Common Sense by Thomas Paine

Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. Bradford Enlarged Edition. 1776. Reprinted in 46 Pages. Scott Liell. New York: MJF Books, 2003.

Thomas Pain came to America form his home in England at the encouragement of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin encouraged Paine to write about conflict the American colonies and Britain. The product was Common Sense.

Common Sense was an essay making the case for American independence. In a sense, it is two essays, one directly supporting the call for independence and one providing background on the impossibility of liberty under the British system.

The first parts of the essay deals with the concept of government in general. In particular, Paine argues against monarchy as a form of government. To him, monarchy is unnatural and hereditary monarchy insanity. Even a constitutional monarchy that gave real powers to a king, such as England had at the time, could not guarantee the peoples right, particularly in a colony where it was in the monarch’s and mother country’s interest for the colony to be dependent. Paine advocated throwing off the British monarchy and adopting a constitutional republic.

The latter half dealt with directly with American independence. Building on his earlier statements, he argued that America could not meet its potential if it did not act on its own interest. Paine saw a confluence of things, particularly the population and resources of the continent that made for the best possible time to pursue independence.

In this edition, Paine offered an answer to some of the detractors of his first edition, especially the pacifist among the Quakers. He argued that peace under Britain was impossible, but that independence would bring a lasting peace. In addition, there was already an aggressor on the continent in the form of British troops. To Paine, taking up arms against Britain was not to start a war, but a defense against foreign attacks.


Paine’s arguments seemed to tip the scale. Common Sense was widely read among the founding fathers. Within months of its publication, the Declaration of Independence was published.

If you're interested in Common Sense, you may also be intersted in:
His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis
A Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

Second Kings

In the Hebrew Bible, First and Second Kings are one book.  Collectively, they are a history of the Israelite monarchy.   During most of this period, it is dual monarchies because two southern tribes make up the kingdom of Judah, the remaining tribes being Israel.

Second Kings covers a period of about 250 years.  It begins in the reign of Ahaziah.  It ends with the fall of Judah to Babylon.

Fall is an appropriate word.  The book describes the decline of the Israelite monarchy.  It is strongly associated with moral decline and apostasy.  Israel was called out to be God’s people.  Instead, they worshiped the gods of the people who occupied the land before them or of their neighbors.  Sometimes this idol worship was introduced and encouraged by the kings.  Some of the practices associated with these foreign religions included temple prostitution, sodomy, and child sacrifice.

When God established ancient Israel as a nation, he made a covenant with them.  If they followed Him, He would cause them to prosper in the land He gave to them.  If they did not, and especially if they abandoned Him to worship other gods and do evil, he would cut them off from the land and let their enemies overcome them.  That is exactly what happened.

Israel, the northern kingdom, succumbed first.  It fell during the reign of Hoshea.  It became a vassal state to Assyria.  More than that, the Assyrians removed the Israelite population to other lands and resettled Israel with people from across its empire.  Chapter 17 is an indictment against Israel, listing its crimes the judgment of expulsion from the land.

God did not let Israel go easily.  Much of the first half of the book is devoted to the exploits of Elijah and Elisha.  These prophets called people back to God and stood up against the influence of false religions.  Later, Isaiah would warn against the coming captivity to Assyria.

Judah held out longer, in part probably because of fitful reforms by kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah.   None of the kings of Israel committed themselves to god, but some of the kings of Judah turned their hearts to God, restoring the worship of God and sometimes even breaking down the idols of false gods.  Even so, they fell like their brothers to the north.

Babylon was the empire that overtook Judah during the reign of Zedekiah.  Zedekiah himself was appointed by Babylon after it took his nephew Jehoiachin as a prisoner.  Babylon also moved much of the population.  The poor were left to tend the farms, but anyone with status, military skill, training in crafts, or education was moved to Babylon to serve there.  The Israelite monarchy was finally broken and replaced with a Babylonian governor.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Deuteronomy

First and Second Samuel

First Kings

Second Kings.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

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On a Grander Scale by Lisa Jardine

Christopher Wren (1632-1723) is famous as an architect. In particular, he is known for the mark he made on the architectural landscape of London after the Great Fire of 1666. St. Paul’s cathedral, where he is buried, may be the crowning example of his work, but he designed and built many churches and public buildings in what may have been an early model for a modern architectural and construction firm.

