ABSTRACT
The creation of the United States was the 'central event' of modern global history, argues Walter McDougall in his longue duree history of the North American continent. Gordon Wood, the preeminent scholar of US colonial affairs, concurs. No writer or commentator on eighteenth-century political affairs declared the birth and scope of this American exceptionalist vision with greater power than Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine's influence on the creation of the United States is hard to exaggerate, yet his works were never intended for the New World alone. As, after 1789, America's cause became France's too, Paine insisted There is a morning of reason rising upon man on the subject of government, that has not appeared before. Paine's new order of republican governments would make citizens out of subjects. In the process, states' ability and desire to wage war and exploit domestic societies would be greatly reduced.
