Page of Reason | November 2024
Dispatches from your most humble servant
Page of Reason is the newsletter of the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies (ITPS) at Iona University in New Rochelle, New York. Learn more about the ITPS and our activities at our Research Portal. You can follow us on Twitter @TheITPS, BlueSky @theitps.bsky.social, and Mastodon @ITPS@historians.social.
In this newsletter, you’ll find:
News about Sid Lapidus’s generous donation to the ITPS
A review of the inaugural Lapidus Lecture in Paine Studies
An introduction to two Iona students in the Paine Scholars Program
A social media update
The ITPS Receives Major Gift From Sid Lapidus
This summer, renowned book collector Sid Lapidus made a substantial donation to Iona University’s Institute for Thomas Paine Studies (ITPS), establishing the Lapidus Initiative for Early American Inquiry to preserve and advance the study of early American history and the humanities.
With this generous gift, the ITPS will expand its programming, outreach, and collecting initiatives as well as continue its preservation plan for a collection of Paine-related memorabilia and artifacts. The Lapidus Initiative will help to increase the number of scholarly programs, digital projects, community partnerships, and student opportunities offered by the Institute in support of the study of early America. Part of the gift provides for the annual Lapidus Lecture in Paine Studies and the Paine Scholars Program, both detailed below.
Mr. Lapidus has long supported historical research and scholarship in early American history with a special focus on Thomas Paine, writer, revolutionary, and Enlightenment theorist. He attended New Rochelle High School in New York, not far from the former site of Paine’s farm and where Paine’s cottage sits today. The first book that Mr. Lapidus purchased for his collection was a first edition of Paine’s Rights of Man. Since then, he has assembled an extraordinary collection of literature related to human rights, political liberty, and freedom in the eighteenth century, including books, pamphlets, newspapers, atlases, and magazines. A previous donation he made to Iona included a library of literature on Thomas Paine and the influence of his thought on the Age of Revolutions.
“This generous gift allows the ITPS to further inspire students to understand Paine’s work and apply it to their own paths forward, whether that be in politics, academia or government administration,” said Tricia Mulligan, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs. “Sid’s past support for world-class historical research institutions puts Iona in a new league of American Revolution studies. Sid has been a supporter and friend to the ITPS over the years. On behalf of Iona, I want to thank him for his commitment and generosity.”
Mr. Lapidus’s wide-ranging scholarly and philanthropic interests support historical scholarship at a number of leading institutions including the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the American Antiquarian Society, the New-York Historical Society, the American Jewish Historical Society, New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Princeton University.
Dr. Sophia Rosenfeld Delivers Inaugural Lapidus Lecture in Paine Studies
The Institute for Thomas Paine Studies hosted the first annual Lapidus Lecture in Paine Studies at Iona University on September 26, 2024. The event featured Dr. Sophia Rosenfeld, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, speaking about her forthcoming book The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life (Princeton University Press, 2025).
In front of a full house, Dr. Rosenfeld presented a sweeping and in-depth history of the rise of personal choice and how Americans came to equate it with freedom. She cited Thomas Paine as one of the first great polemicists for the right to vote, or choice in the political sphere. But, as she explained, Paine and his contemporaries interpreted the option to choose, in politics and beyond, as a freedom quite different than what we aspire to today. Listeners followed along as she described the rise of shopping as an activity and religious freedom alongside the history of choice in romantic life, politics, and the ideals of human rights.
The complete recording of Dr. Rosenfeld’s lecture is now available online. You can watch it on YouTube by clicking here or in the video below.
Paine Scholars Spotlight
In each monthly newsletter this year, we’ll introduce two Iona students from the first cohort of the Paine Scholars Program offered by the ITPS. These extraordinary students receive scholarship funds, internship experiences, professional training and career development skills, networking and community partnership opportunities, as well as the support of a close and engaged community on campus and in New Rochelle.
Megan Basile is a junior from San Antonio, Texas. At Iona, she is double majoring in History and Digital Media, double minoring in Music and Public History and Digital Humanities, and completing a dual degree in Adolescent Education with a specialization in History. She applied to be a Paine Scholar because she was interested in learning how to practically apply in-depth knowledge of history outside of the classroom setting. Megan is a drummer and concert percussionist, and she is involved in multiple music groups on campus, including the pipe band, pep band, instrument ensemble, and Celtic music ensemble.
Emma Lanza is from New Rochelle and is pursuing a BA in English, with an additional year for a MST in Adolescent Education and teaching certification. She applied to be a Paine Scholar because of the various interesting opportunities for research, internship, and community involvement. In her free time, Emma enjoys reading and photography.
Follow us on Bluesky!
The ITPS has a couple hundred new followers on Bluesky, a social media platform where we advertise upcoming events and post updates about what we’re up to at Iona and beyond. Follow us @theitps.bsky.social!