Internationally recognised art and literary critic, writer and cultural producer. Published in ELLE, Glamour, Esquire and Cosmopolitan; member of the Union of Writers.
Thomas Paine is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures of the Enlightenment and the founding fathers of the United States. But his impact was not limited to the American colonies. His writings and ideas also inspired and challenged the British political and social order, and paved the way for the reforms and revolutions that shaped the modern world.
Paine was born in Thetford, Norfolk, in 1737, the son of a Quaker corset maker and a Anglican mother. He received little formal education, but he had a curious and independent mind. He worked as a stay maker, a sailor, a tax collector, and a school teacher, before becoming a journalist and a political writer in London.
In 1774, he met Benjamin Franklin, who encouraged him to emigrate to America. There, he became involved in the revolutionary cause, and published his famous pamphlet Common Sense in 1776, which argued for the separation of the colonies from Britain and the establishment of a democratic republic. The pamphlet sold over 500,000 copies and was widely read by the public and the political leaders, including George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. It was credited with galvanizing the American public opinion and rallying the support for the Declaration of Independence.
Paine also wrote a series of essays called The American Crisis, which boosted the morale of the Continental Army and the American people during the war. He famously declared: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
After the war, Paine returned to Europe, where he became involved in the French Revolution. He was elected to the National Convention, and wrote his most influential work, Rights of Man, in 1791, in response to Edmund Burke’s critique of the revolution. In the book, Paine defended the principles of natural rights, human equality, popular sovereignty, and representative government. He also advocated for social reforms, such as progressive taxation, public education, old-age pensions, and welfare.
Rights of Man was a bestseller in Britain, where it sparked a political and intellectual debate, and inspired the radical movements of the 1790s, such as the London Corresponding Society and the Society for Constitutional Information. However, it also provoked the wrath of the British government, which banned the book and charged Paine with sedition. Paine fled to France, where he narrowly escaped the guillotine during the Reign of Terror. He was imprisoned for ten months, during which he wrote his last major work, The Age of Reason, in 1794-95.
The Age of Reason was a controversial and influential book, in which Paine challenged the authority of the Christian church and the validity of the Bible. He argued for a rational and deistic view of religion, based on natural laws and human reason. He also criticized the doctrines of original sin, the Trinity, the miracles, and the prophecies, and denounced the corruption and oppression of the clergy. He wrote: “My own mind is my own church.”
The Age of Reason was widely read and debated in Britain, where it influenced the freethinkers and the secularists of the 19th century, such as Robert Owen, Richard Carlile, George Holyoake, and Charles Bradlaugh. It also had an impact on the American Transcendentalists, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman.
Paine died in New York in 1809, at the age of 72, with few friends and admirers. He was buried in a farm in New Rochelle, but his remains were later exhumed and taken to England by William Cobbett, who intended to build a monument for him. However, the plan failed, and Paine’s bones were lost or scattered.
Today, Paine is recognized as one of the most original and influential thinkers of the modern era, whose ideas shaped the democratic revolutions and the social movements that transformed the world. He is honored with statues, monuments, and memorials in both America and Britain, and his writings are still widely read and studied. He is remembered as a champion of liberty, equality, and reason, and a visionary of a better world.
