Pamphlet · A 1776 town · 1776
Pass it on
Common Sense
91Living historically.
Plain words, written to be read aloud. The name stayed off the first printing because the charge was treason.
The review
Paine wrote it so a kitchen could hear it. That is the measure. A king, he says, is not a parent, and a continent does not need one across an ocean.
How many copies were printed is not known. The score is not a circulation number. It is the eight questions. Read it aloud once, the way a tavern did, and then ask who in the room is allowed to answer.
Journal
Keep Common Sense in the record.
No house has filed a sentence for this yet.
Live Historic number 91. Yours can differ.
The glance
Industry is the thin one.
Does anyone here do a real job, and does that job matter?
This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.
The eight
- 9Industry
A short argument, built to be used, not admired on a shelf.
- 9Household
The king's claim to be a father is the thing he takes apart.
- 9Piety
He appeals to reason and to nature. A creed is not the engine.
- 9Courage
He says the unsayable, and he does not sign it, because signing could hang him.
- 10Republic
The whole pamphlet is the question of who a people may answer to.
- 9Temperance
The anger is aimed. It is not a binge.
- 9Truth
He writes so a crowd can follow him. Some of the heat is hotter than the proof.
- 9Stewardship
It was made to be passed from hand to hand and read to people who could not buy it.
Where to watch
Finding the page.
Live Historic · Common Sense · 91IMDb
