Thomas Paine

I was supposed to begin a more structured reading program this week. I have been dawdling over the writings of Thomas Paine instead. It would appear my intemperance extends to my reading habits too.

Thomas Paine was a radical proselytizer for liberal democracy, yet also part anarchist of both communitarian and libertarian stripes and spots. Despite that he also proposed radical social reforms and programs for the poor and the working class.

He was an influential and active participant in the American and French Revolutions. He went back to England with the intent of leading radical reform movements within that country.

He fought bitterly with the likes of Edmund Burke and was charged with seditious writing. Paine skipped the country before the trial, and returned to France. He was found guilty in absentia.

Paine died in 1809. He was buried in a field on his farm in New York. Only a small audience attended his burial.

William Cobbett disinterred Paine's body in 1819 and set sail for England with it in hopes to plant Paine's body in his native soil and erect a monument to Paine's greatness over it. The body was washed overboard during a storm at sea.