Rights of Man Summary | Chapterly
Rights of Man by Thomas Paine: A Complete Summary "Every generation is equal in rights to generations which preceded it, by the same rule that every individual is born equal in rights with his contemporary." Overview Rights of Man (1791) is one of the most influential political treatises in Western history. Written by Thomas Paine as a direct response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, it is a full-throated defense of the French Revolution and, more broadly, of the idea that every human being is born with natural rights that no government may rightfully take away. Burke had argued that tradition and inherited institutions were the proper foundation of political order. Paine demolished this position with characteristic bluntness: the rights of the living cannot be bound by the decisions of the dead. Governments derive their legitimacy not from custom but from the consent of the governed, and when a government fails to protect the rights of its people, the people have every right to replace it. What makes Rights of Man remarkable beyond its philosophical arguments is Paine's practical vision. He proposed progressive taxation, public education, pensions for the elderly, and relief for the poor -- ideas...