What is Thomas Paine?
{{Infobox philosopher |region = Western Philosophy |era = [[Age of Enlightenment|18th-century philosophy]] |color = #B0C4DE |image = Thomas Paine rev1.jpg |caption = |name = Thomas Paine |birth = 29 January 1737 <br> [[Thetford]], [[Norfolk]], [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] |death = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1809|6|8|1737|1|29}} <br> [[New York City|New York]], [[New York|NY]], [[United States|U.S.]] |school_tradition = [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], [[Radicalism (historical)|Radicalism]], [[Classical liberalism]], [[Republicanism]] |main_interests = [[Ethics]], [[Politics]] |influences = [[Voltaire]], [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], [[John Locke]], [[Religious Society of Friends]], [[Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]] |influenced = [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[William Godwin]], [[Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud]], [[Abraham Lincoln]], [[Thomas Edison]], [[Moncure D. Conway]], [[Bertrand Russell]], [[Christopher Hitchens]],[[Robert G. Ingersoll]]. }} '''Thomas Paine''' (29 January 1737 – 8 June 1809) was an [[English people|English]] [[pamphlet]]eer, [[revolutionary]], [[inventor]], and [[intellectual]]. Born in [[Norfolk]], he lived and worked in [[Britain]] until he was 37, when he [[emigrate]]d to the [[British America]]n colonies during the [[American Revolution]]. His main contribution was the powerful, widely-read pamphlet ''[[Common Sense (pamphlet)|Common Sense]]'' (1776). It promoted the idea of colonial America's independence from the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain]]. He also wrote ''[[The American Crisis]]'' (1776–1783), a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series. Thomas Paine went to France after the American Revolution to join the [[French Revolution]]. He wrote ''[[The Age of Reason]]'' while in prison there. This pamphlet was critical of organized religion. Paine along with other American founders such as [[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[James Madison]] li