The Thomas Paine Review has MOVED

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Contemporary poem re: Thomas Paine

Impressions On A Passing Cloud

  by Christopher Black

 

White and fair she moved on the wind,

With the speed of a greyhound, the Golden Hind,

She scudded along on a windward tack,

Making for heaven, the sky at her back,

She sailed unmanned, this ghost of a ship,

But for Captain Tom Paine, who vowed he’d come back.

For the sad Age of Reason, before the winds ran,

Searching the seas for the lost Rights of Man





[Christopher Black's blog is highly recommended for more than his poem
https://christopher-black.com/2015/08/25/impressions-on-a-passing-cloud/ ]

Rare copy of Thomas Paine’s historic ‘The American Crisis’ discovered in Mt. Pleasant, Utah

http://sanpetemessenger.com/2018/02/28/rare-document-found-in-mt-pleasant/

Paul Craig Roberts and Lewis Lapham on Paine and plain speaking

A recent Paine reference:

Seldom in history have the people had a voice. Those who try to give people a voice are portrayed negatively by the ruling elites. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is the founding document of the American Revolution. His book, Rights of Man, sold 500,000 copies, making it the best-selling book of the 18th century. In Britain his reward was to be charged with sedition by the government and declared an outlaw. In the US, Federalist newspapers in Boston portrayed him as a drunkard and infidel. There is no monument to him in Washington, D.C. As Lewis Lapham has written, “Paine’s plain and forthright speaking is out of tune with our own contemporary political discourse, which for the most part is the gift for saying nothing.” Or for flumuxing you with false news.

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/03/02/can-truth-prevail-paul-craig-roberts/

The Origin and Rise of Government

"Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and reason will say, 'tis right."
—Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

Changes in the Paine Review

Dear Readers, thanks for keeping track over recent years of the heretofore somewhat scholarly history focus of this blog. At the time it began, that was the prevailing direction in this author's work and there has not been time to do more. The direction of this blog will -- as you can tell -- change a bit. There will be more political and social commentary -- hopefully some useful exchange with thoughtful readers -- while retaining our "set the record straight" feature with Thomas Paine studies in particular and history more broadly.

Tom Paine: the worker who helped make a revolution

It should be added that it was NOT John Adams who wrote that the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain but for the pen of Tom Paine. That was Joel Barlow. Otherwise a good, timely and overall accurate essay.

http://www.ueunion.org/ue-news-feature/2012/tom-paine-and-the-4th-of-july-the-worker-who-helped-make-a-revolution

The Two "F"s: Fanaticism and Feudalism.

The world is once again in a great struggle with feudalism and fanaticism. This is not a war on "terror." All the parties involved use terror and terrorist practices. Nor is the world in a struggle against Islam or any of the world's great religions -- no matter how transgressive and open to criticism they may be. Christians practice terror in the name of their religion just as all the world's "great" religions do. And a great many more Christians, Muslim, Jews, Hindu and Buddhists live peaceful, benevolent and pro-social lives in the name of their religion. The problem isn't in the religions. Our enemies are the fanatics among them all and any who advocate or practice a feudal system.
The world is in a struggle against feudalism and fanaticism.

© Kenneth W. Burchell - 2015 - All Rights Reserved.

"Science, the partisan of no country ..." Thomas Paine.

"Letters, the tongue of the world, have in some measure brought all mankind acquainted, and by an extension of their uses are everyday  promoting new friendship. Through them, distant nations become capable of conversation, and losing by degrees the awkwardness of strangers, and the moroseness of suspicion, they learn to know and understand each other. Science, the partisan of no country, but  the beneficent patroness of all, has liberally opened a temple where all may meet. Her influence on the mind, like the sun on the chilled earth, has long been preparing it for higher cultivation and further improvement. The philosopher in one country sees not an enemy in the philosopher of another; he takes his seat in the temple of science, and asks not who sits beside him ..."

Thomas Paine
Letter to the Abbé Raynal

One wishes that Mort Zuckerman and Benjamin Netanyahu would take Paine's words to heart.

American Crisis at Swann Galleries auction

http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2368++++++23+&refno=++692152&saletype=

Harvey J. Kaye -- August 14: Time to Reinvigorate the Fight for the Four Freedoms

 Any real Paineites out there will already know that the star hitter on the Tom Paine batting roster is Prof. Kaye. Here he is at his best on the Fight for the Four Freedoms. Do you remember them? “FREEDOM FROM FEAR AND WANT – FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND RELIGION.”

http://ourfuture.org/20140813/14-august-time-to-reinvigorate-the-fight-for-the-four-freedoms#.U-vOzcDDeWk.mailto

Harvey J. Kaye on Thomas Paine and "general revolution"

 Perhaps no one presently does more to bring the name of Thomas Paine before the public that Prof. Harvey J. Kaye. Here is yet another on the real meaning of American exceptionalism and the "general revolution" of the world:

http://ourfuture.org/20140725/a-dangerous-idea-the-progressive-vision-of-of-american-exceptionalism#.U9KhdQwFxt0.twitter

Thomas Paine biography recommendation

Several individuals have asked recently for a recommendation of a Paine biography. Much the best of the recent and more accessible biographies is Harvey Kaye's. I'll be posting more info on this and related subjects in the near future and will probably create a recommendations page, but in the meantime:

Thomas Paine on war.

"War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen and unsupposed circumstances ... that no human wisdom can calculate the end."

Thomas Paine -- Prospects on the Rubicon (1787)

Petition for Paine Street

Kudos to Dylan DePice for starting this initiative. Sign it and share it, people.

https://www.change.org/petitions/corey-johnson-reclaim-a-street-name-for-thomas-paine

(note: Dylan, nice work. Would love to be in touch at my direct email -- paineite at gmail dot com)

Campaign to rename Barrow Street in honor of Thomas Paine

This story -- reported in the Right leaning New York Post -- affirms the great principle that all honorable men and women can find  and work together on a towards the common good. We support this campaign and commend the NY Post for its coverage of the story.

http://nypost.com/2014/07/06/push-to-rename-street-to-honor-writer-thomas-paine/



(acknowledgement and thanks to HJK for the link)

American exceptionalism and Thomas Paine: Harvey J. Kaye

 Link to the audio broadcast is here:

http://t.co/5Srkfp3o7P

Karl Marx - Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine on animal cruelty ... and human persecution and revenge.

"Everything of persecution and revenge between man and man, and everything of cruelty to animals is a violation of moral duty." - Thomas Paine: The Age of Reason

Thomas Paine -- sowing the world with mischief

"The time, sir, will come when you, in a melancholy hour, shall reckon up your miseries by your murders in America. Life, with you, begins to wear a clouded aspect. The vision of pleasurable delusion is wearing away, and changing to the barren wild of age and sorrow.
The poor reflection of having served your king will yield you no consolation in your parting moments. He will crumble to the same undistinguished ashes with yourself, and have sins enough of his own to answer for.
It is not the farcical benedictions of a bishop, nor the cringing hypocrisy of a court of chaplains, nor the formality of an act of Parliament, that can change guilt into innocence, or make the punishment one pang the less. You may, perhaps, be unwilling to be serious, but this destruction of the goods of Providence, this havoc of the human race, and this sowing the world with mischief, must be accounted for to him who made and governs it. To us they are only present sufferings, but to him they are deep rebellions."
Thomas Paine, The American Crisis V