Rights of Man Summary
Thomas Paine

Rights of Man Summary

Thomas Paine's Rights of Man is one of the great political tracks of history. The French Revolution occurred in 1789, overthrowing the French Monarchy and establishing what was arguably the first representative democracy in Europe. However, the revolution had been violent and led to a series of shocking massacres, despite the promise it held for the poor and the oppressed in France and Europe generally speaking.

The great English conservative, Edmund Burke, had written a famous pamphlet in November 1790. The work brutally criticized the Revolution as a revolt against the fundamental institutions of Western societies: the Monarchy, the Aristocracy and the Established Church. These institutions were upheld by tradition and contained the wisdom of the ages within their institutional structures. He also made claims about the savagery of the French Revolution that surprised many in England and the United States.

Thomas Paine was once friends with Edmund Burke... View more of the Rights of Man Summary