"How impious is the title of sacred majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust!"

✩ 2 stars
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[read for high school ‘junior year’ great books class]
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“I’ve been reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine, some men say I am intense or I am insane.”
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this book is literally just about common sense, sorry but it’s not ground breaking or anything.
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maybe this was grounding breaking back in the 1700’’s but not in this day & age

“A pamphlet called ‘Commonsense’ makes a great noise. One of the vilest things that ever was published to the world. Full of false representations, lies, calumny, and treason, whose principles are to subvert all Kingly Governments and erect an Independent Republic.” ~Nicholas CresswellOne could argue that without Thomas Paine’s Common Sense of January 1776, there would be no American Declaration of Independence of July 1776. True there was discontent and animosity between England and Colonial Am...

I feel a bit ashamed that this is the first time that I have read Common Sense in its entirety. It is a piece of American history that deserves our attention and respect. It is easy to see why it affected people of its time in the way that it did, as it is clearly and simply written and sets forth in undeniable logic the issues in question at the time. Masterfully titled, Paine’s points do indeed seem to be common sense. I was particularly struck by his deft destruction of the divine right of ki...

2022-01-05As folks who know their American history know, this book helped along the American Revolution greatly. It was by far the best read book of the time, except for the bible, of course. It sold possibly a million copies, in the colonies, where the typical estimate of total population was 2.5 million souls at the time. To put that in perspective, since the population of the US today is about 330 million, that would mean this little philosophical/historical/ideological book would sell about ...

12/19/20: This review continues to be a source of great annoyance. Since I can’t mute the comment section, I’ll just put a little message here: don’t comment. I don’t read the comments anymore and I don’t care what you have to say. I don’t want to discuss this silly non-review I wrote when I was 16; I haven’t thought about this particular piece of literature in years. If you’re so terribly offended that a stranger on the internet dislikes a pamphlet written 244 years ago, please consider doing t...

In observance of Independence Day I decided to read something to help me widen my knowledge on the history of the American Revolution.Common Sense is 48 page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine, but published anonymously in January 10, 1776. The document which was published right at the beginning of the American Revolution argues in favor of America's independence from Great Britain.Paine, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, was born in England. He was a political activist, philosophe...

"Time makes more converts than reason." – Thomas Paine And with that early quote, this reader steadily became enthralled with a founding father. I sincerely wish this novella-sized essay had been required reading while I was still in high school—or at any point in my education, for that matter. (Okay, if I'm being honest, my teenage self wanted history explained to me something like this...)But seriously... the read I thought was going to be a necessary slog turned out to be not only insightful...

One of the most important works from any writer during the American War for Independence. During the darkest days of the struggle, Gen. George Washington reportedly had Paine's work read to his troops to inspire them to hold on during the months of squalor, danger, cold, and deprivation. I dare say that Paine's works like this one led to America's ultimate victory over the Empire seeking its reconquest.

4.5 stars. Scathing, derogatory rhetoric directed at the King of England in particular and the British in general designed to arouse the "passions" of the American colonists to embrace the idea of independence from Britian. From that standpoint, very few books in history have been as successful in achieving its goal. Almost 250 years later, this short book (better described as a long essay), still has the power to move you and make you feel the passion of the writer for his subject matter. A tru...