ABSTRACT
Competing nationalisms–some of the Left, others of the Right–are now the primary custodians of Thomas Paine's legacy. Many Asians and Latin Americans invoke his memory in the cause of national liberation and democratic renewal. Thomas Paine had citizenship in three countries: England by birth, the United States and France by virtue of his contributions to their republican revolutions. But Paine put little store in these citizenships, preferring to identify himself as a citizen of the world who held national identifications in contempt. Prior to the appearance of the Reflections, Paine had looked upon Edmund Burke as a fellow internationalist, and more particularly as an ally in the cause of America. But Paine made the mistake of not exploring the local sentiments and pragmatic underpinnings of Burke's earlier internationalism and his apologies for the American colonists. Burke required only a non-British model of anti-aristocratic politics to incite him to play out his nationalist hand.
