Social Networking Thomas Paine: individual nexus of enlightenment thought Etudes
Par John Ward Regan, New York University
Texte préparatoire à la Deuxième conférence internationale Thomas Paine, Thomas Paine dans la Révolution française, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, vendredi 26 septembre 2014, (CHISCO-Paris Ouest Nanterre, Université Paris Lumière, Thomas Paine Studies Iona College, Thomas Paine National Historical Association).
This paper examines Thomas Paine through his connections to people, (well known and otherwise) who populated the intellectual and political landscape of the Atlantic Community at the beginning of the modern era. Specifically it looks at Paine’s correspondences to his intimate circle of friends and then spreading outward all the way to his readers and the relationship that existed between the author and his audience.
The dynamics of Paine’s relationships would make for a fascinating Venn diagram of overlapping relationships and intersecting ideas, consisting of larger and smaller circles of friends, acquaintances, correspondents and readers. By looking at his correspondences the goal is to shed light on his political, philosophical, and ethical ideas and their development. The paper will look at Paine’s personal correspondence and letters published in newspapers, some to groups some to specific or anonymous individuals, some meant to be public, some not, some on specific issues. Some are really essays in the guise of letters, like the Letter Addressed to the Addressers written during his trial for The Rights of Man Part II.
