‘It is yet too soon to write the history of the Revolution’

Abstract

The chapter addresses the construction of memory, the function of monuments and memorials, and their relationship to identity politics. The work focuses on the contested legacy of Thomas Paine within the United States. Once lauded as a patriot, subsequent generations have largely disregarded Paine in the American Revolution’s standard mythology. There are four periods in where monuments were erected in an attempt to cement the memory of Paine. Groups erected each of these monuments during periods of increased memorialisation in the United States: 1839, 1881, 1952 and 1997. An analysis of his legacy creates opportunities to explore the construction and pacification of radical memory, and the shifting place of a radical revolutionary within the American historical consciousness. The reformulation of Paine is indicative of the mollification of radical memory within America. Furthermore, it speaks to Americans self-perception in the four periods, specifically relating to the popular understanding of the place of the Revolution in American culture and heritage. While the Paine presented in the various periods were authentic, strictly speaking, they were incomplete. Such a dramatic shift in the portrayal of Paine between these periods provides an interesting case study relating to the construction of memory, both nationally and locally.