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Summary: "The birth-day of a new world is at hand. . ."
Review: Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," first published in 1776, is one of the essential classics of United States literature. In the book, Paine lays the philosophical groundwork for American independence.Paine's writing style is still compelling after more than two centuries: he is fiery but logical, and bitingly witty. The book is full of great quotable passages. In the book Paine sharply criticizes the institution of monarchy, especially the hereditary kind. He argues in favor of American independence from England, and proposes some principles for the government of such an independent state. He advocates "the free exercise of religion" and discusses in some detail issues of national defense. It is remarkable how relevant Paine's comments remain, and how engaging his writing style is. His remarkable personality animates every page. The spirit of Thomas Paine is, in my opinion, at the core of what is best about the United States, and this book is part of the heritage of every U.S. citizen.
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Summary: "The birth-day of a new world is at hand. . ."
Review: Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," first published in 1776, is one of the essential classics of United States literature. In the book, Paine lays the philosophical groundwork for American independence. Paine's writing style is still compelling after more than two centuries: he is fiery but logical, and bitingly witty. The book is full of great quotable passages. In the book Paine sharply criticizes the institution of monarchy, especially the hereditary kind. He argues in favor of American independence from England, and proposes some principles for the government of such an independent state. He advocates "the free exercise of religion" and discusses in some detail issues of national defense. It is remarkable how relevant Paine's comments remain, and how engaging his writing style is. His remarkable personality animates every page. The spirit of Thomas Paine is, in my opinion, at the core of what is best about the United States, and this book is part of the heritage of every U.S. citizen.
Rating: 
Summary: a mixed bag
Review: Thomas Paine's fierce pamphlet is certainly a powerful piece of rhetoric; it is easy to see how his works rallied the colonists to the cause of war. Paine is on solid ground when he attacks the legitimacy of monarchy as an institution; he skillfully cuts apart monarchist theory, showing how morally bankrupt it is for someone to reign merely because their ancestors won a battle. Where Paine errs is in his advocacy of violence as means to end British rule. The base of his argument is that since British troops had fired on colonial militias, all legitimacy of the British crown had ended. Furthermore, because human lives had been lost, settling for anything else than full, total, immediate independence would be a "waste" of these casualties. Here, however, Paine seems to blissfully not care exactly who fires the first shot. If violence by the other side is all that one needs to justify violence -- there will be no end to war! Paine goes on further to reject out of hand any concept of a negotiated settlement with the British, arguing that the British government is a snake that could not be trusted, utterly evil and corrupt. I suspect, however, that Tory colonists, many of whom later found their homes burned, their possessions stolen, and they themselves brutally tarred and feathered and run out of the country, would apply the same harsh description to the rebels. Paine, however, cares little for Tories, whom he dismisses as traitors, even going so far as to call for their execution. He even encloses a harsh appendix aimed at pacifist Quakers who had advocated an end to the violence. Furthermore, had Paine's own logic been applied at other times, the blacks of the U.S. South would have been fully justified in taking up arms when policement fired on civil rights marchers. Student protesters against Vietnam could have risen in revolt after the Penn State deaths. One reason neither did so, of course, is because they did not enjoy one advantage Paine boasts of - the advantage of home turf and the ability to outlast the British in a long-term conflict. We should fight, Paine argued, because Britain cannot win a war across an ocean. Accustomed as we are to thinking of Paine as a hero of liberty, is this really all that different from Mao's "freedom flows from the barrel of a gun"?
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Summary: Thomas Paine's "Common Sence" was an uncommon virtue
Review: Thomas Paine's greatness lied in his ability to take the abstract ideas of the American Revolution and make them graspable by all of his time, while infusing them with the moral passion that they truly deserved. Paine is one of the great masters of ideas taken into action. Complex topics, like government being an agent of retaliatory force, for example, were made clear enough that whatever one's ability, one could grasp the idea being discussed, a marvel considering the challenge. 225 years later, the power of his language still speaks to us today though his analysis of the English constitution and his case for an independent American republic. Thomas Paine is required reading for any student of America who wishes to understand the ideas from which America was made real.
