ABSTRACT
On 7 June 1964, amidst a torrent of rain and before an audience of dignitaries and interested locals, a new statue of Thomas Paine was dedicated in his birthplace, Thetford, Norfolk. This chapter explores the Thetfordian dispute over Thomas Paine as a means to ponder his peculiar and problematic commemorative legacy. It argues that the problem with Paine lay in three areas. First, the controversy betrays the extent to which most acts of commemoration – despite the transnational trends of the late twentieth century – still demand viable foundations in the identity politics of nationalism (an idea bequeathed by the Victorians). This was the second challenge: Paine was not that person; he was actively hostile to the discursive origins of Churchill's Anglo-American dream. Third, the controversy that developed during this Norfolk centred memorial project exposed local lines of dispute between Left and Right, as well as between divergent visions of the past, present, and future.
