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 Susan Jacoby on William Goetzmann’s ‘Beyond the Revolution’Posted on Apr 10, 2009
By Susan Jacoby (Page 2) Yet Paine was soon to become the pre-eminent—indeed, the essential—propagandist for the Revolution, and Goetzmann rightly points out the internationalist nature of the vision that Paine offered in “Common Sense.” “The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind,” Paine argued. “ ’Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent—of at least one-eighth of the habitable globe. ’Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now.” Goetzmann correctly describes Paine’s desire to found a revolutionary government with a blueprint drawn from the “world of reason and experience”—an essentially secular vision that would eventually be laid out in a written constitution. The author returns to Paine in his discussion of other members of the Revolutionary generation—including Adams, Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. But he alludes in only one vague, cursory sentence to the fact that Paine was, by his death in 1809, destitute and reviled in the nation he had done so much to bring into being. Paine’s fall from American grace was triggered by his authorship of “The Age of Reason” (1793), which set forth the astonishing idea that all religions, including Christianity, were man-made and that the Bible, like other sacred books, was not to be taken literally. “My own mind is my own church,” the credo Paine proclaimed in “The Age of Reason,” was unacceptable to a large number of Americans, who, during the Second Great Awakening, were reacting against the violence and anti-religiosity of the Jacobin terror in France as well as the Enlightenment deism of many of the Founders. President Jefferson, one of Paine’s few Revolutionary colleagues who did not publicly desert him, took a considerable political risk to enable Paine to return home from France (where he had been arrested for opposing the execution of Louis XVI) in 1802. Paine’s memory was kept alive by small groups of freethinkers in New England and New York City, but it was not until the eve of the Civil War that the irreproachable Atlantic Monthly would decry the lack of historical respect accorded Paine’s contributions to the cause of independence—while still denouncing his anti-religious writings.
Beyond the Revolution
By William H. Goetzmann
Basic Books, 480 pages
Even now, the permanence and power of the conservative religious animus toward secular intellectualism is underscored by the absence of any statue of Paine in the U.S. Capitol. In “Beyond the Revolution,” Goetzmann tells the story of Paine’s intellectual contributions to the founding of the nation without giving sufficient weight to the anti-secular and anti-intellectual forces that, while paying lip service to the author of “Common Sense,” have all but erased the American memory of Paine’s economic radicalism and his opposition to orthodox religion. What does it say about American culture that Paine’s writings are much better known, and more influential, in England and France than they are here? Even in a history focusing on the importance of America’s intellectual tradition, it is necessary to take more than a fleeting look at the strength of the opposition long faced by real intellectuals in this nation. In many respects, this book is a history of New England intellectualism rather than intellectualism throughout the country. Goetzmann offers an admirable account of the role of the Massachusetts educational reformer Horace Mann in pioneering a system of compulsory public education as well as secularizing schools so that they could accommodate students of widely varying religious beliefs. Yet the author is mistaken in his contention that Mann’s role in “the transformation of the schools and the creation for the first time in world history of mass free public education in mid-nineteenth-century America did more to create a common national spirit than all the literary and oratorical rhetoric.” That national spirit existed only in the non-slave states. With the exception of North Carolina (where another extraordinary reformer, Calvin Henderson Wiley, was called “the southern Horace Mann”), the South did almost nothing to create a system of public education. The dearth of Southern public schools in the antebellum era gives the lie to the idea, long promoted by historians articulating the post-bellum Southern point of view, that the relatively brief period of Reconstruction accounts for the enduring educational backwardness throughout much of the South. In the 1840 census, the proportion of children enrolled in public schools in New England was twice that of the mid-Atlantic states and six times greater than in the Southern states.1 The mid-Atlantic states, the Midwest and the Far West caught up with New England by the end of the 19th century, but the severe disparity between the South and the rest of the nation did not begin to be closed until after World War II and has not entirely disappeared today. Indeed, Goetzmann does not adequately address the intellectual impoverishment of the South after the death of the Enlightenment generation—an inevitable process shaped by the incompatibility between slavery and Enlightenment ideals. The author picks John C. Calhoun, vice president under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson and an adamant supporter of slavery, as the prime example of a tormented Southern intellectual.
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By Trithoverlies, April 17, 2009 at 10:38 pm Link to this comment
What does you Vitrolic hatred of the last 8 Years have to do with what this article is about? Bush for your Imformation did more to keep anymore terrorist attacks from happening, (not Man made desasters) as The director of Homeland Security called terrorist acts. Torture 3 top Terrorist were put through water boarding and thane Bush stoppped the program. As to sleep deprevation many more Americans survive on weeks of it while it was only used on thirty select terrorist and it is not torture unless you are one of the leftiost that doesn’t believe any socialist Country does this Stop ragging on the U.S.A. and get real about the true enemy of Freedom The Radical Facist Muslims and their wanting to bring Saria Law to a neighborhood near you and get made at the socalled Judges that say American Common Law can Live side-by-side when both are Diametrically opposed to each other. I have had it with the My Country is alway wrong attitude of the far left so if you want to criticize a Country for Human Rights Abusses why don’t you say someting about Iran where Homosexuals are being hung, or Venezuela where peoples property rights are being stolen by Hugeo “Oh” Hugo Cheapvest “Oh” I mean Chevez, and our darling North Korean starve your people to death dictator.
