Thomas Paine
An English-born radical thinker who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1774, Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis series, publications that more than any others moved ordinary colonists from loyalty to independence. His plain, accessible prose deliberately bypassed the learned elite to reach craftsmen, farmers, and soldiers. He later went to France, supported the French Revolution, and wrote The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason, making him a transatlantic symbol of radical Enlightenment thought.
- Lived: 1737 CE – 1809 CE
- Nationality: british
- Roles: writer, pamphleteer, revolutionary
