The Headstrong Club was an 18th-century debating society operating out of an upstairs room at The White Hart in Lewes, East Sussex, England. Notable members included Thomas Paine [1] [2] and Thomas 'Clio' Rickman.
A modern iteration of the club, with the same and purpose, was launched in 1987, [3] on 30 January, the 250th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Paine.
Sir Richard Jolly created The Headstrong Society at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York City in 1998. The purpose of the group was to bring experts from United Nations agencies together to discuss current events.
Thomas Paine was an English-born American Founding Father, French Revolutionary, political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. He authored Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783), two of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and he helped to inspire the colonial era patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of human rights.
The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology is a work by English and American political activist Thomas Paine, arguing for the philosophical position of deism. It follows in the tradition of 18th-century British deism, and challenges institutionalized religion and the legitimacy of the Bible. It was published in three parts in 1794, 1795, and 1807.
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider district of the same name and the location of East Sussex County Council at the county hall.
The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was a federation of local reading and debating clubs that in the decade following the French Revolution agitated for the democratic reform of the British Parliament. In contrast to other reform associations of the period, it drew largely upon working men and was itself organised on a formal democratic basis.
Common Sense is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for egalitarian government. It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution and became an immediate sensation.
Robert Treat Paine was a lawyer, politician and Founding Father of the United States who signed the Continental Association and Declaration of Independence as a representative of Massachusetts. He served as the state's first attorney general and as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state's highest court.
Rights of Man (1791), a book by Thomas Paine, including 31 articles, posits that popular political revolution is permissible when a government does not safeguard the natural rights of its people. Using these points as a base it defends the French Revolution against Edmund Burke's attack in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).
Thomas Otten Paine was an American engineer, scientist and advocate of space exploration, and was the third Administrator of NASA, serving from March 21, 1969, to September 15, 1970.
Firle is a village and civil parish in the Lewes district of East Sussex, England. Firle refers to an old-English/Anglo-Saxon word fierol meaning overgrown with oak. Although the original division of East Firle and West Firle still remains, East Firle is now simply confined to the houses of Heighton Street, which lie to the east of the Firle Park. West Firle is now generally referred to as Firle although West Firle remains its official name. It is located south of the A27 road four miles (9 km) east of Lewes.
The right to exist is said to be an attribute of nations. According to an essay by the 19th-century French philosopher Ernest Renan, a state has the right to exist when individuals are willing to sacrifice their own interests for the community it represents. Unlike self-determination, the right to exist is an attribute of states rather than of peoples. It is not a right recognized in international law. The phrase has featured prominently in the Arab–Israeli conflict since the 1950s.
The North American Confederacy is an alternate history series of novels created by L. Neil Smith. The series begins with The Probability Broach and there are eight sequels. The stories take place in a fictional country of the same name.
Agrarian Justice is the title of a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine and published in 1797, which proposed that those who possess cultivated land owe the community a ground rent, which justifies an estate tax to fund universal old-age and disability pensions and a fixed sum to be paid to all citizens upon reaching maturity.
Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building.
Thomas "Clio" Rickman (1761–1834) was an English Quaker publisher of political pamphlets.
The Dripping Pan is a football stadium in Lewes, England. It has been home to Lewes F.C. since their foundation in 1885. It had previously been used by Lewes Priory Cricket Club, though the ground itself had been used by the people of Lewes as an area for recreation, including athletics, as far back as written records exist.
The Lewes pound is a local currency in use in the town of Lewes, East Sussex. Inspired by the Totnes pound and BerkShare, the currency was introduced with the blessing of the town council in September 2008 by Transition Town Lewes as a community response to the challenges of climate change and peak oil.
The Thomas Paine Historical Association is an organization based in New Rochelle, New York, that is dedicated to perpetuating the legacy of Founding Father Thomas Paine. It was organized on the anniversary of Paine's birthday, January 29, 1884, and is one of the oldest historical associations in the United States. It is one of two Thomas Paine legacy organizations based in New Rochelle, the other being the Thomas Paine Cottage Museum of the Huguenot and New Rochelle Historical Society, founded in 1886, which owns and maintains the Thomas Paine Cottage.
In Lambeth is a 1989 play by Jack Shepherd, centred on a meeting between William Blake and Thomas Paine in 1791. Its title quotes from Blake's poem Jerusalem.
The Sussex Weekly Advertiser, also known as the Lewes and Brighthelmstone Journal, was an early newspaper published weekly in Lewes, Sussex, England. Founded in 1745 by William Lee (1713–1786), a native of Chichester, it is considered to be the first-ever newspaper in the county of Sussex. The newspaper was known as a republican paper and was against aristocratic privilege.
English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary Thomas Paine has had the following memorials created and named in his honor.