Report thisTrithoverlies/Truthoverlies.
John R. Bloxson Jr.
P.S. Paine died a pulper screaming begging for his life as the death angel came to take him away. He was not an Internationalist but a good rebel rouser, so good in fact the french used his writings to justify the murder of many innocent people by the Guillotine during the Aftermath of the French Revolution.
By Trithoverlies, April 15, 2009 at 11:08 pm Link to this comment
One comment Faith Based is reality based because it works while your secular based leads only to recidavism so Secular Progressive you are on the wrong side in this Your ways brought us from 23% in poverty in 1967 to 37%in poverty in 1999 what a great record you have of straightening out the mess you and your social Scientist created starting with the war on the family removing the Father from the Home so the kids could eat was real smart wasn’t it. It lead instead to higher brith rates of unwed teen mothers no interaction and support from boys calling themselves men based on the number of kid they had fathered but weren’t supporting. So yes seculaism has realy worked in the inner city and in the rural towns as well, Secular Socialism is broken and can’t be fixed. It has never worked, and will never work so go live in Europe where secularism is destroying their countries. Live there for a few years and I believe it will be a mind altering experiance.
Report thisTrithoverlies/Truthoverlies.
John R. Bloxson Jr.
By OzarkMichael, April 15, 2009 at 9:48 am Link to this comment
Who believes we need a new strong emperor type...
Not me.
... that will as a majority of just one claim our rights to life as a people by taking full control of our military and set the stage for a refreshed America with a rejuvenated people?
Dont get me wrong, I like to feel as refreshed and rejuvinated as the next guy. Its the “new strong emperor type” that turns me off. Its a bit of a high price to pay.
But then again i am old school. A “majority of just one” that can “claim our rights to life” could just as easily use that power against our rights and our lives.
If that were so then who believes that President OBAMA can be that man if pushed along by us?
I believe he could be that man. So while you push him to be the emperor type I am gonna pull him back to being just a President.
Who has a plan that will provide a smooth bloodless change?
I assume you refer to the empowerment of Emperor Obama as the smooth and bloodless plan? OK, I approve of the smooth and bloodless approach. I hope your plan succeeds only on that point but in nothing else.
Keep it smooth.
Report thisBy eileen fleming, April 15, 2009 at 5:14 am Link to this comment
“Soon after I had published the pamphlet “Common Sense” [on Feb. 14, 1776] in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion… The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.”-Tom Paine
A few months ago, I was invited to speak at a university of supposed higher learning about what I know from my 6 trips to Israel Palestine.
Only 2 students knew Israel had nuclear weapons and NOT one student had even heard of Mordechai Vanunu’s freedom of speech trial, conviction and Supreme Court appeal fighting 3 months in jail for speaking to foreign media in 2004.
The 5th year of restrictions that deny Vanunu the RIGHT to leave the state and the RIGHT to speak to non-Israelis expire April 21, 2009.
A ROTC student in particular felt very threatened by the information I delivered.
I was accused of propaganda, but what I did was disturb their POV with Common Sense and truth; and the truth can only set one free, if one loves the truth.
States and Nations have obligations. Human beings have RIGHTS.
e
Report thishttp://www.wearewideawake.org
By John Harry, April 13, 2009 at 12:29 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Susan Jacoby, I love you (intellectually, of course).
I won’t buy William Goetzmann’s ‘Beyond the Revolution’ but I will look for more on Thomas Paine…..
Good work. Susan Jacoby is always a delight.
Report thisBy rollzone, April 12, 2009 at 8:38 am Link to this comment
hello. i thought so i am in volume two. intellectuals inspire debate, and historical reference is choice. i was mistaken that this novel does not espouse an evolution of intellectuality, from our agrarian roots, and benevolent spy; Benjamin Franklin- to the present, sophisticated, cosmopolitan passenger of planet earth. should science ever duplicate the id- beyond its primitive ego replications of artificial intilligence- this will be a lively debate. the book looks entertaining.
Report thisBy geronimo, April 11, 2009 at 9:26 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
If Thomas Paine were alive today wouldn’t he be repeating his famous “We have it in our power to begin anew?” And this time around wouldn’t he be adding something like “What’s more, yes we can?”
