
Common Sense
And the American Crisis
Thomas Paine(Author)
Penguin Classics (Publisher)
Published on 5. November 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
128 pages
978-0-14-310759-0 (ISBN)
Description
Common Sense is the book that created the modern United States. Thomas Paine's incendiary call for Americans to revolt against British rule converted millions to the cause of independence and set out a vision of a just society liberated from the yoke of the crown. Published anonymously in 1776, six months before the Declaration of Independence, Common Sense was a radical and impassioned call for America to free itself and set up an independent republican government. Savagely attacking hereditary kingship and aristocratic institutions, Paine urged a new beginning for his adopted country in which personal freedom and social equality would be upheld and economic and cultural progress encouraged. His pamphlet was the first to speak directly to a mass audience-it went through fifty-six editions within a year of publication-and its assertive and often caustic style embodied the democratic spirit he advocated.
Reviews / Votes
"No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style; in perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple unassuming language." -Thomas JeffersonMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 8 mm
Weight
163 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-310759-0 (9780143107590)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
06/2015
1st Edition
Penguin Classics
€6.49
Available for download
Persons
Thomas Paine was born Thomas Pain in Thetford, England, on January 29, 1737, the son of a poor corset-maker. Paine came to America in 1774, was appointed editor of Pennsylvania Magazine and became active in the call for American independence from England. His revolutionary pamphlet, Common Sense, was published in 1776, sparking some of the first public calls for America to rid itself of British rule. He spent the next fifteen years of his life in England and France and wrote several more political pamphlets, including The American Crisis (1776-1783), Rights of Man (1790), The Age of Reason (1794), and Agrarian Justice (1796).
Richard Beeman is John Welsh Centennial Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of seven previous books, among them The Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution and Plain Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution and editor of the six-volume Penguin Civic Classics series.
Richard Beeman is John Welsh Centennial Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of seven previous books, among them The Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution and Plain Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution and editor of the six-volume Penguin Civic Classics series.