Rights of Man

Published in two parts in 1791 and 1792, this political treatise answers Edmund Burke's attack on the French Revolution and then sets out a program of representative government. Paine defends the right of a living generation to remake its constitution, traces government to the people rather than to hereditary monarchy, and praises the early French reforms. The second part argues for a republic, cheap government, and a scheme of progressive taxation to fund pensions, education, and relief. The book is a pamphlet argument in the language of natural rights, not a narrative of the Revolution's later Terror.

Quarter-bound in green buckram with colour pictorial paper sides. Dark green endleaves. Dark green slipcase.