Даниэль Аллен обнаружила доказательства сотрудничества аристократа с Томасом Пейном в эпоху Американской революции

Danielle Allen’s work has ranged from rigorous scholarly excavations of what democracy has meant in ancient Greece and the contemporary United States to the wrenching personal story she told in “Cuz: An American Tragedy.” Her new book takes readers to an entirely different time and place: 18th century London. In “Radical Duke: How One Aristocrat — and the American Revolution — Transformed Britain” (Liveright), Allen introduces us to Charles Lennox, Third Duke of Richmond (among many other titles), who lent his considerable power and authority to support not only American independence from the Crown but his own countrymen’s. In 2017, a research project at Harvard’s Kennedy School led by Allen found a previously unknown ceremonial parchment of the Declaration of Independence in a records office in West Sussex. Allen’s new book announces another undiscovered gem in the Duke’s own library: proof that he had collaborated with Thomas Paine on “The Letters of Junius,” anonymous writings that “defined the rights of man in the Age of Revolution.” “I was just gobsmacked,” Allen says of this discovery. “I had always taken Paine at his word when he said he hadn’t written anything before he came to America. It was like tectonic plates shifting.” It turned out, she adds, that the Duke had lent considerable support to Paine and others interested in extending democracy in England as well as the colonies. Many of the ideas the Junius pamphlets proposed echoed writings Allen had studied from ancient Athens. “That kind of component of it is time travel,” says Allen, who is one of Harvard’s University Professors, a small group whose interdisciplinary work allows them to teach across schools and departments, as well as a MacArthur fellow. “You do have moments of recognition. You read a letter, you watch a person making an argument about rights or liberty or freedom. And you recognize immediately the shape of the political struggle or challenges.” As a political philosopher, Allen adds, she never expected to write about an English aristocrat. But, she says, “despite the many many things that made his world different than the world of any American, there are these crazy resonances that come from his focus on political liberty.” And as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our own Declaration, it’s important to understand the complexities of that history. “We have this image of America versus Britain and that really isn’t what it was. It was really freedom-loving people versus the king. There were freedom-loving people on both sides of the Atlantic. And the freedom-loving people in England were just as frustrated with the concentration of power in the executive as the colonists were.” Danielle Allen will read at 7 p.m. Monday, July 20, at Harvard Book Store. A few more books of note ... Pamela Colloff is one of those reporters you need to read. Her work for the New York Times and ProPublica is known for its tough yet elegant truth-telling, routinely appearing in best-of anthologies and honored by awards juries. In her first book, “Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast” (Knopf), Colloff spins a tale of corruption that’s almost too dirty to be believed; the book chronicles the life and lies of Paul Skalnik, a career criminal and fabulist who used a credulous justice system to send another man to death row for a crime he committed. And two novels I’ve been hearing great things about: Rene Denfield’s latest thriller, “The Talking Bone” (Harper), draws on the author’s experience as an investigator working with death row inmates. When the great Margaret Atwood calls a book “heartbreaking, finger-gnawing, and yet ultimately hopeful,” maybe you should read it? Amy Chozik’s debut novel, “With Friends Like You” (Dutton), is another twisty thriller, perfect for the beach bag if you need a little edge in your reading. Set in the world of new motherhood, albeit a more ominous one than you might imagine, this book is already on its way to a cinematic adaptation. Kate Tuttle edits the Globe's Books section. You can reach her at [email protected]