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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/26/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
August 7, 2005 Jean Peerenboom column: By Jean Peerenboom
This is Kaye's second book on Paine and the author gives a comprehensive assessment of the man who helped empower a colonial nation to rebel. Kaye shows how Paine turned Americans into radicals and how we've remained radicals ever since.
There is a passion running through these pages that make it an irresistible read for history buffs. It outlines Paine's life and ideas and shows the influence he has had ever since 1774 when he came to America. As the author gets into the heart and mind of Paine, he also shows the birth of a nation and of the great experiment in democracy.
For me, the last chapter was the most intriguing. It is an essay that pulls the past and present together as Kaye writes "It is yet too soon to write the history of the revolution."
In the beginning of the book, Kaye shows how, since the 1980s, conservatives and liberals both lay claim to Paine's ideals. Yet, he writes in his conclusion, "But the truth is that not all of us are Painites. For all of their citations of Paine and his lines, conservatives do not — and truly cannot — embrace him and his arguments. Bolstered by capital, firmly in command of the Republican Party, and politcally ascendant for a generation, they have initiated and instituted policies and programs that fundamentally contradict Paine's own vision and commitments. They have subordinated the Republic — the res publica, the commonwealth, the common good — to the marketplace and private advantage. They have furthered the interests of corporations and the rich over those of working people. Their families, unions and communities and overseen a concentration of wealth and power that ... has corrupted American democratic life and politics."
On the other side are those who might make the strongest historical claim on Paine. Yet they "have yet to properly reappropriate his memory and legacy. Continuing to cite Paine, we on the left have not made his vision and commitments once again our own."
It may be true that Paine may not belong to either the right or the left today, but this book shows that he does belong to the ages. This is a provocative read.
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