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Summary: Every American Should Read "Common Sense"
Review: Thomas Paine's January 1776 pamphlet, "Common Sense," is one of those documents of American culture which goes all too frequently neglected these days. Paine's insistent call for independence from Great Britain in the winter before the Second Continental Congress was instrumental in mobilizing public opinion and popular support for political and economic freedom. Economics and social values form the basis of Paine's critique of the British presence in the American colonies, and he never loses sight of either his purpose or his rationale throughout the course of his argument. "Common Sense" follows a logical schematic - from a general philosophical explication of human government, to a critique of the current state of British government, to an analysis of the American situation particularly, and even includes a general plan for an independent American government following independence. "Common Sense" is remarkable for Paine's diagnosis of the American situation, Paine having been only 14 months in the colonies when it was published, and for its eloquence and exhortative value. Paine begins by outlining human nature as he sees it. In a fascinating inversion of Thomas Hobbes, he notes that monarchy at the present time creates a situation wherein government is as effective as it would be if there were no government at all. The nearly anarchic state of nature defies the logical purpose of government. Paine says that people form societies naturally, and form governments only because human morality is not perfect. The end of government is to protect the right to property and religious freedom. Paine favours a representative democracy wherein there is frequent turn-over, and where the common interests of the people are consulted and catered to. Finally, he argues for the rule and sovereignty of law against the arbitrary and absurd rule of kings and men. He contrasts this with the British model, in which government seems only to serve the interests of the King and the aristocracy. Taxation, as a primary example, allows hereditary rulers, who are inherently removed from the interests of the industrious people they govern, to live off their subjects without contributing anything of substance to the society or the polis. Paine insists that the province of government is not to regulate the lives of the citizens; instead, it must create and protect an arena where free competition in the marketplace will allow people to pursue their own best interests. With a minimum of government, civil society, Paine believes, can administer itself. In one of his most clever lines, Paine says that if an American government can only see to the protection of its own economy and exports, it will flourish "and will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe". The impetus for "Common Sense" is the current of thought that suggested reconciliation with Britain is preferable to independence. In an American public sphere anxious about its relationship to Britain, Paine provides encouragement to debate and discussion with all the subtlety of a street-corner millennarian. Citing the inevitability of a split between the colonies and Britain, and emphasizing that the legacy of America is at stake in the choices of the present moment, Paine calls the drive to independence "the cause of all mankind". In persuasive and urgent, nearly prophetic language, Paine makes a case for the political, economic, and historical implications of American independence. Of course, "Common Sense" is not without its problems. Paine's discussion of natural and artificial distinctions within society and government is problematic at its intersections with gender and race. Paine's strange thematic of government and prostitution reflects 18th century gender standards; and he never seems comfortable with the issues of African slavery in America or the 'problem' of Native Americans. In this context, it is easy to see, in Paine's assessment of whether independence should be pursued now or later, a prefigurement of the political and economic bases of the American Civil War. Isaac Kramnick's extensive and exhaustive introduction to this Penguin Classics edition of "Common Sense," though nearly 30 years old, sets Paine's achievement in firm and understandable contexts of its philosophical, historical, and biographical origins. An excellent edition of a work that every American, if not everyone, owes it to themselves to read.
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Summary: One of history's great arguments
Review: Thomas Paine, in plain, understandable English, wrote one of the finest works whose mission was to persuade readers to the author's view. What a great rallying cry "Common Sense" is! It was not meant to be scholarly or obtuse, it was meant to merely convey... well.. common sense. At this, it succeeds admirably. My favorite argument is that in which Paine refutes those who are reluctant to break away from our mother country. Paine basically states that no one would be obliged to stick by a parent who abuses her child Paine then proceeds (by citing examples) to show how England, as the mother country, was abusive to her children, the colonies. Absolutely brilliant! Well over two centuries later, it is still highly readible.
