Thomas Paine was born on January 29th, 1737, in Norfolk, England, into a middle class household (Philp, Mark). At the age of twelve, Paine was withdrawn from school so that he could apprentice under his father as a ‘staymaker’, and eventually began to make money which in turn would go towards helping the family (Philp, Mark). In 1759, Paine married Mary Lambert, but she died the following year in childbirth; after enrolling as an officer in, and being fired from, the English army, he continued to try, in vain, to be re-hired as an officer (Philp, Mark). During the 1760s, Paine worked as a teacher, a staymaker, and a tobacconist, the latter of which he had inherited control of through his most recent marriage with the deceased proprietor’s daughter (Philp, Mark). Paine’s tobacco business, his marriage, and his social status, after a misstep in managerial endeavors, suddenly dropped out from beneath him; penniless, jobless, wife-less, and at the urging of Benjamin Franklin, Paine chose to set sail towards the New World from England, in April, 1774 (Philp, Mark). In America, Paine soon became the editor of Pennsylvania Magazine, just as the American Revolution was starting to get its claws; from this point on, Paine became an avid advocate for the creation of a new independent nation (Philp, Mark). The first essay that Paine published was titled, Common Sense, which, “At a time when many still hoped for reconciliation with Britain, demonstrated to many the inevitability of separation,” (Philp, Mark). After the American Revolution, Paine settles down for several years and completes a good deal of scientific and political research/investigation; in 1791, after becoming more and more interested with the path of the French Revolution, and reading a gushing, pro-monarchy fueled dismissal of the French Revolution by Edmund Burke, Paine writes the first part of what is considered by many his Magnum Opus, Rights of Man (Philp, Mark).

The publishing origin of Rights of Man is an interesting journey, which began with a book titled, Reflections on the Revolution in France, by Edmund Burke (Chaires, Christine C.). Burke’s book took a stance in opposition to the French Revolution, insisting that the violence and abhorrence of tradition were putting the status quo at risk: and, ultimately, that if a nation wished to change, it must change through the channels which are put in place before it, not by disruptive means (Chaires, Christine C.). Burke was a purveyor of hereditary succession, which is the passing down of power by birthright (in a monarchy, for example), as well as a believer in France’s inability to enact change by means of revolution without losing the principles upon which the French Revolution was founded (Chaires, Christine C.). On the other side of the philosophical spectrum, Paine believed that the French Revolution was absolutely necessary to free the French people from the clutches of a monarchy which had taken its power too far (Rights of Man). The bulk of the first half of Rights of Man operates within the context of the French Revolution, the American Revolution, the then-current state of English affairs, and the rebellion in England of 1688. The overall book works towards three goals: to question and defeat all of Mr. Burke’s assertions, to establish and defend a set of universal natural rights to which all men are privy, and to argue for the implementation of representative government in place of hereditary succession. In the second half of the novel, Paine eases off from his attacks on Burke, slightly, and works to outline governments in different forms; pros, cons, questions, and solutions.

The first half of the book focuses largely on the French Revolution, and what Paine brings up as the idea of hereditary succession. Hereditary succession, as previously stated, is the passing down of power, land, or resources through heredity, as opposed to representation. One example of the absurdity of hereditary succession, which Paine brings up, came about during the 1688 ruling of the English Parliament, in which the English government essentially forced their citizenry into abdicating rights which they had recently won in the Revolution of 1688:

“The English Parliament of 1688 did a certain thing, which, for themselves and their constituents, they had a right to do, and which it appeared right should be done: But, in addition to this right, which they possessed by delegation, they set up another right by assumption, that of binding and controlling posterity to the end of time.” (Paine, 9)

As to the irrational abuse of power involved in binding Englishmen within a government for all posterity, Paine expresses that:

“The circumstances of the world are always changing, and the opinions of men change also; and as government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it. That which may be thought right and found convenient in one age, may be thought wrong and found inconvenient in another.” (Paine, 12)

The reason why Paine is so interested in heredity is because, at this time in England, the Monarchy began trying to implement legally binding oaths which demanded the loyalty of all its subjects in perpetuity and throughout all posterity. Paine realized that not only is this practically impossible in the short term, it is also impossible to maintain the terms of such an agreement for the rest of time. Paine furthers his argument against any form of hereditary succession, by adding, “Mr. Burke talks about what he calls an hereditary crown, as if it were some production of Nature; or as if, like Time, it had a power to operate, not only independently, but in spite of man; or as if it were a thing or a subject universally consented to.” (Paine, 75). This page shows Paine’s true disgust with the idea that birth alone determines the ruler of a nation: he believes the ruler of a nation should either be elected by means of a representative process, or, if the means by which to reform the government are being oppressed, by means of revolution. In addition, at a day to day level, primogeniture worked to increase poverty (in cases of those too impoverished to care for more than one child, children who were not first born were abandoned) and decrease in trust amongst siblings in the ruling classes: this led to whittling down the number of the ruling class while increasing their power, and, conversely, the extrapolation of poverty and a decrease in power for the poor (Paine, 82).

