ABSTRACT
Thomas Paine's pamphlet, Rights of Man, stands as one of the fundamental texts of modern democracy. Written during the stormy days of the French Revolution, the pamphlet became an instant success throughout the European world, selling some twenty thousand copies in two years, making Paine the era's best-known revolutionary writer. One of Paine's most cherished purposes was to convince readers that the various political changes affecting late eighteenth-century Europe and America were all part of a coherent and rational development towards a better world. Biographers have taken Paine's remarks at face value and assume that the two parts deliver essentially the same message. The portrayal of Lafayette in Part One is highly significant, and it illustrates Paine's own political position within French Revolutionary politics. Beginning in the fall of 1789 a democratic movement composed of well-known politicians and writers rose to challenge the Fayettist hegemony of the Revolution.
