218 pp, large 8vo (9 1/4" H), hard cover in dust jacket. ISBN 0773510133 "Tom Paine and William Cobbett were at the heart of the revolutionary changes which swept the North Atlantic world during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Both men came from the ranks of the 'common people' in England, both found their identity as political writers in North America, and both eventually became central figures in the English popular radical movement. David Wilson places the parallel c areers of Paine and Cobbett in their Anglo-American context, not only discussing the relationship between their ideas but examining how their early experiences affected their success in America and the way in which their perceptions of Amer i c a w e r e woven into their political writings in England. Wilson traces four major themes in the thought of Paine and Cobbett: the relation between British radical ideas and American revolutionary ideology; the eighteenth-century revolution i n rh et o ri ca l th e ory; the effect of the American and French revolutions on British popular radicalism; and the American attempt to turn the United States into a new 'empire for liberty'. He challenges the idea that Paine created a new literar y sty le fo r a ne w aud ie nce of artisans and labourers, arguing instead that this style was part of a broader revolution in rhetoric, and discusses the interconnections between Paine's English and American careers. Wilson shows that the tension b etwe en the ide al a nd the re al is central to understanding Cobbett. He analyzes Cobbett's American experiences and the role of Paine's writings in Cobbett's subsequent career as a radical in England. The epilogue returns to the difference s a nd si mil arit ies i n Pai ne' s and Cob bett's careers, examines their strategies for change, and discusses their ambiguous legacies to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries." Light wrinkling at bottom of spine. Dust jacket has very light l ight wrink ling at t op/bot tom of spi ne and flap -folds, fading to spine color, very light rubbing. Very Good+/Very Good-

Thomas  Paine,  William  Cobbett,  Political  Scientists,  Politics,  Politicians,  Great  Britain,  United  States,  Science,  Ideas,  Theory,  Edmund  Burke,  Democracy,  America,  Parliamentary  Reform,  Social  Thought,  Age  Reason,  Rights  Man,  Rhetoric,  Philadelphia,