Thomas Paine (February 9, 1737 - June 8, 1809) was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, he authored the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution and inspired the rebels in 1776 to declare independence from Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era rhetoric of transnational human rights.This edition of his writings contains Common Sense, The Crisis, Rights of Man and The Age of Reason