HERE IS THE FIRST twentieth-century biography of Thomas Paine to be based on original research in France and England as well as in this country. If for no other reason than that, Man of Reason would be a valuable book, because few men in history have been so maligned and misunderstood as this fiery defender of the rights of man. This biography will do much to dispense the mythology that has gathered about the name of Thomas Paine. The author re-creates Paine’s stormy life as a paradoxical one of alternating acclaim and rejection by a fickle public in three countries. The first to call publicly for American independence and a constitutional convention, Thomas Paine was given no voice in drawing up either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. He campaigned for popular rights in England; and as his books circulated by the thousands, the British government hounded him from the country. In France, he sat in the National Convention, then narrowly escaped the guillotine for allegedly “anti-revolutionary” sympathies. For eight years he worked to promote Franco-American friendship and was denounced for his efforts. Basing this biography on his thorough research of newly discovered manuscript and printed sources, Alfred Owen Aldridge has been able to give important new insight into the man who was one of the most eloquent defenders of humanity but how died in lonely obscurity, unrecognized and unrewarded. “The strength of Aldridge’s book lies in its thorough investigation of primary sources. The author worked to good purpose in French and British archives, not just the repositories in Paris and London, but also in various provincial collections. What Paine’s life most needed was a scholar who could find his way around in European libraries. The result is a book that supersedes all previous biographies of Paine.”—James Woodress, Science & Society
A. Owen Aldridge shows that early American literature is not an isolated phenomenon, but one affected by the same influences which operated upon other literatures of the period. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
The essays in this volume provide a straightforward approach to East-West literary relationships, in contrast to the marginalized and Eurocentric perspectives that still dominate mainstream comparative literature.
Taking an approach different from (hat of earlier biographers, A. Owen Aldridge examines Voltaire's literary and intellectual career chronologically, using the methods both of comparative literature and of the history of ideas. The resulting biography portrays a fascinating personality as well as a great writer and thinker. Voltaire is revealed not only through his correspondence, here extensively quoted, but through the statements others made about him in anecdotes, memoirs, and other contemporary documents. New information is introduced regarding Voltaire's sojourn in England, his later relations with English men of letters, his domestic turmoils at the court of Frederick the Great, and his contact with French contemporaries such as Montesquieu and Diderot. For the first time in any biography, attention is given to Voltaire's extensive knowledge of Spanish literature and its influence on his own work, particularly Candide. Voltaire is portrayed as a conscious participant in the Enlightenment. In his early years he was interested primarily in aesthetics and abstract philosophy; later, he passionately dedicated himself to humanitarian causes with ideological implications. Professor Aldridge brings forward evidence pointing to the contrast between these two periods in Voltaire's life. Originally published in 1975. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Argues that the discipline of comparative literature should be expanded to include all of the world, not only a favored segment, and that translation represents a legitimate and indispensable tool for readers.
The essays in this volume provide a straightforward approach to East-West literary relationships, in contrast to the marginalized and Eurocentric perspectives that still dominate mainstream comparative literature.
Argues that the discipline of comparative literature should be expanded to include all of the world, not only a favored segment, and that translation represents a legitimate and indispensable tool for readers.
With the publication of Liberty Tree, acclaimed historian Alfred F. Young presents a selection of his seminal writing as well as two provocative, never-before-published essays. Together, they take the reader on a journey through the American Revolution, exploring the role played by ordinary women and men (called, at the time, people out of doors) in shaping events during and after the Revolution, their impact on the Founding generation of the new American nation, and finally how this populist side of the Revolution has fared in public memory. Drawing on a wide range of sources, which include not only written documents but also material items like powder horns, and public rituals like parades and tarring and featherings, Young places ordinary Americans at the center of the Revolution. For example, in one essay he views the Constitution of 1787 as the result of an intentional accommodation by elites with non-elites, while another piece explores the process of ongoing negotiations would-be rulers conducted with the middling sort; women, enslaved African Americans, and Native Americans. Moreover, questions of history and modern memory are engaged by a compelling examination of icons of the Revolution, such as the pamphleteer Thomas Paine and Boston's Freedom Trail. For over forty years, history lovers, students, and scholars alike have been able to hear the voices and see the actions of ordinary people during the Revolutionary Era, thanks to Young's path-breaking work, which seamlessly blends sophisticated analysis with compelling and accessible prose. From his award-winning work on mechanics, or artisans, in the seaboard cities of the Northeast to the all but forgotten liberty tree, a major popular icon of the Revolution explored in depth for the first time, Young continues to astound readers as he forges new directions in the history of the American Revolution.
A. Owen Aldridge shows that early American literature is not an isolated phenomenon, but one affected by the same influences which operated upon other literatures of the period. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Taking an approach different from (hat of earlier biographers, A. Owen Aldridge examines Voltaire's literary and intellectual career chronologically, using the methods both of comparative literature and of the history of ideas. The resulting biography portrays a fascinating personality as well as a great writer and thinker. Voltaire is revealed not only through his correspondence, here extensively quoted, but through the statements others made about him in anecdotes, memoirs, and other contemporary documents. New information is introduced regarding Voltaire's sojourn in England, his later relations with English men of letters, his domestic turmoils at the court of Frederick the Great, and his contact with French contemporaries such as Montesquieu and Diderot. For the first time in any biography, attention is given to Voltaire's extensive knowledge of Spanish literature and its influence on his own work, particularly Candide. Voltaire is portrayed as a conscious participant in the Enlightenment. In his early years he was interested primarily in aesthetics and abstract philosophy; later, he passionately dedicated himself to humanitarian causes with ideological implications. Professor Aldridge brings forward evidence pointing to the contrast between these two periods in Voltaire's life. Originally published in 1975. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Covering Paine's intellectual career between 1775 and 1787, Aldridge summarizes his work as an apprentice magazine editor, sketches the publishing history of Common Sense and its doctrines, and shows the relations of these ideas to those in the works of Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. Seeking to create a just and ordered society through reason and choice instead of through passive submission to accident and force, he developed such themes as the inherent nature of man, the meaning of virtue, and the identity of American character. This book reveals that as part of the polemics over Common Sense, Paine wrote a pamphlet, Four Letters on Interesting Subjects, which discredits the notion of reconciliation with Britain, the provincial perspective of placing Pennsylvania above the Union, the charter of the British Constitution. Aldridge also investigates The Crisis and Paine's Letter to the Abbe Raynal. ISBN 0-87413-260-6 : $38.50.
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