Thomas Paine, Bridge Builder
Thomas Paine had many talents beyond writing, but the most surprising and under-appreciated was his aptitude for engineering. Following the American triumph in the War of Independence, Paine became encumbered with financial issues that plagued him for many years. As I...
Thomas Paine: The First American Whistleblower
In 2013, Edward Snowden’s revelations about the invasive nature of the American surveillance state raised many questions about state secrecy, the morality of state whistleblowing, and the role of government in general. What many don’t realize, however, was that the...
Thomas Paine, Abolitionist
As many of us realize, the political establishment of 2022 never passes up an opportunity to describe liberty-oriented ideas as “extreme,” and those who espouse them as “extremists.” Well, in 1774, there was nothing more extreme than a belief in the abolition of...