The Common Text: Thomas Paine's Common Sense

Biography

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

“Thomas Paine was the greatest political writer of his time and one of the most influential in history. His best-selling works, Common Sense, Rights of Man, and Age of Reason, fundamentally altered the political and social landscape of the 18th century world. Today, Paine is recognized as a visionary political thinker, whose ideas on the inalienable rights of the individual and governments founded to protect those rights provide the ideological foundations of modern democracies around the world.

Paine rose from humble origins to become the foremost political figure of his time. Friend and foe to the world's most powerful leaders, Paine never sought personal power or wealth, devoting himself to championing the rights of the common man. Paine's emphatic belief in dignity and rights of men everywhere challenged the traditional authority and dogma of king and church and would change the course of modern history. Those radical ideas and writings of liberty, equality and justice for all have transcended time and nation. His literary genius for revolutionary prose crystallized popular aspirations by articulating their cause in plain English.”