Thomas Paine Flashcards
give an example of how Paine was influential.
Paine wrote two influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution which inspired the Patriots to declare independence in 1776.
what was a reason for Paine writing “The Rights Of Man”?
to defend the French Revolution and to attack conservative writer Edmund Burk.
Why and when was a writ for Paine’s arrest issued?
because his work advocated the people to overthrow their government and a writ for his arrest was issued in early 1792.
how did Paine spread his work further?
all profits were used to make cheaper copies of the book, allowing a large working-class readership.
how was the book influential?
it gave huge encouragement to the corresponding societies and radical groups of the 1790s
how many copies of the second part were sold and read?
when it appeared in 1792, contemporaries thought there were 200 000 copies sold and by the time of his death in 1809, there were 1,500,000 copies sold in Europe. however, the readership would have been much larger as copies would have been spread between groups and read aloud at meetings.
