 | Tom Paine and William Cobbett: The Transatlantic Connection Subjects: Paine Thomas 1737–1809; Cobbett William 1763–1835; Political scientists -- United States -- Biography; Politicians -- Great Britain -- Biography; Political science -- United States -- History -- 18th century; Political science -- Great Britain -- Hist; Wilson traces four major themes in the thought of Paine and Cobbett: the relationship between British radical ideas and American revolutionary ideology; the eighteenth-century revolution in rhetorical theory; 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 of liberty". He challenges the view that Paine created a new literary style for a new audience 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 between the ideal and the real is central to understanding Cobbett. He analyzes Cobbett's American experiences, and examines the role of Paine's writings and the United States in Cobbett's subsequent career as a radical in England. The epilogue returns to the differences and similarities in Paine's and Cobbett's careers, examines their strategies for change, and discusses their ambiguous legacies to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Wilson David A. : David A. Wilson is professor of Celtic Studies and history at the University of Toronto, the author of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, volumes 1 and 2, the editor of Irish Nationalism in Canada, and the General Editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. |
