Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom

Radical journalist Thomas Paine (1737-1809), whose pamphlet Common Sense (1776) steeled American colonists to break with England, was a revolutionary, a statesman, an outspoken opponent of slavery and an advocate of democracy. He fought for constitutional safeguards to protect the unemployed and the working poor, for free public education, old-age benefits and public assistance. Born in England, Paine moved to Philadelphia in 1774, later shuttling between England, France and America. A moderate delegate to France's National Convention, he was imprisoned amid the Reign of Terror; and although Robespierre ordered his execution, Paine was released after 10 months. Disillusioned, poor and frustrated he turned to drink, Freemasonry and spiritualism. In Paris in 1797, he founded the Theophilanthropists, a humanistic ethical society seeking global moral renewal. Resettling in the U.S. in 1802, Paine feuded bitterly with Federalists who scorned him and his Jeffersonian friends. Political science professor Fruchtman (Towson State Univ., Md.) has written a spirited, riveting biography that cogently argues that Paine was a pantheist who saw God's handiwork in all nature and in humanity's struggles to improve the common good. Illustrated. (Oct.)