Customer Reviews
Harveys Ale - By: Mr. B. Quinnell, 19 Jun 2007 
Harveys of Sussex brew a beer callled Thomas Paine, what better recommendation, "great bloke, great beer" down with religion
an inaccurate book that adds nothing new - By: Mp Luthy, 31 Jan 2007 
hitchens has taken the vast majority of his info from john keane's biography, & he has done it with many errors.
most infuriatingly he doesn't include any discussion on the impact both parts of Rights of Man had in the UK, perhaps in targetting an american audience he has left out the reaction of the country the book was written for.
the introduction to my penguin copy of rights of man proves to be far more informative & well researched.
the only upside of this book, if its a quality you seek, is that it is a light read.
A wonderful mental exercise for those who love freedom - By: Theodore A. Rushton, 24 Oct 2006 Everyone who loves freedom will adore this book.
Buy it. You don't need to read further. Buy it, you'll love it. But, if you're a masochist willing to submit yourself to my views, read on. Then buy it.
This is Hitchens at his best; a chronic kicker who thinks he's clever & would dearly love to be the Tom Paine of today. He's writing about a genuine soulmate; both men are champions of the chaos of change & the beauty of unrestrained libertarianism. Hitchens understands Paine, because he's a carbon copy of his hero -- tenth carbon, perhaps, but nonetheless a genuine copycat. This is Hitchens at his best.
It's delightful because it makes you think. It doesn't matter if Hitchens is right or wrong. What matters is that every reader will finish this book with a greater & profound understanding of the freedom that was bursting out in the 1750-1848 era. It's my view that revolution is 90 percent fluff & fury; Paine was the 'Dalllas cheerleader' in charge of fluff for the American Revolution, with the added bonus of a doctoral dissertation on freedom in 'Common Sense'.
Hitchens astutely quotes Madame Roland who described Paine as ". . . better at lighting the way for revolution than drafting a constitution . . . or the day-to-day work of a legislator". True enough. But, take away Paine, & the Revolution would have lost its most enthusiastic & articulate voice. The eventual US government was invented by Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Madison & the like; but, without Paine they might never have had the opportunity to invent a new government.
Paine & Hitchens can be grievously wrong, such as attacking hereditary institutions. By their standards, the plebian roots of Hitler & Stalin would make them two of the greatest men of the past century. By the same standard, Roosevelt & Churchill, both leaders with rich hereditary backgrounds, would be two of the worst.
So? Those issues are nitpicking trivialities. Paine is justly one of the major figures of the American Revolution because of 'Common Sense'. This was no flash-in-the-pan of inspired genius; Hitchens eloquently outlines the scope of Paine's reasoning & ideals in 'The Rights of Man' which is the central theme of this book. It takes a soulmate to fully understand Paine, & Hitchens is that man. He's a shadow of Paine's intellect; but, better to be a shadow than a spotlight that misses its mark.
If you read no other Hitchens, read this one book. If you read everything else of Hitchens, this book will surprise you for its intelligence. No writer (or reviewer) can be irrelevant alll the time. This book is relevance at its best, first-rate reading in a time of an "imperial presidency" which leaves the wildest fantasies of King George III as amusing pecadillos.
Buy it. You didn't need to read this far. Buy it, you'll love it. If you're intelligent, you'll thumb through it again & again, underlining, noting, highlighting, thinking. If you're not intelligent, you'll think Hitchens is brilliant. Whatever. Buy it.
(Hopefully, someone is at work on an equivalent cogent concise analysis of 'Reflections on the Revolution in France' by Edmund Burke.)