As any biographer of Wren must, Lisa Jardine covers his career as an architect in On a Grander Scale. She also emphasizes other aspects of his life, specifically the effect political upheaval may have had on his personal outlook and career, and his involvement in scientific pursuits leading to the establishment of the Royal Society.

Wren has a privileged lifestyle as a child. His father (also Christopher) and uncle had posts as Anglican clergy that brought the close to Charles I. Wren spent some important years of his childhood in a house in the walls of Whitehall. His family remained royalists during the Commonwealth and Protectorate periods, leaving them little access to the favored clerical and political positions they had enjoyed. The young Wren effectively operated as a secretary and assistant to academically minded, ousted royalists who turned to science and invention to establish their fortunes. His mathematical sharpness, mechanical handiness, and facility for drawing gained him favor in this group of Renaissance physicians, physicists, chemists and astronomers. While still a young man, he joined them as a peer and gained an appointment as an astronomy professor.

Wren remained active in these scientific circles, even when he was much in demand as an architect and royal construction manager (Surveyor-General of the King’s Works). With his good friend Robert Hooke (curator of experiments for the Royal Society as well as a designer in Wren’s office), he looked for opportunities to incorporate scientific study into buildings. The work of the precursor of the Royal Society was very collaborative, and Jardine shows how Wren took that into his later scientific and architectural practices. His willingness to collaborate with people he trusted was probably a contributing factor to his success as an administrator of so many building, scientific, business, public and political projects.

When the monarchy was restored, Charles II attempted to reward those who had been loyal to his father, or their sons. Wren never became greatly wealthy or powerful through preferment, but he did rise to some prominence and had a successful career in public service. Charles I made him Surveyor-General, and he was reappointed by James II, co-monarchs William and Mary, Queen Anne, and George I. He was charming, astute, cautious and conscientious, which served him well on his long career. He was perhaps too cautious (or upright), because he never gained the wealth many of his mentors and peers achieved.

Jardine shows how Wren was among a group of men who pinned their hopes on a restored monarchy that was never as glorious as they hoped it would be. Even so, Wren was resourceful, as were his family and sponsors, and he rose to a career that his talent for science and hard work made possible. She sets him in the context of his time and particularly of his relationships. These relationships were with other men whose fathers fell from favor with the monarchy, mentors and peers in the scientific community (especially his close friend Hooke), and trusted assistants in his architectural practice. Wren is regarded as genius, and Jardine would agree, but he is also very much a part of a community of similar people who, to varying degrees, shared his fate and aided his success.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Descarte’s Secret Notebook by Amir D. Aczel

The Feud that Sparked the Renaissance by Paul Robert Walker

The Science of Leonardo by Fritjof Capra

Jardine, Lisa. On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Life of Christopher Wren. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.

Majestie by David Teems

Teems, David. Majestie: The King Behind the King James Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010.

In Majestie, David Teems presents King James VI of Scotland and I of England, authorizer of the King James Version of the Bible, as a man of great ability and many quirks. You might expect the quirks given that his father was killed, likely assassinated, under unusual circumstances. His mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was separated from him most his childhood and was eventually executed for treason by the government of her sister, Elizabeth I. James had little affection for his mother (the clerics and aristocrats who oversaw his education hated her) and much need for his powerful aunt’s support and wealth.

James chafed under the harsh tutelage of the Scottish nobles and clergy who took over his upbringing. They wanted to raise for themselves a king who would serve the interests of the Kirk and the Scottish peerage. James saw himself, and monarchs as class, as an agent of God to govern a nation and not answerable to any other authority but God. In Scotland he was browbeaten as a boy, kidnapped a as a king, and harassed by conniving powers and intrigues at every turn. It took him years to come into his own as king and become more or less the equal of his country’s nobles and church.

England, in contrast, knew how to do monarchy in the “divine right” style that James thought was suitable. From a distance, he wooed his aunt and lobbied to succeed her. Elizabeth I was an incredible conniver and welded power skillfully. She kept James and Scotland under her sway through the careful application of her wealth and the subtle promise of her throne. She came through on that promise and, at the end of her life when a named heir would not be more hazardous to her health than the imminent death she faced, she named he nephew as her heir.



England had its own contentious elements, namely Puritans. James had little use for them. He wasn’t especially fond of the Anglican bishops either, but as head of the Church of England, he found an alliance with them, leading to minimal reform, provided him with influential supporters of the type of powerful monarchy he wanted to exercise. The new English king brought with him from the Scottish throne he still held a wit an education to browbeat reformers and reactionaries alike. James liked one proposal the Puritans offered almost as an afterthought: a new translation of the Bible.

