Common SensePublished anonymously in 1776, the year of the American Declaration of Independence, Paine's Common Sense became an immediate best-seller, with fifty-six editions printed in that year alone. It was this pamphlet, more than any other factor, which helped to spark off the movement that established the independence of the United States. From his experience of revolutionary politics, Paine drew those principles of fundamental human rights which, he felt, must stand no matter what excesses are committed to obtain them, and which he later formulated in his Rights of Man. |
Contents
EDITORS INTRODUCTION | 7 |
The life | 25 |
The argument of Common Sense | 37 |
Bourgeois radicalism the ideology of Tom Paine | 46 |
Paine and the American bicentennial | 55 |
Introduction | 63 |
Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession | 71 |
Thoughts on the present State of American Affairs | 81 |
Of the present Ability of America with some | 100 |
Appendix | 113 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adams Age of Reason Agrarian Justice America American Revolution aristocratic arms authority Bernard Bailyn bourgeois Britain Burke called colonists commerce Congress constitution continent Continental Continental Congress crown debt delegates dependance doctrine edition Edmund Burke effect egalitarian enemies England English radical Englishmen Europe expence form of government France freedom French hath hereditary succession ibid independence inhabitants interest Intolerable Acts king Kramnick land liberal liberty Lord mankind matter means ment militants monarchy nation navy never oppressed ourselves Paine wrote Paine's Common Sense pamphlet Parliament peace Pennsylvania Philadelphia political posterity prejudice present principles proper protect Quakers Quartering Act ranks reason reconciliation repeal Robert Bage ruin Sam Adams scripture ship social society staymaker suffer taxes thing thirteen colonies Thomas Paine tion Tom Paine trade troops turn tyranny unto Wherefore whole Writings of Thomas