An awesome piece of work as it is, though not for the light reader. Hitchens delivers in a style so eloquent and strong. He goes through not just the "Rights of man", or fact to be said, he just glances over the book in the last chapters. He focuses rather on the life of Paine, in every detail, critical at every instant. He poses as a surveyor, evaluating the mindset and the circumstances of Paine and the people who were involved or influenced "Rights of man".

A truly enlightening piece of ...

not one of his best works, but still precise, powerful and yet sufficiently nuanced. Emphasis on distinguishing Paine as distinct from more sexy revolutionaries of the 20th century such as Che is recurring (maybe rightly so). Not surprisingly includes a brief but fair caricature of Burke's views and philosophy. the author's sometimes random commentary on Locke and Hobbes are most welcome. but in final analysis a successful and formidable defense (maybe the word defense itself will be too defe...

Thomas Paine as a liberal thinker contributed a lot to both French and US revolutions.His pithy and apt comments on the social malaise, conservatism and religious chicanery in late 18th century brought a lot of opprobrium on his head but to no avail.His constant literary jousts with Edmund Burke was legendary.He had migrated to USA quite young from England.His book Rights of Man and other pamphlets were instrumental in influencing US thought process immensely. His participation in French revo...

This is one of a series of books about "books that shook the world", and if the publisher has chosen to put Hitchens on its front cover rather than Paine, this is understandable. For who knows now what Paine looked like? At least Hitchens' name, and his face, are bankable. And who, outside a university history faculty, now has read the Rights of Man in its entirety - or even piecemeal?