Craig Nelson, Thomas Paine. Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations, London: Profile Books, 2007

Thomas Paine’s lived through key periods in British, American and French history, and he was the most popular author of the eighteenth century. After thirty-seven not very successful years in Britain he came to America in 1774 just as the colonists were organising serious resistance to the British government. He plunged into journalism and his 1776 pamphlet Common Sense gained a huge sale. Its appearance transformed the situation, for hitherto American independence from Britain was hardly con..