![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Half a million copies of Common Sense, his plainspoken call for rebellion, flooded this fledgling nation of three million people. He burned with righteous indignation at the cruel tyranny of kings. This is the age of Paine!īILL MOYERS: Thomas Paine came to America from Great Britain in 1774 when he was 37 years old. Tyranny shall be thrust from this earth and a new age of liberty shall be born. JOHN NICHOLS: All men, all women shall be free. If we really adopted his principles, his ideas, it would be a very different world. ![]() The reason Thomas Paine is not more celebrated, recognized is because he's still too dangerous. JOYCE CHUMBLEY: Read Tom Paine, read about Thomas Paine, he will inspire you! So unsung is this hero, a "foundling father" one historian calls him, that only a handful of his most ardent fans showed up at the ceremonies marking the bicentennial of his death. But he died broke, scorned and alone, here in New York City two hundred years ago this week. Thomas Paine lived a life of adventure, stirred radical sentiments on two continents, knew Washington and Jefferson, Lafayette and Napoleon. "These are the times that try men's souls," he wrote, and patriots of every rank responded - farmers, blacksmiths, merchants and aristocrats. BILL MOYERS: He was the master wordsmith of the American Revolution. ![]()
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