Editing Common Sense (section)

{{short description|1776 pamphlet by Thomas Paine}}
{{About|the pamphlet|the everyday philosophical concept|Common sense|other uses|Common sense (disambiguation)}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = Common Sense
| image         = commonsense.jpg{{!}}border
| image_size    = 200px
| caption       = The original cover of ''Common Sense''
| author        = [[Thomas Paine]]
| country       = United States
| language      = English 
| published     = {{start date and age|1776|01|10}}
| pages         = 47
| isbn          = <!-- 0140390162 is the ISBN for the book published in 1986. -->
| wikisource    = Common Sense Addressed to the Inhabitants of America
}}
{{Infobox designation list
| embed                   = 
| designation1            = Pennsylvania
| designation1_offname    = "Common Sense"
| designation1_type       = City
| designation1_criteria   = {{plainlist|
* [[American Revolution]]
* Government & Politics
* Government & Politics 18th Century
* Military
* Professions & Vocations
* Publishing & Journalism
}}
| designation1_date       = 1993
| delisted1_date          = 
| designation1_partof     = 
| designation1_number     = 
| designation1_free1name  = Location
| designation1_free1value = SE corner of S 3rd St. & Thomas Paine Place (Chancellor St), [[Philadelphia]]. [[Pennsylvania]], U.S.<br>{{coord|39.9465505|-75.1464207|landmark_region:US-PA|display=inline}}
| designation1_free2name  = Marker Text
| designation1_free2value = At his print shop here, [[Robert Bell (publisher)|Robert Bell]] published the first edition of Thomas Paine's revolutionary pamphlet in January 1776. Arguing for a republican form of government under a written constitution, it played a key role in rallying American support for independence.
| designation1_free3name  = 
| designation1_free3value = 
}}

'''''Common Sense'''''<ref>Full title: ''Common Sense; Addressed to the Inhabitants of America, on the Following Interesting Subjects''.</ref> is a 47-page [[pamphlet]] written by [[Thomas Paine]] in 1775–1776 advocating independence from [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] to people in the [[Thirteen Colonies]]. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for [[egalitarian]] government. It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776,<ref name="Paine Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Paine |title=Thomas Paine |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |last=Foner |first=Philip |author-link=Philip S. Foner |access-date=January 9, 2021}}</ref> at the beginning of the [[American Revolution]] and became an immediate sensation.

It was sold and distributed widely and read aloud at taverns and meeting places. In proportion to the population of the colonies at that time (2.5 million), it had the largest sale and circulation of any book published in American history.<ref name="Conway">{{Harvp|Conway|1893}}</ref> As of 2006, it remains the all-time best-selling American title and is still in print today.<ref>{{harvp|Kaye|2005|p=43}}.</ref>

''Common Sense'' made public a persuasive and impassioned case for independence, which had not yet been given serious intellectual consideration in either Britain or the American colonies. In England, [[John Cartwright (political reformer)|John Cartwright]] had published ''Letters on American Independence'' in the pages of the ''Public Advertiser'' during the early spring of 1774, advocating legislative independence for the colonies while in Virginia, [[Thomas Jefferson]] had penned ''A Summary View of British America'' three months later. Neither, however, went as far as Paine in proposing full-fledged independence.<ref>Chiu, Frances. ''A Routledge Guidebook to Paine's Rights of Man''. Routledge, 2020. Pp. 46-56.</ref> Paine connected independence with common dissenting [[Protestantism#Theology|Protestant beliefs]] as a means to present a distinctly [[Culture of the United States|American political identity]] and structured ''Common Sense'' as if it were a sermon.<ref name="Wood">{{harvp|Wood|2002|pp=55–56}}</ref><ref>Anthony J. Di Lorenzo, [https://www.academia.edu/833962/Dissenting_Protestantism_as_a_Language_of_Revolution_in_Thomas_Paines_Common_Sense "Dissenting Protestantism as a Language of Revolution in Thomas Paine's ''Common Sense''{{-"}}] {{registration required}} in ''Eighteenth-Century Thought'', Vol. 4, 2009. {{ISSN|1545-0449}}.</ref> Historian [[Gordon S. Wood]] described ''Common Sense'' as "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era."<ref name="Wood55">{{harvp|Wood|2002|p=55}}</ref>

The text was translated into French by [[Antoine Gilbert Griffet de Labaume]] in 1791.<ref>Rosenfeld, Sophia. ''Common Sense: A Political History''. 2011. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, page 303.</ref>