Thomas Paine

How I Ended Up in the Self-Publishing Hall of Fame

John Blumenthal | Posted 04.13.2012

Read More: Yahoo, Thomas Paine, BookReporter.Com, Kindle, Self-Publishing Hall of Fame, Createspace, Self-Publishing, Margaret Atwood, Amazon, Pw, Books News

In 1999, I decided to self-publish a novel. I'd sold books to mainstream houses in the past, but no one wanted this one. But I believed in it. My agent believed in it. My wife believed in it. The dog was neutral.

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The Politics of Sustainability

John Friedman | Posted 04.09.2012

Read More: Declaration of Independence, Politics, Sustainability, Thomas Paine, U.S. Constitution, America, Democrats, Ben Franklin, Republicans, Corporate Responsibility, Csr, u.s. Sustainability, Environmental Sustainability, Green News

It is time to review our foundational values and documents and establish why sustainability is very much based on American values that transcend today's politicized political climate.

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Happy Birthday, Common Sense

Chris Weigant | Posted 03.13.2012

Read More: Government, Pamphleteer, Thomas Paine, Pamphlet, Chris Weigant, Revolution, Independence, Britain, Common Sense, America, Paine, Politics News

Two hundred and thirty-six years ago this week, a pamphlet was published in Philadelphia. Thomas Paine's Common Sense hit the American consciousness like a bombshell -- one which would reverberate for years to come.

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Rebels And Messiahs: 10 Spiritual Ancestors For Occupy Wall Street

Richard (RJ) Eskow | Posted 01.07.2012

Read More: Lowell Mill Girls, Thomas Paine, Claude Williams, William Blake, John Ruskin, Adam Smith, Levellers, Occupy Faith, Politics News

We started to make a list of people throughout history who might be considered Occupy Wall Street's spiritual forefathers and mothers, but it got so long it felt like the album cover for Sgt. Pepper.

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The Absurdity of It All

Stanley Kutler | Posted 10.19.2011

Read More: 2011 Iowa Straw Poll, Warren Buffett, Paul Krugman, Thomas Paine, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, 2012 Gop Candidates, Michele Bachmann, Politics News

Despite Ron Paul's "strong" second-place finish, our great pundits have dismissed him, and Bachmann is a darling while he is a pariah. Bachmann and Paul -- if there is a difference, it is one without a distinction.

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Thomas Paine's Common Sense Is the Cure for Cynical Citizens

Harvey J. Kaye | Posted 09.26.2011

Read More: Thomas Paine, Thomas Paine Age of Reason, Thomas Paine Rights of Man, Thomas Paine the Crisis, Common Sense, Thomas Paine Common Sense, Books News

Need refreshment from the summer heat? A respite from the debt ceiling debacle? A break from the sense that all the hope was for naught? Read the book that turned America's colonial rebellion into a revolution.

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Spirit Of Independence: Best Books On Founding Fathers (And A Few Mothers Too)

Posted 09.03.2011

Read More: War of Independence, Samuel Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Founding Father Books, Thomas Paine, Founding Mothers, Revolutionary War, John Adams, Patrick Henry, James Madison, Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, 4th of July Books, Books News

Yes, we know the 4th of July is more about fireworks and picnics than the Revolutionary War, but we are, after all, celebrating American Independence....

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'God Of Liberty': The Role Of Religion In American Independence

Anil Mundra | Posted 09.01.2011

Read More: God of Liberty, Thomas Paine, Independence Day, 4th of July, Revolutionary War, American Religious History, Founding Fathers, July 4, Founding Fathers Religion, American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson, Religion News

America has always been religious -- and also religiously diverse. The historical narrative suggests that it's this special combination to which the United States owes its existence.