As you might imagine, Teems devotes a fair amount of space to the Bible translation that popularly bears King James’ name. It’s an interesting subject in itself. These chapters describe the how the idea came to be, how the work of translation was done, and some of the known translators. In the old-fashioned sense, James was the “author,” initiator and motivator, of the project. He was anxious to see it accomplished.

Teems has little to say about James’ life in the years following the translation. He believes the king peeked in the translation years and was never quite as majestic in the last 14 years of his life. The loss of a child, and later wife, can take some of the life out of a person. And we are all sometimes overcome by our own weaknesses. Teems seems to give the king a break in his earlier years, not avoiding but not overemphasizing the monarch’s many foibles, and maybe he should have carried that into James’ sunset years.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
God’s Secretaries by Adam Nicolson
In the Beginning by Alister McGrath
King James Bible
Wide as the Waters by Benson Bobrick

Second Samuel

Second Samuel.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

The prophet Samuel died before the events described in this second book named for him.  Like First Samuel, this book continues the history of the establishment of a monarchy in Israel.  In particular, it covers most of the reign of David.

The book begins with the death of Saul.  He was the king who preceded David and the father of David’s close friend Jonathan, who died in the same battle.  David mourned the loss of the king and his friend, even though he knew it cleared the way for him to take the crown.

David’s ascension to the throne was rocky even though he had been selected by God to fill the position.  The southern tribes, Judah, received David as king, but the rest of Israel was led by Saul’s son Ishbosheth.  The two were at war, which ended when Ishbosheth was killed by two of his own men.

That is only the beginnings of the intrigues that plagued David’s reign.  No doubt part of this was the instability of a new kingdom, where many people were seeking to acquire and consolidate power.

Part of this instability may have come from David himself.  At his best he was described as a man after God’s own heart.  He loved God.  He was brave and generous. He was a great military leader and a canny diplomat.  He was all too human as well.  He was lustful.  He didn’t want to face trouble, especially within his own family, which led to an insurrection led by his son Absalom.  He allowed his office to remove him from his people, his troops, and his family, and the isolation made him vulnerable.  Sometimes his temper got the better of him.

On the whole, though, David is remembered as a great king.  He consolidated his country.  He defeated foreign enemies.  He surrounded himself with faithful and capable advisers and assistants.  He especially was faithful to God; even though he slipped he returned to God, acknowledging Him and seeking His way for himself and the kingdom.

There is a lot of exciting history in this book.  Most of it is very tightly summarized.  If someone wanted to novelize this book, expanding and fictionalizing the detailed plot, they could probably produce a series of thick novels packed with enough intrigue and action to keep even a jaded reader of thrillers engaged.  For a religious book that you might think would want to polish and aggrandize the reputation of a powerful and beloved king, the Biblical historians are surprisingly frank.  They do not turn away from David’s shortcomings or the swirl of conniving in his court.

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46 Pages by Scott Liell

Liell, Scott. 46 Pages. New York: MJF Books, 2003.


In 1775, British citizens in the American colonies were seeking reform in the government of their king. By the summer of 1776, Americans were seeking independence from the oppressive rule of Britain. This change in public perspective made loosed the American Revolution. The thing that tipped the scales was a 46-page book.

That book was Common Sense by Thomas Paine. In 46 Pages, Scott Liell describes America contemplating its colonial condition and how a British lover of freedom and his essay tipped the scales toward independence.

Before Common Sense, Americans were seeking reform. They wanted more liberty within the British system. They were seeking to preserve their rights as British citizens. They weren’t sure they could enjoy those rights without the British government to protect them.

Loyalty to George III was widespread, also. Parliament might be awful bunch of oppressors, but the king was a benevolent father who would surely help his children if he understood their plight.

Paine attacked these notions. The king was just as responsible as Parliament for the oppression of the colonies. Parliament would not persist in a policy that was not also the king’s. In addition, a constitution and government that preserved a monarchy, with real powers and privileges, could not be trusted to preserve the rights of commoners.

Common Sense was widely read in America, and newspapers and pamphlets were full of response, both approbations and counterarguments, and speculation about the author (Paine did not include his name on the work). It was read and discussed by the founding fathers and influenced the thinking of many who were not already inclined toward independence. Benjamin Franklin encouraged Paine to come to America and write about the conflict between the colonies and their mother country, though he probably didn’t imagine Paine would create such a book.

