Common Sense (Dover Thrift Editions) (Dover Thrift Editions: Political Science)

The first thing to truly go viral off the printing presses way back in early America. Ideas, ideals of rights, liberty, respect for the commoner, FREEDOM! Should be required reading for high school students as well as the federalist n anti-federalist papers. Instead of curated, propagandized history that amounts to graduates knowing when Columbus sailed the ocean blue and that that John Hancock dude signed his name bigger than everyone else.

President needs to read this as it represents What it is like to be oppressed by King, or someone acting as one and The Term England as the Congress. A greatmreminder od pitfalls of aligning or seeking Independence

Every one who votes should read this book!

I bought this for a college history course. It was a bit challenging to read because this edition is as close as you're going to get to being alive in 1776 and being able to read the first edition. This is published as the original text was, with all spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors in tact, and even includes the appendix which was written at a later time than the first edition. This gives a lot of interesting views and, in my opinion, gives a better view at what colonial times in America were like than any text book has ever been able to give. I also found that reading this and understanding what was in the book for myself was better than any YouTube video could ever have explained. I recommend that anyone interested in the history of the united states give this a read. This version also offers foot-notes to explain a lot of things withing the writing, such as times, events, and people which Paine mentions, but it doesn't catch everything. For instance, Toryism (or Tories - referring to Loyalists), which Paine discusses is not mentioned in any foot notes, so there are some things that you may have to look up.

It might seem odd to say, but this book has the best criticism of Monarchism that I've ever read. Monarchism is one of those political philosophies that many people do not tend to encounter regularly, so they do not have a good grasp of the arguments against it, on that basis alone this book is worth reading.I think that for any American common sense it is a good book to read as it is a good primer on early America political thought. I have given this 4 stars in lieu of 5 on account of the "appendices". To my understanding the appendices were added in later additions as responses to some criticisms which had arisen. There is nothing wrong with the appendices per se but they are not nearly as punchy or poignant as the rest of the work, I appreciate their including but I think they did bring down the overall polish of the work somewhat.

This book is absolutely tremendous, and it's relevancy is shocking. In today's day and age, "Common Sense" should be a mandated read for every government official/employee/etc. across all levels, as Washington lacks any trace of it and has lost sight of our Founding Fathers' vision for America.I don't want to get into detail on any specifics, because 1) Thomas Paine's archaic writing techniques possesses some sort of sanctity that begs no adulteration by way of paraphrase or summary under concern of misstatement/misrepresentation; and 2) the reader needs to experience the fullness of the text themselves so as to fully grasp Thomas Paine's - well... - pain.Please, at only $2.70, buy a copy and gain a firsthand look at what sorts of basic but timeless principles this country was founded upon and why this matters. I'm sure if the imperialistic incumbent could, he would have every single copy of this text burned at once. Get your hands on it while you can.

Common sense, which is lacking these days. Really enjoyed reading this several times. Our four fathers really knew how to put concepts together for our republic.

A beautiful writing by a prescient man. You can feel the tension of the time it was written, and easily apply the arguments to the present.