Thomas Paine
Before he became known as a political revolutionary, Thomas Paine was a cabin boy on board a privateer and a tax collector. He was self-educated, and his interests ranged across many fields, from politics to engineering. Jack Fruchtman, Jr. paints a vivid portrait of the mercurial Paine, who went from being an honored leader in the revolutions in both America and France to being a man unfairly regarded, in the years before his death, as an athiest (which was untrue) and troublemaker. Paine was one of the greatest revolutionary writers in history, and his passionate temperament combined with his love of reason embodied one of the fundamental conflicts in U.S. history.

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