Why did one of America’s greatest champions of liberty become one of its most hated figures?
To accompany our recent reading of Common Sense and my conversation with George Ford Smith, I’m pleased to share this reading of his outstanding essay, “Tom Paine, Liberty’s Hated Torchbearer.”
Remembered as one of the architects of American independence, Paine’s story didn’t end with Common Sense. George traces Paine’s journey from the man whose words ignited a revolution to the political and cultural outcast who was smeared, abandoned, and largely erased from the nation’s memory.
