Thomas “Clio” Rickman (1761-1834) was a prominent radical reformer, bookseller and propagandist. He was a close friend of Thomas Paine who subscribed to his book of poems and wrote the first friendly life of him.
Our President, our Society, and I, were made to feel very much at home at Thetford’s ‘Rights of Man’. The kindness of the organisers of the event will, I know, be repaid many times over in visits by members to the pub in Brandon Road.
A Stroke Of Imagination Read Post »
Rodger became associated with working-class radical politics, writing political squibs for a journal called The Spirit of the Union. Shortly after joining the staff of the journal the editor was charged with sedition, found guilty, and sentenced to transportation for life.
Alexander Rodger’s Stanzas on Thomas Paine’s Death Read Post »
![“Reason against unreason” a 1882 illustration by Joseph Keppler and Adolph Schwarzmann shows the “Light of Reason”, containing bust portraits of “Johannes Kepler, I. Kant, Thomas Paine, Jefferson, B. de Spinoza, Franklin, Voltaire, E.H. Haeckel, Tyndall, Huxley, [and] Darwin”, beaming against a large umbrella labeled “Bigotry, Supernaturalism, [and] Fanaticism” – Library of Congress](https://i0.wp.com/thomaspaine.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Reason-against-unreason.jpg?fit=667%2C1024&ssl=1)
Paine appealed to reason, his ultimate cause was a democratic system of society. His spirit stands in glaring contrast to that of the politico-religious dictators who lorded it over most nations when he wrote, and who have their counterparts today in dictators.
The Relevance Of The “Age Of Reason” For Today Read Post »
Stories of Paine’s recantation or conversion were once the stock in trade of any self-respecting evangelical preacher or writer. In our more sophisticated age with its closer attention to detail, claims of such a specific nature have given way to those of a more general character.
The Paine Conversion Myth Read Post »
The Age of Reason exerted an anti-religious influence on the reader at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. Merciless criticism of the Bible, revelations of the hypocrisy of tho clergy, a passionate call to readers to rely on the facts of Nature and human reason.
Paine As A Biblical Critic Read Post »