For the next half of the book, Paine begins to look at governments in action: citing examples, asking questions, countering popular thought, and always searching for ways to improve the current state of affairs. The first chapter focuses on Society and Civilization. In this chapter, Paine argues that, “Society already provides everything for itself which government supposedly claims to supply,” (Paine, 108). He goes on to question what type of government best fits human nature, as opposed to finding a way to fit human nature into the proverbial traditional box: this is incredibly radical thinking for this time period, showing no signs of the hesitation which accompanies the Puritanical and Colonial writings from before Paine’s time. Here is a man who is openly critiquing whether or not government is truly necessary, something which no one had even questioned up until this point, and something which in any country other than America would likely have ended in some form of bodily recompense. Paine is rigid in his stances in this section, far moreso than in the first, that excess and inequality of taxation are tools of the aristocrat and enemies of the proletariat, and that these tools works only to divide and oppress. In the second and third chapters, Paine traces the ancestry of the Old forms of government, focusing on England. Paine explains that England, and all aristocracies and monarchies, are founded upon first, a conqueror seizing control of land, followed by the conqueror implementing taxes and a personal army, followed by consolidation through further conquering of the surrounding territories into a cohesive (whether by force or otherwise) tribe, city, and eventually, perhaps, a country (Paine, 114). The problem, Paine elaborates, is that once this country is founded, it has been founded upon war, and soon, “War and extortion [of taxes] become the only means by which the monarchy can retain control,” (Paine, 115). In the fourth chapter, Paine explains what exactly constitutions are, what they should be used for, and how they should operate in regards to government. Paine is of the belief that constitutions are to act as something made by the people of nation, for the benefit of those people, and should not grant the government power to reform itself, though reserves the right of the people to reform the government as they please (Paine, 122). More importantly, Paine views constitutions as operating wholly separate from government: that the constitution is the law by which the government operates, and not the other way around (Paine, 122). Finally, the fifth and final chapter of the novel covers the ways and means of improvements of the old forms of government. Throughout this chapter, Paine provides suggestions for how to lower poverty, how to take care of the elderly, how to take care of soldiers, and how to educate children, by using very little tax money, and getting rid of the trappings of government. It is important to note that Thomas Paine, in the second half of the book, is far more adamant about the total rejection of Non-Representative government than he was in the first: this is due to a slight shift in views on the nature of hereditary succession, coming after the close of the French Revolution.

Rights of Man is simple in form, though complicated in subject matter, and the role it played in solidifying America in a pursuit for the age of reason is incalculable. Written in a way which can be read by anyone with an understanding of basic english syntax, the book became an instant success, selling over 100,000 copies in the colonies alone (Philp, Mark). This type of circulation is indicative of the kind of philosophical bombshells that Thomas Paine was releasing: In a time of high-tensions (France about to breach into the realm of representative government) as well as low literacy rates, the ability to write at a level comprehensible by a large number of the middle class about topics that were previously inaccessible allowed for solidification, and eventual expansion, of Paine’s ideas on social welfare. Modern social security, medicaid, obamacare, public schools, public works, etc. all have bases for their bureaucratic operations in Rights of Man. The ideas of religious freedom, civil versus natural rights, rights for slaves, and other ideas far ahead of his time, are plentiful in each chapter of Rights of Man. The constant questioning of authority, of tradition, of titles, of origin of government, and of the nature of man, mark the start of the Age of Reason, which Thomas Paine helped usher in at a lightning pace. Even some of his political ideology, especially towards the end of his life, seems to be pointing towards an anarcho-syndicalist vision of the world, something one hundred years ahead of his time. With the weight of the American Revolution upon his shoulders, Thomas Paine gave to us Common Sense; likewise, in this way, Rights of Man stands, much like America against England, as a total rebel in the face of colonial and puritanical values, monarchical pressures, and hereditary succession. Rights also stands as a vital historical reminder of the single thing that we can do when trapped in the cage of a greedy, inhumane government: revolt.