#WHATSUPHILLSBORO!—UPCOMING EVENTS
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Kicking off a special Eat, Drink & Be Literary! Founders Series will be an evening focusing on the life and work of Thomas Paine, an Englishman whose 1776 phamplet Common Sense changed the course of history by inspiring Americans to resist tyranny and providing Thomas Jefferson the rhetorical framework for the Declaration of Independence.
Three of the co-authors of Common Sense in The Age of Trump—a historian, state senator and mayor and all citizens of Delaware—the first state to ratify the Constitution—will speak about Paine's life and legacy. How he became the pivotal influencer and agitator for Revolution, how his words 250 years ago have shaped America's past—and how his ideals remain critical during today's unprecedented threats to our foundations of democracy and freedom.
Just as Paine's 1776 fact-based opus clearly and consisely revealed the injustice of monarchy and hereditary succession, the authors have come together to identify—and offer common sense remedies—to the threats to democracy that America now faces, and to underscore the words of Paine that "The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind."
Common Sense in The Age of Trump
has just been released to wide acclaim and copies will be available for purchase and signing.
RONALD K.L. COLLINS is a retired law professor and author or coauthor of 58 books. A law clerk to Oregon Supreme Court Justice Hans Linde he also served as a Supreme Court fellow to Chief Justice Warren Burger. He is the Distinguished Lecturer for the Lewes, Delaware, Public Library.
PAUL M. SPARROW is a writer and historical consultant; formerly director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, deputy director and senior vice president at the Newseum, an Emmy award–winning television producer and author of Awakening the Spirit of America: FDR’s War of Words with Charles Lindbergh (2024).
RUSSELL W. HUXTABLE is a Delaware state senator and former nonprofit leader whose work has focused on affordable housing, capacity building, and expanding opportunities so communities can thrive. He believes democracy as a shared responsibility.
AMY L. MARASCO is an accomplished public servant who builds consensus and common-sense solutions. She served on the Hillsboro, Virginia, Town Council and was vice mayor before moving to Lewes, Delaware, where she became the first woman mayor, in the First Town in America's First State. She is the coauthor of
437 Years Ago, the Seeds of Dissent Stirred in Lewes, for the National Constitution Center website in 2025.
The second in the Eat, Drink & Be Literary! Founders Series features historian and author Marc Leepson, author of Lafayette: Idealist General. A 19-year-old scion of an aristocratic family, Lafayette was filled with a firery revolutionary zeal when he volunteered to fight in the Continental Army in 1775 and quickly became a formidable leader in the army of General George Washington, with whom he became a lifelong friend. Indeed, Lafayette would become one of the most beloved and revered of the Patriot leaders.
Journalist and historian Marc Leepson is the author of 11 books, including Saving Monticello; Flag: An American Biography; What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, A Life .
A former staff writer for Congressional Quarterly he has written for many magazines and newspapers, including Preservation, Smithsonian, Military History, Civil War Times, Vietnam, the Washington Post, New York Times, New York Times Book Review, and the Wall Street Journal.
He graduated from George Washington University in 1967. After serving in the U.S. Army from 1967-69, including a year in the Vietnam War, he received his honorable discharge and went on to earn a Master’s Degree in history from George Washington in 1971.
Lafayette: Idealist General will be on sale and the author available to sign following the program.
