By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet Common Sense may be, after The Communist Manifesto, the most influential political tract ever written. It galvanised countless Americans living among the Thirteen Colonies, who were then unconvinced by the notion of independence, that breaking from British rule and declaring independence was the best course of action for the colonies.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
After the Declaration of Independence, probably the most important and influential document of the American Revolution was a short pamphlet written not by an American, but by an English writer who had been living in America for less than 15 months.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
1. Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense remains one of the bestselling books in American publishing history.
In 1776 alone it is thought to have sold in excess of 100,000 copies. Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense argued for independence for America, and when Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he drew heavily on Paine’s work (Paine was also the first person to use the phrase ‘United States of America’). John Adams would later say, ‘Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
We at Interesting Literature felt it was about time we saluted a truly modern man, Thomas Paine (1737-1809).
A story from the 1960s shows just how inflammatory this champion of freedom, equality, and independence still is, even in more recent times. In 1964 the mayor of Thetford in Norfolk (Paine’s hometown) said he would only approve a statue of Paine if it was stamped with the words ‘convicted traitor’.