Common Sense / / Thomas Paine.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Paine, Thomas,
• MitwirkendeR: Taylor, Alan S.,; Taylor, Alan,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2010]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Series: The John Harvard Library
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (112 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Introduction --; Note on the Text --; Chronology of Thomas Paine’s Life --; Common Sense --; Of the Origin and Design of Government in General. With Concise Remarks on the English Constitution --; Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession --; Thoughts of the Present State of American Affairs --; Of the Present Ability of America, with Some Miscellaneous Reflexions --; Appendix --; Selected Bibliography
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9780674276673; 9783110442205
• DOI: 10.4159/9780674276673?locatt=mode:legacy
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Thomas Paine.

“In Common Sense a writer found his moment to change the world,” Alan Taylor writes in his introduction. When Paine’s attack on the British mixed constitution of kings, lords, and commons was published in January 1776, fighting had already erupted between British troops and American Patriots, but many Patriots still balked at seeking independence. “By discrediting the sovereign king,” Taylor argues, “Paine made independence thinkable—as he relocated sovereignty from a royal family to the collective people of a republic.” Paine’s American readers could conclude that they stood at “the center of a new and coming world of utopian potential.” The John Harvard Library edition follows the text of the expanded edition printed by the shop of Benjamin Towne for W. and T. Bradford of Philadelphia.