Common Sense, Thomas Paine
Common Sense, Thomas Paine
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Common Sense

Author: Thomas Paine

Narrator: Samet Burke

Unabridged: 2 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/02/2020


Synopsis

Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine marshaled moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for egalitarian government. It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution, and became an immediate sensation.

It was sold and distributed widely and read aloud at taverns and meeting places. In proportion to the population of the colonies at that time (2.5 million), it had the largest sale and circulation of any book published in American history. As of 2006, it remains the all-time best-selling American title and is still in print today.

Common Sense made public a persuasive and impassioned case for independence, which had not yet been given serious intellectual consideration. Paine connected independence with common dissenting Protestant beliefs as a means to present a distinctly American political identity and structured Common Sense as if it were a sermon. Historian Gordon S. Wood described Common Sense as "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era."

The text was translated into French by Antoine Gilbert Griffet de Labaume in 1790.

About Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was an author, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A participant in both the American and French Revolutions and in the governments that first arose from them, Paine is best remembered as the highly popular pamphleteer whose incendiary Common Sense was largely responsible for motivating the American colonists to declare independence. His other notable contributions are Rights of Man, The Age of Reason, Agrarian Justice, and The American Crisis, a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian on July 26, 2011

I've only read the first three papers (African Slavery in America, Common Sense and The American Crises Papers 1,10 & 13) so far and even 200+ years later it is stirring; one can only imagine how reading (or having it read to you in a public) these inflammatory writings at the time could incite the......more

Goodreads review by Pat on June 11, 2011

This collection of Thomas Paine writings is too complete. Some of the included texts, such as Common Sense, are good reads in that they are still relevant to the modern reader. They can tell us where we have been and can make us question our modern view of the proper role of government. If those had......more

Goodreads review by Joelle on April 07, 2020

Joelle Reads Her Bookcase #12 My favorite selection was Rights of Man Part I.......more

Goodreads review by Pyramids on July 26, 2023

Common Sense is a significant document to understand the common man's thinking around the time of the founding of America. (A bit concerning that the simple appeal of this work would be a bit beyond the common man of today.) It gives some key insights into the debates that were being had as people w......more

Goodreads review by Myke on July 18, 2017

The namesake of this collection of Paine's writings is a wonderful piece of persuasive writing that manages to effectively cut through the intimidating and sometimes baffling perceptions of government. In "Common Sense" Paine builds his philosophy from the ground up, explaining the differences betwe......more