Read
Recent Conversations
View allRights of Man
Paine
1791
Burke attacked the French Revolution. Paine answered — and was outlawed for it.
Rights of Man
Thomas Paine · 1791
Paine wrote Rights of Man as a direct rebuttal to Edmund Burke's attack on the French Revolution, building from first principles — natural rights, the social compact, the illegitimacy of hereditary rule — to a concrete governing program of progressive taxation, public education, and old-age pensions decades ahead of its time. The British government prosecuted him for it; he answered by taking a seat in the French Convention instead. It remains the clearest statement of the case that legitimate government rests on consent, remade by each generation, not on inheritance.
8 chapters · 91,210 words · ~6.9 hr read
Contents
Part One — Answering Burke
Paine's direct rebuttal to Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France: natural rights, the social compact, and the case against hereditary government.
Part Two — Principle and Practice
Paine's constructive program: a theory of society and civil government, a critique of old and new systems of government, a study of constitutions, and a costed plan for taxation, education, and relief for the poor.
Appendix
Paine's own appendix and notes, added to address the timing of publication and to answer points raised since Part Two went to press.