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Summary: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again"
Review: What makes "Common Sense" so compelling, even 225 years after it was published, is Paine's impassioned defense of American independence--a passion bordering on demagoguery. Like all heated arguments, this pamphlet is meant to get the blood boiling, and its anger and righteousness (and humor) make it far more readable than most of the writings by the nation's others founders. Paine starts with a theory of government and an examination of the moral and political deficiencies of the constitutional monarchy practiced in England. He then proceeds to eviscerate the very idea of monarchy, detailing biblical prescriptions against it (as a response to the concept of the "divine right" of kings) and exposing the very silliness of hereditary kingship as a form of government. While perhaps "the present race of kings in the world have had an honorable origin," in all probability "the first of them [was] nothing better than the principal ruffian of some restless gang, whose savage manners or pre-eminence in subtility obtained him the title of chief among plunderers." He follows this theoretical background with a summary of the ongoing struggle between the colonies and Britain, followed by an outline of proposals for what form an American government might take. Paine then asserts that "a separation between the countries [will] take place at one time or another" and details the advantages--military, economic, and political--that independence will bring. In an appendix, he argues against the futility of any attempt at reconciliation with the British monarchy. At the end is attached a strongly worded response to a pamphlet written by John Pemberton on behalf of the Quaker community and opposed to military rebellion. Paine argues that thinly guised neutrality in the name of "peace" is little more than implicit support for military activities by royalist forces, a theme he returns to in the second issue of "The American Crisis." There, he points out that Quaker leaders "are continually harping on the great sin of our bearing arms, but the king of Britain may lay waste the world in blood and famine, and they, poor fallen souls, have nothing to say." Yet, aware perhaps that he may be accused of bigotry, he carefully qualifies this argument in a footnote: "I have ever been careful of charging offences upon whole societies of men. . . . We are certain we have many friends among [the Quakers], and wish to know them." Paine's parting statement to the Quakers should be required reading for every citizen: "Sincerely wishing, that as men and christians, ye may always fully and uninterruptedly enjoy every civil and religious right; and be, in your turn, the means of securing it to others; but that the example which ye have unwisely set, of mingling religion with politics, may be disavowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of America."
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Summary: Long live the Republic!
Review: When I went to high school, the school board had long since taken this book off the list of required reading. It was not until after I started reading Paine's work and others like it that my true education in U.S. government began. Paine, like many of the Founding Fathers he inspired, was the closest thing to a professional revolutionary. He had the unique ability to put into words the frustrations of his peers over the ever-growing tyranny. Though in life he was too rebellious for his own good, he did practice every word that he preached. Common Sense, like his other commentaries, is profoundly moving, even in a time that chooses to forget the hard lessons that won us our nation.
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Summary: Rationale for a Revolution
Review: Writing a review for this book is a lot like writing a review for The Constitution. It seems as though there are not enough words to describe the majesty of the document. Many of the founding fathers lacked the educational training that contemporary politicains have received. With that fact in mind, Common Sense is even more potent. Thomas Paine sought to make his fellow colonists join in rebelling against the King and the British. His argument is based in the relative absurdity of being ruled by a king whose power is gained only because of the status of his parents. Even the first king in succession probably only gained his power by being the most brutal ruffian in his gang of conquerers. For those who suggest that the relationship with Britain need not be changed because "it is not broke, so don't fix it", he uses a child that nurses too long from his mother as a metaphor. Paine continues his writing with other choice prose to rationalize independence. Paine's words were a biting commentary against the King. Even today, these words maintain their potency. No America should live without reading this book which was the reasoning for our break from Britain.
Rating:
Summary: Rationale for a Revolution
Review: Writing a review for this book is a lot like writing a review for The Constitution. It seems as though there are not enough words to describe the majesty of the document. Many of the founding fathers lacked the educational training that contemporary politicains have received. With that fact in mind, Common Sense is even more potent. Thomas Paine sought to make his fellow colonists join in rebelling against the King and the British. His argument is based in the relative absurdity of being ruled by a king whose power is gained only because of the status of his parents. Even the first king in succession probably only gained his power by being the most brutal ruffian in his gang of conquerers. For those who suggest that the relationship with Britain need not be changed because "it is not broke, so don't fix it", he uses a child that nurses too long from his mother as a metaphor. Paine continues his writing with other choice prose to rationalize independence. Paine's words were a biting commentary against the King. Even today, these words maintain their potency. No America should live without reading this book which was the reasoning for our break from Britain.
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