History ETDs

Publication Date

5-26-1965

Abstract

Excerpt From Preface:

My basic purpose then is to determine how far behind or ahead of his time was Thomas Paine. What was his rela­tionship to the Enlightenment when one considers his politi­cal, social, or scientific thought? And finally what is his significance in social and intellectual history? Is Thomas Paine actually a thinker of "the second order of greatness" as Cecelia M. Kenyon and others contend or intimate? Or has he proved to be greater than that? I would hope to provide some possible answers to such questions.

Finally, I have no intention of trying to determine direct and specific "influences" in the thought and writings of Thomas Paine. This approach, of course, has often been used in attempts to discredit the originality and denigrate the position in history of controversial figures such as Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, or Thomas Paine. In the case of Paine, however, even the highly objective scholar Harry Hayden Clark recognizes the difficulties in establishing definite influence...

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Degree Name

History

Department Name

History

First Committee Member (Chair)

William Miner Dabney

Second Committee Member

Illegible

Third Committee Member

Illegible

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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