"Thomas Paine & Lewes: Revolution and Reason" festival in the UK
“Enough of achievement for one man, surely: to understand the three great revolutions of his age before they happened, to bring politics home to the common people, to build a bridge of common idealism across the Atlantic and the English Channel. Yet this was not all. Scattered through Paine’s writings we can find hints, often much more than hints, of the other ideas which have given vitality to progressive movements for the past two hundred years.”
“The Thomas Paine Reader” (ed.) Michael Foot and Isaac Kramnick (1987)
Made in England and sold in America, Thomas Paine’s life is remembered each Independence Day. But this year’s Fourth of July celebrations have spread across the Atlantic to the ‘mother country’ in what is the bicentenary of his death (1737–1809). This is not to say, however, Gordon Brown will join in on the festivities and quote the English revolutionary Obama-like. After all Britain remains a constitutional monarchy and, as Edward Vallance writes in last month’s BBC History Magazine, “Paine’s politics remain anathema to many.” Yet this hardly explains why his writings rarely appear on the national curriculum in the UK.
Thomas Paine & Lewes: Revolution & Reason (4–14 July) is a measure of the impact of the history-shaping Brit. Born in Norfolk, Paine moved to Lewes in 1768 before his emigration to America in 1774. And it is this radical county town of East Sussex which hosts a festival of events and historic trail.
These six years in Lewes – “A Prelude to American Independence” as the subtitle of the festival book reads – cannot be understated. Hitherto a drifter, Paine found his first real cause and threw himself into it with the same zeal that he would later bring to the American Revolution. Excise officers had not seen a raise for nearly a century and in 1772 he drafted a pamphlet, “The Case of the Officers of Excise,” to petition for higher salaries. Although the campaign was unsuccessful, Paine honed his skills as a rhetorician and pamphleteer.
Given that it was in Lewes, not Philadelphia or Paris, which he first experienced ‘republican’ government, Matthew Hampton, writing in the Washington Post, asks “whether the American Revolution would have happened had it not been for the town’s most famous resident, Thomas Paine. And would Paine, author of “Common Sense” and “The Rights of Man,” have become the same man had it not been for the spirit of independence that marked Lewes then and continues to do so today.”
The festival formally opened with an open discussion featuring leading scholars of 18th-century political thought who each discussed one aspect of Paine’s life and work. Speakers included Professor Gareth Steadman-Jones (University of Cambridge), Professor Jon Mee (Warwick), Dr Mark Philp (Oxford), Professor John Barrell (York) and Professor Iain Hampsher-Monk (Exeter).
The festival continues:
• ‘Only Free Men’ – an award winning play by Lewes playwright V R Morse
Lewes Theatre Club, Lancaster Street, Lewes (till 11 July)
• Tours of house where Thomas Paine lived
Bull House, High Street, Lewes by Mary Burke (till 14 July)
• ‘Taking Liberties’ display with kind permission of The British Library Board from their exhibition in London earlier this year
Town Hall, High Street, Lewes (till 19 July)
“The Thomas Paine Reader” (ed.) Michael Foot and Isaac Kramnick (1987)
Made in England and sold in America, Thomas Paine’s life is remembered each Independence Day. But this year’s Fourth of July celebrations have spread across the Atlantic to the ‘mother country’ in what is the bicentenary of his death (1737–1809). This is not to say, however, Gordon Brown will join in on the festivities and quote the English revolutionary Obama-like. After all Britain remains a constitutional monarchy and, as Edward Vallance writes in last month’s BBC History Magazine, “Paine’s politics remain anathema to many.” Yet this hardly explains why his writings rarely appear on the national curriculum in the UK.
Thomas Paine & Lewes: Revolution & Reason (4–14 July) is a measure of the impact of the history-shaping Brit. Born in Norfolk, Paine moved to Lewes in 1768 before his emigration to America in 1774. And it is this radical county town of East Sussex which hosts a festival of events and historic trail.
These six years in Lewes – “A Prelude to American Independence” as the subtitle of the festival book reads – cannot be understated. Hitherto a drifter, Paine found his first real cause and threw himself into it with the same zeal that he would later bring to the American Revolution. Excise officers had not seen a raise for nearly a century and in 1772 he drafted a pamphlet, “The Case of the Officers of Excise,” to petition for higher salaries. Although the campaign was unsuccessful, Paine honed his skills as a rhetorician and pamphleteer.
Given that it was in Lewes, not Philadelphia or Paris, which he first experienced ‘republican’ government, Matthew Hampton, writing in the Washington Post, asks “whether the American Revolution would have happened had it not been for the town’s most famous resident, Thomas Paine. And would Paine, author of “Common Sense” and “The Rights of Man,” have become the same man had it not been for the spirit of independence that marked Lewes then and continues to do so today.”
The festival formally opened with an open discussion featuring leading scholars of 18th-century political thought who each discussed one aspect of Paine’s life and work. Speakers included Professor Gareth Steadman-Jones (University of Cambridge), Professor Jon Mee (Warwick), Dr Mark Philp (Oxford), Professor John Barrell (York) and Professor Iain Hampsher-Monk (Exeter).
The festival continues:
• ‘Only Free Men’ – an award winning play by Lewes playwright V R Morse
Lewes Theatre Club, Lancaster Street, Lewes (till 11 July)
• Tours of house where Thomas Paine lived
Bull House, High Street, Lewes by Mary Burke (till 14 July)
• ‘Taking Liberties’ display with kind permission of The British Library Board from their exhibition in London earlier this year
Town Hall, High Street, Lewes (till 19 July)