Melvyn Bragg is currently exploring the life of Thomas Paine in a BBC Two series entitled Radical Lives.
Bragg tells us a little about Paine in a recent article for The Telegraph:
"He (Paine) went to America at a time when the bonds with Britain seemed unbreakable. His first book, Common Sense, written in 1775, was taken by the American leaders of what became their Revolution – especially George Washington – as a summons that it was their duty to throw off the colonial yoke."
"His next publication, The Rights of Man (1791), had, like Common Sense, startling success, and also attacked the English constitution. It sold more copies than the Bible and it turned the British government against him."
"In his third book, The Age of Reason he dismantled the Bible stories with a ferocity of reason which again infused the imagination of an immense audience."
Where is our Thomas Paine? We could sure use one as we seek to amend our Constitution.
