Despite being a founder of both the United states and the French Republic, Thomas Payne is perhaps the least well known and most controversial of all the American founding fathers. Payne, a lower class British tradesman wrote the cornerstone of American democracy, Common Sense and became one of the world's first crusaders for the public good. In his new biography of Thomas Payne, author Craig Nelson creates a rich and vivid portrait of this towering figure bringing Payne to life against the backdrop of the revolutionary era and the vibrant intellectual exhilaration of the Age of Enlightenment. Craig Nelson joins Larry Mantle for a conversation about Thomas Payne.