“Thomas Paine and the Founding of America ”

Charles Postel
Department of History
California State University, Sacramento

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Charles Postel link is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Sacramento, and also serves as academic advisor to the OUSD Teaching American History grant (2004 - 2007). He received his Phd in history from UC Berkeley in 2003 and is author of the forthcoming book Power and Progress: A History of American Populist Thought.

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"I know not whether any man in the world has had more influence on its inhabitants or affairs for the last thrity years than Tom Paine." So wrote John Adams in 1805
from E. Foner "A Brief History of Paine"

Events

• Thomas Paine Symposium : Common Sense for the Modern Era
  Read about an upcoming symposium to be held in San Diego, California in October 2005. This interdisciplinary symposium will bring together leading international scholars on Paine and his times, who will attempt to situate Paine’s work historically and/or comment about the importance of his ideas and the debates surrounding them for the modern era.
  http://cal.sdsu.edu/paine/

• Eric Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America, Oxford Univ. Press, 1977 link to Amazon
  
  
• Common Sense : and Related Writings (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) by Thomas Paine, Thomas P. Slaughter (Editor),Bedford/st Martins, 2001 link to Amazon
  
  
• Common Sense : and Other Writings (Modern Library Classics)
  by Thomas Paine, Gordon S. Wood (Editor) link to Amazon
  
  
• Jack Fruchtman, Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom (New York and London, 1994). link to Amazon
  

• The Contents of Thomas Paine's Writings: Containing The Major and Minor Works, and Letters The foremost archive of Thomas Paine's works -- all of his texts are available here. http://www.thomaspaine.org/contents.html
  
  
• Thomas Paine: "These are the times that try men's souls".
  This website contains these complete works of Thomas Paine, pamphleteer http://www.ushistory.org/paine/
  
  
• Selected Writings of Thomas Paine
  http://www.constitution.org/tp/paine.htm
  
  
• Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
  http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1776-1800/paine/CM/sense01.htm
  Online text in seven parts.

Other Documents

• Constitution of Pennsylvania - September 28, 1776
  http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/pa08.htm
  
  
• The Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions --1765
  http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/vsa65.htm

Background Information

• "A Brief History of Paine " by E.Foner
  http://home.mindspring.com/~phila1/paine.htm
  
  
• "The Lost Founder: Thomas Paine" by Harvey J. Kaye This article is excerpted from Thomas Paine and the Promise of America, to be published in 2005. NEW
  http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050701/
  the_lost_founder_thomas_paine.php
  
  
• "Thomas Paine Video Lesson Plan." C-SPAN American Writers: A Journey Though History This video, part of C-SPAN's American Writers Program, features Thomas Paine and Common Sense. Various themes and questions about Thomas Paine's life and works are addressed in the video interview with Paine biographer, Eric Foner. Each theme contains questions and video clips
  http://www.americanwriters.org/classroom/videolesson/vlp03_paine.asp
  
  
• Rehabilitating Thomas Paine, Bit by Bony Bit By DAVID W. CHEN
  Article from March 30, 2001, New York Times (reprinted at the Firends of Thomas Paine webiste) discusses the mystery surrounding the physical remains of Thomas Paine.
  http://home.mindspring.com/%7Ephila1/nyt330.htm
  
  
• Thomas Paine: Citizen of the World by Professor John Belchem (BBC History) http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/
  protest_reform/paine_01.shtml
  
  
• "The Age of Paine" Article from March 1995 isssue of Wired Magazine describes Paine's contribution to journalism and new media today.
  http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.05/paine.html
  
  
• "Thomas Paine and the Intellectual Underpinnings of American Democracy" by Joyce Appleby, Lewis Walpole Library Lecture, Yale University, April 22, 2005
  http://lrm102.securednshost.com/pipermail/
  nationalvoicenews_voicelists.org/2005-April/000014.html
  
  
• A Biography of Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
  http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/tpaine/paine.htm
  
  
• Thomas Paine, 1737-1809
  http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/paine.html
  
  
• Thomas Paine: A Spirit of His Times by Judah Freed
  http://www.media-visions.com/tompaine.html#biography
  
  
• "Thomas Paine, Revolutionary" by George F. Smith
  http://freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/paine_revolutionary.htm
  
  
• To Begin the World Again: Tom Paine (From A History of US)
  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/web01/segment7.html.
  
  
• "The Remains of Thomas Paine"
  http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/chronicle_philadelphia1776.html
  Part of the PBS Liberty! site, this page includes an overview of Paine's influence and a sound and movie clip from the documentary.
  
  
• "Thomas Paine, Common Sense"
  http://www.wwnorton.com/naal/vol_A/explorations/paine.htm
  From Norton Anthology of American Literature

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