Thomas Paine, the Apostle of Liberty: An Address Delivered in Chicago, January 29, 1916; Including the Testimony of Five Hundred Witnesses

In January 1916, with Europe at war and democracy itself questioned, a Nebraska attorney took the stage in Chicago to make an urgent case: Thomas Paine, the man who wrote "Common Sense" and ignited two revolutions, had been systematically maligned. For a century, Paine had been called an atheist, a troublemaker, a man of bad character. Remsburg intended to correct the record. This book is both rallying cry and evidence chamber. It presents Remsburg's passionate defense of Paine as the true apostle of liberty, tracing his journey from English immigrant to revolutionary author, from the pamphlets that seeded American independence to the radical works that made him a pariah in the country he helped create. But the most striking feature is Remsburg's use of testimony: five hundred witnesses, both American and French, who knew Paine personally or witnessed his impact firsthand. Their voices lend the book the weight of documentary evidence, transforming tribute into rebuttal. The book speaks to anyone who wonders what it costs to challenge power in the name of freedom, and why the defenders of liberty so often become its victims.