Thomas Paine: Common Sense

Thomas Paine. Common Sense. Philadelphia, R. Bell, 1776.

Lilly Library JC178 .B713 vault

The first demand for complete independence of the American Colonies appeared in Paine's greatly influential and controversial pamphlet. "[This] superbly rhetorical and iconoclastic pamphlet," with its "slashing attacks upon English monarchy and upon the concept of balance in the Constitution," made an immediate sensation (Bailyn: 286).

The work is divided into four parts: the first two are concerned with the origin of government, with respect to the English Constitution and the design of monarchy and hereditary succession; the last two discuss the present state of affairs in America and the necessity for America to claim itself a free and independent nation.