Common Sense (Thomas Paine)

A pamphlet, published anonymously in Philadelphia in January 1776, arguing that the colonies should stop petitioning for redress and declare independence. Paine’s case has two halves: a direct attack on hereditary monarchy and the English constitution as a system rather than on George III as a man, and a practical argument that reconciliation was against colonial interest and that the moment for separation was now. It sold in extraordinary numbers relative to the colonial population and is generally credited with moving public opinion faster than any other single document of the period.

The reason it belongs on a list about forming citizens is as much about style as substance. Paine deliberately wrote without Latin tags, classical allusion or legal apparatus — plain declarative English aimed at a tradesman as readily as a lawyer — and that choice was itself the political argument: if the case for self-government cannot be made in the language ordinary people use, it is not really a case for self-government. Very little persuasive writing in English has been imitated more.

Context: Listed under Political Philosophy in the Ages 13-99+ band, Lexile 1260. Paine went on to write Rights of Man and then The Age of Reason, whose deism cost him most of his American reputation.

Connections

• A Library to Build Great Americans — the curriculum this came from; the adult “Ages 13-99+” band is the part Kyle carded.
• Thomas Paine — the author.
• The Age of Reason (Thomas Paine) — the later, far more damaging pamphlet; already in the anti-library.
• Founding Fathers — the audience and the effect.
• Language of Discourse — the portfolio idea this fits best: the pamphlet is a deliberate experiment in writing political argument in ordinary speech.
• People Over Politics — the case against hereditary rule, made from first principles rather than grievance.
• Democracy — what the pamphlet is arguing for.
• Enlightenment — the intellectual setting.