The Rights of Man

13 March 1791, France

Published two years after the storming of the Bastille in Paris, Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man defended the values of the French Revolution and was a blueprint for the future of democracy. It called for fair taxation based on wealth, voting rights extended so that the majority of citizens controlled the government, and the establishment of a social safety net. Staunchly republican, Paine was born in England but lived in France during the seismic events of 1789 and would end his days in the United States of America. As US president and revolutionary John Adams declared in 1805: “I know not whether any man in the world has had more influence on its inhabitants or affairs for the last 30 years than Tom Paine.”