The Trouble with Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine - Softcover

Collins, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1582346135 ISBN 13: 9781582346137

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2009

Synopsis

"[A] quixotic, mischievous and often hilarious work...Part travelogue, part memoir and part historical mystery, this book reads like a wry, witty novel and offers a delicious twist at the end."―Publishers Weekly

Paul Collins takes us on a strange odyssey down the forgotten roads of history as he hunts for the bones of Tom Paine―exhumed and then lost, and now scattered around the globe. Crossing the paths of everyone from Walt Whitman and Charles Darwin to sex reformers and feral monkeys, this colorful search for a founding father's body simultaneously excavates the very soul of democracy.

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Collins is an assistant professor of English at Portland State University and the author of Sixpence House, The Trouble with Tom, Not Even Wrong, and Banvard's Folly. His work has appeared in Smithsonian, the New York Times, and Slate. He edits the Collins Library imprint of McSweeney's Books and appears regularly on NPR's Weekend Edition as the show's resident literary detective.

From School Library Journal:

Adult/High School–Despite the popularity of his revolutionary essay Common Sense, Paine was scorned as a rebel constantly searching for a cause. When he died in 1809, no church would bury him in its cemetery, leaving his remains to be interred on his own farm. A few years later, William Cobbett, an Englishman and revolutionary in his own right, dug up the body with plans to bury it beneath a monument to be built in London. That never happened. Over the next century, those who were most influenced by his writings sought to give him a proper burial, but ultimately his remains were lost. Some names, like Thomas Edison, will be familiar. Others, like Dr. Foote, a self-help author, will not be, but provide interesting color. Paines spirit eventually influenced a number of movements, touching on everything from feminism to the Thirteen Club (its sole function–mocking every superstition imaginable). The author does a great job of tying disparate threads together and leading them back to Paine. He intersperses the history with travel narratives detailing his own search for the remains. These sections not only showcase the unusual turns research can take, but also bring a unique sense of pacing to a history book. Highly readable and filled with enough witty anecdotes to entertain people who dont normally read history, this book is a reminder that history surrounds and influences us every day of our lives.–Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale
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About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1582346135
• ISBN 13: 9781582346137
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288