THOMAS PAINE'S RIGHTS OF MAN

Ten years since the death of the world renowned and controversial intellectual, this stylish edition is one of 12 commemorating Christopher Hitchens' most wry and provocative works. Thomas Paine was one of the greatest advocates of freedom in history, and his Declaration of the Rights of Man, first published in 1791, is the key to his reputation. Inspired by his outrage at Edmund Burke's attack on the French Revolution, Paine's text is a passionate defence of man's inalienable rights. It has been celebrated, criticised, maligned, suppressed and co-opted, and forms the philosophical cornerstone of the first democratic republic whose revolution is the only example that still speaks to us - the United States of America. Hitchens marvels at the book's forethought and revels in its contentiousness and this brilliant portrait is an attractive introduction to Paine's life and work as a whole. 158pp, paperback.