By Gary Berton
In the last Beacon, the problem with historians marginalizing and ignoring Thomas Paine was discussed, and Bailyn was used as a typical example. He is an excellent historian by modern standards, and he is also emblematic of the norm which assumes a world view and then looks for data to justify it. The 19th century history books were steeped in prejudice against Paine, driven by political and theistical bias, largely rooted in fake news, incomplete facts, and the myth of the founding. That myth of the founding puts the Federalist Party as the Founding Party, with people like Paine and Franklin on the sidelines watching. Independence Mall in Philadelphia was created around that myth.
An historian steeped in that education deepens it in order to be accepted, not question it. Franklin, up to the 1930s, was treated like Paine, a caricature, sitting on the sidelines. When an accurate book on Franklin finally emerged then, it caused a great stir, and eventually a reexamination. History has always been the tool of those who control a country, as Orwell said, “those who control the past, control the future.” Some 20th century historians continued the trope on Paine from the 19th century, right up to today with J.C.D. Clark, Chernow, Ellis and others. There is even an organization of conservative historians, which is an improvement since at least they admit it.
There was a book which came out a year after Bailyn’s The IDEOLOGICAL Origins of the American Revolution, in response: The INTELLECTUAL Origins of the American Revolution by Staughton Lynd. It was full of quotations so we could see the material left out of the ”accepted” narrative. In 1968 it was eyeopening. We recommend it.
Lynd put Paine out front with other radical leaders, and in his 2009 updated version he apologized for not adequately crediting Paine. As information spread in history departments, and that generation became the heads of those departments, like Eric Foner and many more, the blind eye to Paine was slowly opened. The Collected Works of Thomas Paine Project, managed by our Association with the leading Paine scholars in the world, will further reveal the incredible impact of Paine not only on the American Revolution, but world history: much of the atmosphere of radical English politics fueling the American cause was generated by Thomas Paine before he came to America.