Common Sense

Common Sense - Hardcover

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Common Sense
  • Common Sense
Common Sense - Hardcover

Common Sense - Hardcover

by Thomas Paine
$20.00
$20.00
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Hardcover $20.00 Paperback $8.08

Book Overview

The incendiary political pamphlet that helped launch the American Revolution, introduced by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood

The revolutionary fervor that sparked the American Revolution in 1776 had been a long time coming. Since the early 1760s, hundreds of pamphlets had been published on both sides of the Atlantic debating the limits of Great Britain's authority over its North American colonies. Yet most of these were written by educated gentlemen for educated readers like themselves.

Common Sense by Thomas Paine, published on January 10, 1776, was entirely different. It was like a bomb thrown into the midst of a sedate debate--exploding with a force that stunned and alarmed the gentry elites. Paine sought readers everywhere, especially in the tavern- and artisan-centered worlds of the cities. Even more important than the work's accessibility was the fact that Paine wrote with a rage and a moral fury that few before him had ever expressed. He tapped into a deep anger shared by many common, middling people in these years--shopkeepers, traders, petty merchants--people weary of being scorned and held in contempt by a monarchical, aristocratic, hierarchical world.

Common Sense became the most influential pamphlet in the entire Revolutionary era, going through twenty-five editions in 1776 alone and selling 150,000 copies. Introduced here by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood, this is the singular, electrifying work that galvanized a nation--and a people--who were ready for independence.
ISBN9798217198894
Author Thomas Paine
PublisherModern Library
GenreNews & politics and History
FormatHardcover
PublishedApril 2026
LanguageENG- English
Pages112
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

History Nonfiction Political Science

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More by Thomas Paine

Common Sense: The Pocket Size Edition of the Revolutionary Classic

Common Sense: The Pocket Size Edition of the Revolutionary Classic - Paperback

Common Sense: The Pocket Size Edition of the Revolutionary Classic - Paperback

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About Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was born in England in 1737 and worked as a schoolteacher, storekeeper, and customs inspector before moving to Philadelphia in 1774. He quickly acquired a reputation as a journalist and published his hugely successful and influential pamphlet Common Sense in 1776. The Crisis, written when Paine was a soldier in the darkest days of the revolution--with its famous opening words, "These are the times that try men's souls"--called for perseverance and prevented Washington's army from disintegrating. To honor him for defending the French Revolution in Rights of Man, France made him a citizen and elected him to their constitutional convention. He died in 1809.

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