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Common Sense (Dover Thrift Editions)
 
 
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Common Sense (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

by Thomas Paine (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
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Common Sense (Dover Thrift Editions) + Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine + Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto
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Editorial Reviews

Review
?No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style; in perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple unassuming language.? ?Thomas Jefferson


From the Trade Paperback edition. -- Review --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Review
“No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style; in perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple unassuming language.” —Thomas Jefferson


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 64 pages
  • Publisher: Dover Publications (April 22, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0486296024
  • ISBN-13: 978-0486296029
  • Shipping Weight: 2.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #37,742 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #9 in  Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > History, 17th & 18th Century
    #84 in  Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > Political
    #85 in  Books > Nonfiction > Politics > History & Theory

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58 Reviews
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4.6 out of 5 stars (58 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The logic of Common Sense, August 16, 2000
By Theresa Vawter (Boise, ID USA) - See all my reviews
"Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices." This is just a sample of the wisdom of Thomas Paine in Common Sense. His vivid words and sound arguements make it clear why this pamphlet helped to ignite the revolution. He starts by discussing the general design of government and talking briefly about the English Constitution. The second chapter deals with how silly the whole concept of heredity succession is and how the monarchy has failed. It's reminiscent of Sir Thomas More's Utopia in that respect. Chapter three discusses America at the current time and chapter four is about America's ability to fight Britain at the time. The appendix refutes arguements in the king's speech, which reached America the day Common Sense came out. After reading this important piece of American literature I was ready to go out and fight the British. Thomas Paine's words still have that effect 224 years later.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The First Ever American Best-seller, May 15, 2006
This review is from: Common Sense (Paperback)
Over two hundred years after its initial publication, Thomas Paine's `Common Sense' is one of the most influential pamphlets ever written in the English language. Along with Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (1776), Harriet Beecher Stowe's `Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1851-1852), and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (1863), Paine's `Common Sense' can claim to be one of the first works to have instantly captured and then so permanently held the national imagination. `Common Sense', fiercely surpassed colonial newspaper circulations of the time by reaching a record breaking figure of 120,000 - 150,000 copies solely in its first year eventually culminating in a fifth of the adult American population to have either read Common Sense or to have had it read to them during the course of the Revolution. Paine can profess to have had the first ever American best-seller.

`Common Sense' addresses a people that were divided over the question of independence and in it Paine strongly attacks the virtue of a connection with England and presents an emphatic argument for immediate separation. Paine incorporated both a secular and religious argument for independence, thus freeing himself of any erroneous description that he was a Lockean liberal in the Hartzian mold and that Common Sense was simply a bourgeois manifesto. Paine was very much an original thinker among the Enlightenment philosophers and his unparalleled prescription for a new form of government, a united American Republic, and the manner in which it should be conducted were central to the American political vision that emerged during and immediately after the revolution.

[Part of the above review is taken from; "Common Sense?" by Alexander Rayden. Copyright 2006, All Rights Reserved]
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars more than history, September 16, 1999
By A Customer
I read the other reviews and while I agree with them, I must add that this book is more than history. I remember reading Paine's critique of the English government being "so exceedingly complex" that when a problem developed, politicians would fight for years deciding whose fault it was. Finally, when they would try to solve the problem, everyone had a different solution. I thought I was reading an editorial from USNews. I was amazed that many problems that incited the colonies to revolt are now present in our new government. Read this as more than great history. Read it as political science, and public commentary.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Those Who Love America
Americans have become complacent and in the process lost much of their common sense. Thomas Paine does a masterful job of laying out the necessity for creating a basic governing... Read more
Published 14 days ago by Dumb_Hillbilly

5.0 out of 5 stars Law is king
As a political pamphlet with influence, Common Sense is a rival to the Communist Manifesto, as far as sheer power of impact is concerned. Read more
Published 1 month ago by H. Schneider

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone should reqad this
If we are to be the kind of American citizens that our country first foresaw, we should read this and several other publications.... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jill Rhodes

4.0 out of 5 stars Great little book.
This is a great little book. This is a must-read for anyone interested in politics.
Published 2 months ago by Troy C. Tuckett

5.0 out of 5 stars Paine is Prevalent Today
This is a book every American should read. It talks about the imapct of big government taking over and its influence.
Published 2 months ago by John P. Deyoung

5.0 out of 5 stars A book for our day
THis book sparked an American Revolution in ideas as well as government. While in later life he declared himself to be a Deist(often mistook to be A-Theist), he doesn't use any... Read more
Published 5 months ago by A customer

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Historical Work
Written in 1776, Thomas Paine's Common Sense helped a budding United States stand up to England.

This book is nothing more than a, to use the title, common sense... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Matthew J. Summers

5.0 out of 5 stars We have it in our power to make the world over again
This was a required reading for a graduate humanities class. John Keane's biography succinctly showed that Tom Paine (1737-1809) was the consummate revolutionary and a daring... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Michael A Neulander

5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars should be default! Required reading for a true Patriot!
It is quite unfortunate that the maladroit public school system has failed to have this as a required reading. Read more
Published 10 months ago by D.R.Thomas

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book That Changed the World!
Common sense was at the right place at the right time, written by the right person. It created an inflection point that changed the world! Read more
Published 13 months ago by C. Clayton

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