Common Sense
In January 1776 an anonymous pamphlet appeared in Philadelphia arguing what respectable colonists still thought unsayable: that reconciliation with Britain was finished, and independence was the only sane course left. Paine had been in America a little more than a year. He wrote for people who read one book, the Bible, and he used it, turning to the book of Samuel to argue that God had little patience for kings either. Hereditary monarchy he called an insult to posterity, and the notion of an island governing a continent he treated as plain absurdity. It sold in numbers no American title had approached, was read aloud in taverns and camps, and Paine took no royalties from any of it. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.
About the Author
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was an English-born political writer whose pamphlets helped ignite both the American and French revolutions. Author of Common Sense and Rights of Man, he championed republican government and plain reason, and died poor and largely scorned in New York.
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