Common Sense
and The American Crisis I
The writings that inspired the American Revolution—in an expanded new edition
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense may well be the most influential polemic in all of American history. Published anonymously in 1776, six months before the Declaration of Independence, this incendiary call for Americans to revolt against British rule converted millions to the cause of independence and set out a vision of a just society liberated from the yoke of the crown. Paine’s pamphlet was the first to speak directly to a mass audience—and his assertive and often caustic style embodied the democratic spirit he advocated.
This expanded edition also features Paine’s The American Crisis I, the first in a series of pamphlets aimed at bolstering American morale during the Revolution. An introduction by preeminent constitutional…
$17.50
June 30, 2015Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England, in 1737, the son of a staymaker. He had little schooling and worked at a number of jobs, including tax collector, a position he lost for agitating for an increase in excisemen’s pay. Persuaded by Benjamin Franklin, he emigrated to America in 1774. In 1776 he began his American Crisis series of thirteen pamphlets, and also published the incalculably influential Common Sense, which established Paine not only as a truly revolutionary thinker, but as the American Revolution’s fiercest political theorist. In 1787 Paine returned to Europe, where he became involved in revolutionary politics. In England his books were burned by the public hangman. Escaping to France, Paine took part in drafting the French…
Common Sense
Thomas Paine
Common Sense
Thomas Paine
Common Sense
Thomas Paine
Great Ideas Common Sense
Thomas Paine
Common Sense
Thomas Paine
Rights of Man and Common Sense
Thomas Paine; Introduction by Michael Foot
The Thomas Paine Reader
Thomas Paine