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Christopher Hitchens On The Art Of A Proper Literary Feud

nytimes.com | JENNIFER SCHUESSLER | Posted 08.13.2011

Read More: Thomas Paine, Famous Literary Feuds, Literary Feuds, V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens, Paul Theroux, Books News

In Sunday’s Week in Review, I wrote about the death of the old-school literary feud now that Paul Theroux has shaken hands with V.S. Naipaul, Rick M...

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McCain Dethrones the Rule of Law

Bruce Fein | Posted 07.31.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, Law, Alexander Hamilton, Congress, President Obama, Federal Reserve, James Madison, UN Security Council, U.S. Constitution, Pentagon Budget, Common Sense, Robert Jackson, Libya, UN Convention Against Torture, Enemy Combatants, John Bassett Moore, Constitution, Predator Drones, War Powers Resolution, Pentagon, John McCain, Thomas Paine, Libya War, State Secrets, Thomas Jefferson, James Wilson, Democrats, U.S. Supreme Court, Military Commissions, Patriot Act, Department of Treasury, U.S. Senate, War Powers Act, Fisa, Republicans, Politics News

John McCain's latest war gospel hangs an alarming tale. The rule of law has been dethroned and the president has been endowed with absolute power as the American Empire has eclipsed the American Republic.

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How John Adams and Thomas Paine Clashed Over Economic Equality

William Hogeland | Posted 05.28.2011

Read More: Founding Era, John Adams, Thomas Paine, American Independence, Income Inequality, Business News

Here's John Adams on Thomas Paine's famous 1776 pamphlet "Common Sense": "What a poor, ignorant, malicious, short-sighted, crapulous mass." Then comes Paine on Adams: "John was not born for immortality."

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Phil Ochs, Tom Paine, And There But for Fortune

Bruce E. Levine | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Harvey Kaye, Thomas Paine, Phil Ochs, Greenwich Village Rockaway, Dave Van Ronk, Pete Seeger, American Crisis, Sean Penn, Bob Dylan, Common Sense, Joan Baez, Salvador Allende, Kenneth Bowser, John Adams, Victor Jara, Peter Yarrow, Politics News

The afterlife of the man once called "Tom Paine with a guitar" has, for the last 30 years, paralleled that of Tom Paine himself. Both Ochs and Paine were discarded by their respective mainstream worlds.

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When FDR Recruited Thomas Paine to the Struggle for the Four Freedoms

Harvey J. Kaye | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Thomas Paine, Fdr, American Revolution, Greatest Generation, Conservatives, American History, Progressives, Freedom, February 23, Democracy, World War II, Politics News

Today the political right does its best to lay claim to the revolutionary patriot Thomas Paine and to harness him to the cause of constraining democra...

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A Toast to the Revolutionary Patriot Thomas Paine

Harvey J. Kaye | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Thomas Paine, January 29, Birthday, Politics News

Greetings to friends of Thomas Paine! We gather all across the USA -- believe me, ALL ACROSS THE USA! -- to celebrate the birthday of the man who in ...

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What Conservatives Find Funny

Harvey J. Kaye | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Thomas Paine, Obama, Conservatives, Liberals, Politics News

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0. Keeping an eye on conservatives as I do, I was intrigued by a popular new title, "365 Ways to Drive a Liberal Crazy" ...

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Reflections On Faith And Fear In Palin's America

Todd Green, Ph.D. | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: John F. Kennedy, Thomas Paine, America by Heart, Martin Luther King, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Thomas Jefferson, Jeremiah Wright, Sarah Palin America by Heart, Letter From Birmingham Jail, Sarah Plain Faith, Sarah Palin Presidency, Sarah Palin Book, Religion News

The narrative of Palin's book is the same narrative that has dominated American religious history and has proven so detrimental to those who do not fit into the white Protestant fold.

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George Washington Orders All Californians to Legalize Pot

Harvey Wasserman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Declaration of Independence, Cannabis, Thomas Paine, Hemp, George Washington, Marijuana, Proposition 19, Marijuana Prohibition, Potsmoking Presidents, Legal Pot, California, Prohibition, American Revolution, Comedy News

Tom Jefferson preferred marijuana to tobacco, or to any other crop he grew. He wrote his wonderful Declaration on paper made from it. Ben Franklin built an entire mill that used hemp as its primary stock.

