Long story short, my grandfather recently died and part of what he left me was all the boxes and the stuff in them up in his attic.
I was looking through the boxes and I found this:
It was with other books that were fairly old from my grandfather's childhood, I was basically inspecting the bindings and the pages to see what kind of condition they were in. When I flipped open this book and saw that it was published in 1852 I nearly shat myself.
This kind of thing seems vaguely up my grandfather's alley, but he never told us he had this book.
I googled, "Age of Reason" it and apparently it was written by Thomas Paine. The rest of the information I didn't exactly get.
So, two questions come to mind:
What is the historical context/significance behind this book? Kind of curious.
What should I do with this book? I do not have any credentials when it comes to historical artifacts or preserving books that are this old. I don't think I am qualified to even touch an artifact like this. Is there any Safe Haven Law equivalent for historical artifacts? Anywhere I could donate this and it'd be in better hands?
Regular books from the second half of the 19th century are usually not that interesting as historical artifacts. Printing runs were usually large enough to make them fairly mass-market items. They are sort of rare in the sense that you have to look around to find one, but they're usually just a few dozen dollars at an antiquarian book seller. A quick google found the same title printed in 1877 for $40.
Paine was obviously pretty famous and his books were constantly re-printed, even into modern times. This particular book was printed long after Paine's death and is as far as I can tell just a regular book. To collectors, first printings and the like are usually what's interesting. Keep it as a memento or just for the nice feeling of owning something that old in that good of a condition.
I suggest contacting Gary Berton at the Institute for Paine Studies at Iona College, he can advise. tpnha1737@gmail.com http://www.iona.edu/About/Iona-in-Community/Institute-for-Thomas-Paine-Studies.aspx
I would advise you have your family "lend" the book to wherever is going to be displayed at rather than "donate" it.
Age of Reason is a fascinating book. I'd recommend getting a non-antique copy and reading it.
It was published in two parts in the 1790s, during the height of the French Revolution. Tom Paine (he always went by Tom) was one of two foreigners who had been welcomed into France and served in the French government early on in the revolution, where he had, among other things, wrote a vigorous defense of the Revolution in the book The Rights of Man. The Age of Reason was a different sort of book, taking aim at religion in general and Christianity in particular and arguing that Christianity was a false religion. During the first part, Paine does a book-by-book takedown of the Old and New Testaments and argues that any God that might exist would not be interested in dealing with human affairs, arguing that the Bible was written by self-interested charlatans trying to maximize their own power. The second installment was written some two years later, and Paine begins with a remarkable apology for the lateness of the second volume, because he had just gotten off of death row. He had been condemned to death by Robespierre, and only Robespierre's fall at Thermidor let Paine out. Paine then goes on to lay out that the "natural" religion should be a veneration of a creator who does not intervene or even have any awareness of human affairs.
Paine's book was deeply controversial and is one of the reasons he lost most of the friends he still had in the United States. The upswing of religiosity in the early 19th century left Paine's militant Deism something of an 18th century artifact.
Take it to a rare book dealer and they should be able to appraise it for you. If you don't live near a major city, this might be difficult but still worthwhile. Baumans gives an option to contact them on their website, and they have sold this book before.
The condition, whether or not it's a first edition or otherwise rare edition will determine it's worth.
Good luck!
Once again this sub proves itself to be the gold standard of Reddit. Thanks for the great answers