Report thisBy P. T., April 10, 2009 at 10:27 pm Link to this comment
The unevenness of this book, ranging from fascinating stories combining intellect and adventurousness to stultifying attempts to pin the intellectual label on unsuitable donkeys, only reinforces the wisdom of the chestnut that every decent high school English teacher proffers to aspiring adolescent authors: “Write about what you know.”
Report thisTranslation: Write stuff that I agree with.
By Wilberforce, April 10, 2009 at 6:57 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I am so going to read it. The book sounds fantabulosa, with one exception. There is no such thing as biblically literal religion. It’s right name is fundamentalism. Fundys only claim to take the bible literally even as the cherry pick it to shreds and ignore its authoritative message. Don’t covet, don’t bear false witness, give to the poor, show mercy to the oppressed, replenish the earth, pray in secret, etc… They’ve ignored all that from day one, as well as the bulk of the prophets and gospels. And only a serious dupe would consider them to be literalists.
Report thisBy OzarkMichael, April 10, 2009 at 4:51 pm Link to this comment
Thomas Paine finally saw a Revolution he dreamed of… the Revolution in France. Paine defended it, went out on a limb to vouch for its greatness. Paine went so far as to attack Edmund Burke’s “Reflections on the Revolution in France”.
Edmund Burke was unpopular in his home in Great Britain when he wrote in support the American Revolution because he realized it was a conservative/religious revolution so it was bound to succeed. He warned Britain not to fight America.
Years later he shocked everyone in Britain by writing AGAINST the French Revolution, when many in British society thought it was a great thing. He saw that the French Revolution was against religion and conservatism and warned it was a recipe for disaster.
Edmund Burke is, by Leftist wisdom, obviously not an intellectual, since he is a conservative who sided with many Americans who saw the French Revolution as folly.
Paine thought the French Revolution was an advance on the American one. Paine put his reputation on the line with his support of the French Revolution and his attack on Burke.
Paine would be disgraced. In his own lifetime the outcome proved him completely and irrefutably wrong. I am sorry to hear that he died a ruined man.
Ah, but Paine’s view is the forerunner of the Truthdig outlook. So Paine will be forever enshrined as the ‘intellectual’. And anyone who disagreed with Paine then, or disagrees with Truthdig now, is called ‘anti-intellectual’ and sometimes much worse.
Burke’s insight into the problems of France proved to be prophetic. Too bad Burke is an ‘anti-intellectual’ or more of you would would read him.
Report thisBy Goddamnathiest, April 10, 2009 at 3:57 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Living in the bible belt most of my life, I understand the “fear” of “intellectuals.” I see it as questioning things that people don’t want questioned. This in turn, causes people to “think” and question their ideas and beliefs.
Report thisLooking back on western civilization, it took almost 1,500 years for a “rebirth” or renaissance of scientific study and research to happen. Even then, such individuals as Galileo ended up under house arrest when they went against the “Church” by having his book released.
No longer was the earth nor man at the center of the Universe.
The results of educating “man” and letting them use reason, logic, and the scientific process threaten those whose “beliefs” they “threaten” by exposing them for what they truly are: simply beliefs. Beliefs based on simple explanations made in a much much more simpler time.
By Ivan Hentschel, April 10, 2009 at 3:42 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I haven’t read it yet (and probably won’t) but this sounds like a fair estimation. Time is thusly saved.
But who is Dwight Baker and why is he saying all these terrible things about life?
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, April 10, 2009 at 7:47 am Link to this comment
You know what, DB?
Sometimes you truly surprise me. I would never have thought that a radical fundamentalist like you would also be a liberal and understand predatory practices that ARE the failing of capitalism that Rand never accepted or understood.
Still, what you described sounded an awful lot like the plot of “There Will Be Blood”, based on a Upton Sinclair’s “Oil!”
These posts on drilling for gas are the most coherent and compelling things you have written here at TD—I congratulate on them.
BTW, you may be interested in trying to find an obscure Upton Sinclair novel called “They Call Me Carpenter” about Jesus coming again in 1922 in California. It’s long out of print but I think it’s available as an eBook. Sinclair’s message was basically he’d be crucified all over again in modern times.
Don’t worry—soon I’ll be ripping you to shreds all over again, but this time, you came up with a really interesting story. I wonder if it’s documented that the gas drilling of the late 60’s was deliberately killed by cutting off funding from the banks. Of course, T.Boone Pickens is now heavily into Texas and Oklahoma gas…..Was he behind it then? He’s in his 80’s now and that was 40 years ago.
Report thisBy godistwaddle, April 10, 2009 at 2:36 am Link to this comment
Herding butterflies. Not needing to herd to large barns of a Sunday to bleat their ignorance and stupidity aloud with the other ovines, intellectuals and rationalists often take advantage of solitude to think, write, and reflect.
Report this