Thomas Paine and the literature of revolution The American School of Empire considers how an American idea of empire evolved in the 1790s and would shape and be shaped by the literature and art of the early US. Hamiltons introductory essay suggests that empire was as important to the foundation of the US as concepts like democracy freedom nation and republic. This book thus begins from the premise that the history of empire in the United States can be traced back to the inception of the country if not earlier. It contends that the United States was conceived as an empire culturally politically and legally. Empire as a broad theory for organizing not only the state but also the understanding of difference and the relationship to space in other words was a crucial conceptual frame shaping the culture of the early US Provided by publisher Inventing an American public : the Pennsylvania Magazine and revolutionary American political discourse Could the wolf bleat like the lamb : Paines critique of the early American public sphere Writing revolutionary history The science of revolution : technological metaphors and scientific methodology in Rights of man and the Age of reason Strong friends and violent enemies : the historical construction of Thomas Paine through the nineteenth century Paine and nineteenth century American literary history