Responding to assaults on civil liberties under the 1873 Comstock Act, freethinkers played central roles in the social reform movement opposing abuses of the rich and powerful in the Gilded Age. They were guided by Thomas Paine and Enlightenment Age ideals of democracy, equality and natural rights.
The Comstock Act and the Founders of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association Read Post »
I believe it’s no accident that current social beliefs and trends uncannily reflect those in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many Americans still believe that assistance to the poor encourages sloth. Meanwhile, there is little interest in funding public K-12 education or in making higher education more affordable.
historian Yannick Bosc wrote, “Behind the smoke from the censer, there are always sulfurous fumes floating around Thomas Paine.” 200 years of historiographical inquiry still leaves us with too many questions. We can only look forward to the new, impartial, unbiased, and well-researched works that are yet to come.
Starting in 1872 and completed in 1873, the Comstock Act brought the weapon of religion against these groups. It was named for Anthony Comstock, a zealous Christian anti-“vice”fanatic who was put in charge of using the Act against the democratic forces emerging.
Celebrating the 2024 bicentennial of Lafayette’s visit to New Rochelle, the Thomas Paine National Historical Association (TPNHA) and the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association (H&NRHA) in cooperation with the American Friends of Lafayette (AFL) and the City of New Rochelle will offer free events.
Bicentennial of the ‘Farewell Tour’ by the Marquis de Lafayette Read Post »
Paine’s Agrarian Justice most resonates with my own personal sensibilities. He says, “Civilization, therefore, or that which is so called, has operated two ways, to make one part of society more affluent, and the other part more wretched, than would have been the lot of either in a natural state.”
Historians are challenged to remain ambivalent when writing about multi-layered Paine. We have Paine the political strategist, the enlightened idealist and utopian, the religious heretic, the economist, the journalist, the inventor, and humanitarian. Paine was vilified, idolized and all in between.
Frances Wright has been called the “female Thomas Paine.” In important ways, she was. Fanny Wright was the first American feminist, a radical abolitionist, labor champion, powerful public orator, and one of the first philosophers making a public case for freethought.
Frances (Fanny) Wright: ‘The Female Thomas Paine’ Read Post »
Even before Paine’s death, his life was being dissected by those around him on both sides of the Atlantic. The earliest “biographies” of Paine were highly critical, politically-motivated smear campaigns funded by political enemies in high places. Each writer set out to debunk Paine’s major works.
The Curious History of Thomas Paine’s Biographies Read Post »
Lukin identified the 32 books most often banned worldwide. Two of those books, Rights of Man and The Age of Reason, were authored by Paine. As true from Common Sense forward, governments purporting to support democracy and free speech will resist the radical impact of Paine’s thoughts.
I had heard Thomas Paine’s name, but Bob Dylan put me on the track of discovering Paine’s profound importance in history. Dylan has been the soundtrack of my life. When he sang about Paine in the song, “As I went out One Morning,”, his lyrics stayed with me.
In Greenwich Village today is a plaque installed almost 100 years ago in honor of Paine. The memorial is at 59 Grove Street in a building now standing on the location of Paine’s death in 1809. Starting in 1802, Paine had a house on Herring Street, now 309 Bleecker Street.