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Jill Lepore: Tea Party Time... and the Death of Compassion (AUDIO)

Christopher Lydon | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: History, Thomas Paine, Revolutionary War, Radio Conversation, American History, 1776, What Would Jesus Do, Founding Fathers, Jill Lepore, Harvard, John Adams, Tea Party, Brown University, Audio, Books News

There's more religion than politics in the 2010 Tea Party, Jill Lepore is saying. There's less of 1776 about it than of 1976 -- that dyspeptic post-Vietnam, post-Watergate bicentennial moment.

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Only About the Law? Part II

Jim Lichtman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: First Amedment, Thomas Paine, Albert Snyder, Margie Phelps, Responsibility, Fred W. Phelps Sr., Ethics, Westboro Baptist Church, Sean Summers, Snyder v. Phelps, Respect, Huffington Post, Common Sense, U.S. Supreme Court, Politics News

Last Friday (Oct. 8) I published a commentary discussing the case Snyder v. Phelps currently before the U.S. Supreme Court; a case that, at first glan...

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Atheist House Candidate Up Against Pillar of Prayer Caucus

Barrett Brown | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Virginia, Founding Fathers, Christian Right, Atheism, Wynne LeGrow, Randy Forbes, Religion, Thomas Paine, First Amendment, Pete Stark, Turkey, Obama Muslim, John Adams, Obama Turkey, Tripoli, Politics News

There are probably a great many atheists and agnostics in Congress, and most of those keep their religious opinions secret; polls routinely show that atheists are mistrusted more than any other group.

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The Tea Party/GOP Would Hate Our Actual Founders

Harvey Wasserman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Tea Party, Bill of Rights, Thomas Paine, Founding Fathers, Unitarians, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Sarah Palin, Freedom of Speech, US Constitution, Free Thought, Freedom, Fox News, Glenn Beck, Free Sex, Separation of Church and State, Foxists, Benjamin Franklin, Politics News

The very first phrase of this nation's defining document, the Bill of Rights, says: "Judaeo-Christian? Not a chance." It is the humanistic liberalism of America's Founders that still enraged the neo-Puritan GOP.

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Predator Drones: Bin Laden's Best Friends

Bruce Fein | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Shylock, Thomas Paine, War on Terror, Terrorism, Pakistan, President Obama, Afghanistan, Taliban, Muslim, Brookings Institution, Predator Drones, Faisal Shahzad, Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Politics News

The United States should have anticipated the predator drone blow-back. The 1770 Boston Massacre occasioned but five American deaths, but engendered colonial hatred of the British that cascaded throughout the colonies.

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George Washington -- the Teflon Founding Father?

John Ferling | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Authors, American Revolution, Teflon Politician, Thomas Paine, George Washington, Books, Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, Reading, Biography, Independence Day, Fourth of July, Books News

As a historian of the American Revolution, I have learned that to write about the Founders is guaranteed to get a lively response from general readers; to criticize them can be asking for trouble.

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The Lowdown from Hightower

Michael Winship | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Thomas Paine, Bill Moyers Journal, Corporate Power, Progressive Movement, Populism, Barack Obama, Jim Hightower, Bill Moyers, Politics News

"Here's what populism is not," Jim Hightower told my colleague Bill Moyers on the final edition of Bill Moyers Journal. "It is not just an incoherent outburst of anger."

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Common Sense In Iran

James Miller | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Islamic Revolution, Islamic Revolution 1979, Iran Youth Revolution, Iran Revolution, Iran Green Movement, Democracy, Thomas Paine, World News

Today, the youth of Iran have declared their own ideological revolution. They are tired of their failed theocratic state, of the illusion of democracy, and of cultural and international isolation.

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