Common Sense, the Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine

Introduction and Notes by Joyce Appleby

Though he didn't emigrate from England to the colonies until 1774, just a few months before the Revolutionary War began, Thomas Paine had an enormous impact on that war the new nation that emerged from it. Common Sense , the instantly popular pamphlet he published in January 1776, argued that the goal of the struggle against the British should be not simply tax reform, as many were calling for, but complete independence. His rousing, radical voice was balanced by the equally independence-minded but more measured tones of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence later that year.

In later works, such as The Rights of Man , The Age of Reason , other selections included in this volume, he proved himself a visionary moralist centuries ahead of his time. He believed that every human has the natural right to life's necessities that government's role should be to provide for those in dire need. An impassioned opponent of all forms of slavery, he understood that no one in poverty is truly free--a lesson still to be learned by many of our leaders today.