Few students of revolutionary America would fail to notice that the"two Toms"of the American Revolution,Thomas Jefferson and"Mr.Common Sense"Thomas Paine,remained strikingly similar to each other,s...Few students of revolutionary America would fail to notice that the"two Toms"of the American Revolution,Thomas Jefferson and"Mr.Common Sense"Thomas Paine,remained strikingly similar to each other,sharing similarities in terms of their views on liberty and equality.But if the two Toms were indeed similar to each other ideologically,it seems impossible to reconcile their disparate stances towards people of color,women the lower tier of the social hierarchy.Further,if Jefferson and Paine embraced the same ideals,why was Paine so neglected and marginalized in the United States,rendered as a lunatic vagabond,madman of insanity,alcoholic aesthetic,pest of society,ruffian of ingratitude and a fool of psychic disorders,whereas Jefferson,the"Monticello sage,"became increasingly apotheosized and deified in the American national pantheon?This paper unfolds Paine and Jefferson's nuanced,discrepant ideological differences in terms of race,class and gender,from a domestic perspective.It argues that not only were the two Toms ideologically dissimilar,but also Paine was fighting against the patriarchal order that Jefferson embraced.展开更多
基金supported by Central University Basic Research Project(Grant ID.32063243017)and the National Social Science Fund of China(Project No.18ZADA211).
文摘Few students of revolutionary America would fail to notice that the"two Toms"of the American Revolution,Thomas Jefferson and"Mr.Common Sense"Thomas Paine,remained strikingly similar to each other,sharing similarities in terms of their views on liberty and equality.But if the two Toms were indeed similar to each other ideologically,it seems impossible to reconcile their disparate stances towards people of color,women the lower tier of the social hierarchy.Further,if Jefferson and Paine embraced the same ideals,why was Paine so neglected and marginalized in the United States,rendered as a lunatic vagabond,madman of insanity,alcoholic aesthetic,pest of society,ruffian of ingratitude and a fool of psychic disorders,whereas Jefferson,the"Monticello sage,"became increasingly apotheosized and deified in the American national pantheon?This paper unfolds Paine and Jefferson's nuanced,discrepant ideological differences in terms of race,class and gender,from a domestic perspective.It argues that not only were the two Toms ideologically dissimilar,but also Paine was fighting against the patriarchal order that Jefferson embraced.
