Product Description

When Common Sense was published in January 1776, it sold, by some estimates, a stunning 150,000 copies in the colonies. What exactly made this pamphlet so appealing? This is a question not only about the state of mind of Paine's audience, but also about the role of public opinion and debate, the function of the press, and the shape of political culture in the colonies.

This Broadview edition of Paine’s famous pamphlet attempts to reconstruct the context in which it appeared and to recapture the energy and passion of the dispute over the political future of the British colonies in North America. Included along with the text of Common Sense are some of the contemporary arguments for and against the Revolution by John Dickinson, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson; materials from the debate that followed the pamphlet's publication showing the difficulty of the choices facing the colonists; the Declaration of Independence; and the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35250 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

Richard Boyd, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"this should become the definitive new edition of Paine's classic tract."

Daniel Vickers, University of California, San Diego
"the best edition of Paine's Common Sense available."

About the Author
Edward Larkin is Coordinator of the American Studies Program and Assistant Professor of English at the University of Richmond. He has published several articles on Thomas Paine and has completed a manuscript on Paine and political writing during the Revolutionary era.