46 Pages is an enjoyable, readable, short book. It provides a glimpse into the American revolution and demonstrates the power of ideas.

If your intersted in this book, you may also be interested in: Common Sense by Thomas Paine His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen

Judges

The book of Judges summarizes the history of the Israelite nation between the passing of Joshua and the establishment of a monarchy.  At this time, the nation was ostensibly a theocracy; the people were to follow God’s law.  The tribes largely governed themselves, occasionally even breaking into civil war.  As needed, God provided judges to provide civil and military leadership.

The people were supposed to be taking hold of their inheritance from God, both the land and the moral heritage passed down from Moses and Joshua.  However, as they mingled with foreigners and became satisfied with their possessions, they fell to temptations to idolatry and immoral living.  In the absence of powerful human authorities, such as prophets and kings, people did whatever they liked and often they liked sin.  In these times, God would withdraw his blessing from the people and allow foreign nations to overtake them.

This theme recurs throughout Judges.  As generations pass and people became satisfied, they would forget their need for God and fall into seeking to gratify themselves, with few scruples about how they do it.  God would withdraw his blessing from the immoral nation and it would fall into the hands of foreign powers.  When the people were oppressed to the end of their endurance, they would repent and call out to God.  He would send a judge who would rescue the people from their oppressors.  This would seem to be a message on God’s judgment, but it is equally about his mercy.  Suffering that brings us to God, the ultimate good, is better than an easy slide into destruction.

Some of the most famous names and stories of the Bible appear in this book.  Deborah was a prophetess and judge who was a woman leader.  Gideon famously tested God by putting out a fleece and overthrowing the Midian army with just 300 men.  The record of Samson’s feats is here, including his tragic affair with Delilah and his final triumph over the Philistines.  The story of Samson and Delilah was popular enough to be adapted to film, possibly because the suggestion of Biblical imprimatur permitted the depiction of a spicy tale.

Much of the book is devoted to the story of powerful, critical, or interesting judges like Deborah, Gideon and Samson.  The reigns of some judges are summarized in short paragraphs.  We approach history in a similar fashion now.  If some event or person was very important, exciting, interesting, strange or juicy, we might find a dozen books on the subject in the library.  Other things get a brief article in an encyclopedia, or a very short entry that Wikipedia says is inadequately documented.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Joshua

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First Samuel

First Samuel.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

First Samuel tells of the establishment of a monarchy in Israel, especially the rise of David from shepherd to king.  It is named for the prophet Samuel, a principal person in the book.

Samuel was the son of Elkanah and Hannah.  Hannah was one of Elkanah’s two wives.  Elkanah loved Hannah and doted on her, but she had no children, which grieved her and made her feel inferior to Elkanah’s other wife, Peninnah.  She prayed that she would have a son and promised to dedicate him to the Lord.  That is what happened.

Samuel helped the priests from the time he was a boy.  As a child he heard God’s voice.  God told the boy He would do things in Israel so astounding that hearing it would make your ears tingle.

It started with the overthrow of wicked priests.  The Ark of the Covenant fell into the hands of the Philistines and would not return to Israel in Samuel’s lifetimes.

As a prophet, Samuel led Israel in the manner that the judges before him did.  The people began to clamber for a king so they could be a nation like the others around them.  Samuel was understandably hurt by the rejection.  God told the prophet they were really rejecting Him.  He saw fit to give them a king anyway.

Saul was the first king of Israel.  Like many modern leaders, he was tall and handsome. 

Unfortunately, he was week.  He craved approval from the people and was jealous of his position and power.  Eventually, his disobedience was too much and God sought out another king.

David did not immediately become king.  He was still youth when he was anointed by Samuel.  God led him through a series of events to prove David, the most famous being the battle with the giant Goliath.  David became a great general in Saul’s army, a fast friend of Saul’s son Jonathan, and popular with the people.

Saul’s jealousy of David was severe.  David had to get of the country.  He lived in foreign lands where he was permitted, along with many fighting men who were loyal to him and their families.

Israel had enemies all around and it was the king’s job to lead the defense, through diplomacy or war.  Saul faced capture during a battle and fell on his sword rather than face humiliation in the hands of his enemies.  Most of Saul’s family was wiped out, including Jonathan.

David became king of the portion of Israel called Judah and later the whole nation.  Samuel was a witness and participant in these events.  His death is described at the end of the book.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Joshua

Judges

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