Thomas Paine

"These are the times that try men's souls "

wrote Thomas Paine as he turned his pen towards lifting the struggling American army to continue their fight for freedom.

Read my talk on Thomas Paine and

find out more about Paine's works and life

My renactment of Thomas Paine gives audiences a chance to imagine what it was like to hear those words - how a corset maker from Thetford became an inspiration to so many

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The world has changed in many ways. In many ways, the struggles of ordinary people have not. Paine spoke to the oppressed, the poor, the disenfranchised and the desperate. Many people feel this way today. They, like the American patriots of the 18th century, need their heads and hearts lifting so that they can begin to change their world.

“We have it on our power to begin the world again”

Paine’s life experiences and his thirst for education provided him with the confidence and the knowledge with which to take on the greatest challenges.

The message of the great campaigners for social justice, refreshed for new audiences, can continue to support the process of positive, transformative change.

The works of Thomas Paine

1772

The Case For The Customs Officer

Paine is asked to make the case for improved pay and conditions for members of the Customs and Excise.

1775

Common Sense

Paine sets out a vision for an independent America with a proposal for popular self- government. The pamphlet is read and heard extremely widely and provided a critical boost to the movement for Independence.

1775

American Crisis

Just as the fight for independence begins to falter, Paine produces an inspiring rallying cry. A masterpiece of pamphleteering, it begins with the immortal words; ‘These are the times that try men’s souls”

1791

The Rights of Man

Paine produces another best- selling text with his rebuke to Edmund Burke that people (in this case the French people) had no right to rebel against tyranny. Paine argued that man had natural rights which should never be restricted by traditional or inherited oppression.

1794

The Age of Reason

Paine’s most controversial work which attacked the authority of the Bible and presented a fervent defence of the benevolent God of deism. This work, partly devised in his Paris prison cell, made Paine a very unpopular figure.

1795

Agrarian Justice

Paine argued that some form of universal pension was owed to all as a consequence of the monopoly of land ownership that excluded the vast majority of people.

Using further reading

1 / Books

Thomas Paine's Rights of Mans by Christopher Hitchins
The Thomas Paine Reader - Penguin Classics
The Trouble With Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine by Paul Collins
Tom Paine by W.E. Woodward
Tom Paine: The Greatest Exile by David Powell

2 / Websites

https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/thomas-paine

https://hourlyhistory.com/thomas-paine/?doing_wp_cron=1678296510.7291009426116943359375

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine

https://oll.libertyfund.org/page/1776-paine-common-sense-pamphlet

3 / Modern inspiration

To come