Thomas Paine
The Constitution Enabled Big Government
I realize I'm at risk of turning into an anti-libertarian blog, but Chris Beam falls for the conceit that the Founding fathers were libertarian: “The Constitution was a libertarian document that limited the role of the state to society’s most basic needs, like a legislature to pass laws, a court system to interpret them, and a military to protect them." John Vecchione corrects him: READ MORE >>
Defending ‘The Unnecessary Fall of Barack Obama’
Today at TNR (December 1, 2009)
Karzai's Fall: How Did a Man Once Hailed as the Savior of Afghanistan Become Its Scourge? by Jean MacKenzie From Thomas Paine to Glenn Beck: The Perversion of 'Common Sense' in American Politics by Damon Linker READ MORE >>
Against Common Sense
An American In Cairo
Three decades ago, in his acceptance speech to the 1980 Republican Convention, Ronald Reagan quoted the famous words of Thomas Paine: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." Reagan believed that he was running for office at a time of unusual plasticity, when long-settled arrangements--at home and abroad--could be fundamentally changed. And to the astonishment of skeptics, he turned out to be right. READ MORE >>
America in Thick and Thin
Civic Ideals: Conflicting Views of Citizenship in U.S. History by Rogers M. Smith (Yale University Press, 719 pp., $35) READ MORE >>
The Air Around Tom Paine
Thomas Paine: Collected Writings edited by Eric Foner (The Library of America, 906 pp., $35) Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom by Jack Fruchtman Jr. (Four Walls Eight Windows, 557 pp., $30) Thomas Paine: A Political Life by John Keane (Little, Brown, 644 pp., $27.95) I. READ MORE >>
