![\"Thomas](\"http:\/\/www.uww.edu\/images\/library\/blog\/ThomasPaine.jpg\")
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Thomas Paine and the Dangerous Word<\/strong> New Arrivals Island, 320 Mar<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a longtime American history buff, I still am consistently dismayed by how little I know about many historical personages, and Thomas Paine ranked among them. This very well-documented and engagingly-written children\u2019s book helped me to remedy that in a quick read. For example, I didn\u2019t know that the Englishman arrived in America (deathly sick from typhus) only about six months before the battles of Lexington and Concord that started the Revolutionary War. He published the pamphlet anonymously at first, due to the inflammatory nature of the word \u201cIndependence\u201d at a time when most of the public were still seeking reconciliation with Britain, and due to the controversy the first printing of 1000 copies sold out in just 11 days. As the author tells us in an afterward, Adams and other leaders at the time all credited Paine\u2019s pen with enlivening peoples\u2019 spirits to accept the revolution more than any other writer at the time; and Paine\u2019s words have still been used by modern presidents and leaders such as Barack Obama and John Kerry.<\/p>\n I really appreciated how the (first-time!) author used so many of Thomas Paine\u2019s own powerful words in both her text as well as some of the illustrator\u2019s lively illustrations \u2013 the words seem to flow vibrantly off the page. It\u2019s easy to see how his Common Sense<\/em> pamphlet became, proportional to the population at the time, the most widely read best-seller in American history! (according to biographer Harvey Kaye)<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read the text of Common Sense<\/a> online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thomas Paine and the Dangerous Word by Sarah Jane Marsh New Arrivals Island, 320 Mar As a longtime American history buff, I still am consistently dismayed by how little I know about many historical personages, and Thomas Paine ranked … Continue reading
\nby Sarah Jane Marsh<\/p>\n