Description
The Thomas Paine Society came into being as a direct consequence of the controversy in Thetford in 1963 following the offer of a statue of the town’s most famous citizen. Opinion in Thetford concerning Thomas Paine had always been somewhat ambivalent, but the press and radio reports about the row over the statue revealed the extent of the ignorance about Paine’s life, habits, work, ideas and actions, an ignorance that led a number of people nationally to urge that a society be established which would endeavour to set the factual record straight concerning him.
