Thomas Paine was one of the greatest advocates of freedom in history, and his Declaration of the Rights of Man, first published in 1791, is the key to his reputation. Inspired by his outrage at Edmund Burkeβs attack on the French Revolution, Paineβs text is a passionate defense of manβs inalienable rights. Since its publication, Rights of Man has been celebrated, criticized, maligned, suppressed, and co-opted. But in Thomas Paineβs Rights of Man, the polemicist and commentator Christopher Hitchens, βat his characteristically incisive best,β marvels at its forethought and revels in its contentiousness (The Times, London). Hitchens is a political descendant of the great pamphleteer, βa Tom Paine for our troubled times.β (The Independent, London) In this βengaging account of Paineβs life and times [that is] well worth readingβ he demonstrates how Paineβs book forms the philosophical cornerstone of the United States, and how, βin a time when both rights and reason are under attack,β Thomas Paineβs life and writing βwill always be part of the arsenal on which we shall need to depend.β (New Statesman)
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