, though could not say that I had studied or known them well. Nelson did a good job of explaining in great detail Paine's life and work in the context of the times. In his lifetime, Paine was friends with Ben Franklin, Thomas Jeffer......more