Common Sense

Penguin Classics, 1988. Soft cover. Very Good. 12mo - over 6? - 7?" tall. Penguin Classics Reprint, 1988. Mass Market Paperback in Very Good Condition. Edited with an Introduction by Isaac Kramnick. Remainder. Clean, bright, unmarked wraps, small chip to fore edge of Introduction page, otherwise pages in Fine Condition. Published anonymously in 1776, the year of the American Declaration of Independence, Paine's "Common Sense" was printed with 56 editions in that year alone. It was this pamphlet that helped spark off the movement that established the independence of the United States. " -- Thomas Paine was a prolific, profound, persuasive and widely popular pamphleteer in the movement for American Independence. With plain language and genuine passion for the cause, Paine's 47-page pamphlet, "Common Sense," was so compelling in its support of the Revolution that it was passed around from person to person -- and even read aloud in taverns! But Paine wasn't content with democratic rhetoric; he actually believed in an egalitarian society, and his post-revolution writings (including "The Age of Reason" and "Agrarian Justice") unabashedly demanded that the new hierarchy of U.S. leaders fulfill the promise of democracy. Even before the War for Independence, Paine called for slaves to be freed and slavery prohibited. After the war, he terrified most of the gentlemen of means who'd signed the Declaration of Independence by insisting that non-landowners be eligible to vote and hold office (John Adams was so appalled by this that he decried "Common Sense" as a "crapulous mess"). But Paine just kept pushing, calling for women's suffrage, progressive taxation, state-funded child care, a guaranteed minimum income, universal public education, strict separation of church and state, and adoption of some of the democratic principles of the Iroquois Nation." (Jim Hightower article 2024) 128 pp. 12mo. 1988, Penguin Classics.