Common Sense and Related Writings

by Paine, Thomas; Slaughter, Thomas P.

• ISBN13: 9780312201487
• ISBN10: 0312201486
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-17
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's Press

Summary

Thomas Paine'sCommon Senseis one of the most important and often assigned primary documents of the Revolutionary era. This edition of the pamphlet is unique in its inclusion of selections from Paine's other writings from 1775 and 1776 additional essays that contextualizeCommon Senseand provide unusual insight on both the writer and the cause for which he wrote. The volume introduction includes coverage of Paine's childhood and early adult years in England, arguing for the significance of personal experience, environment, career, and religion in understanding Paine's influential political writings. The volume also includes a glossary, a chronology, 12 illustrations, a selected bibliography, and questions for consideration.

Author Biography

Thomas P. Slaughter is Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of three prize-winning books: The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution (1986); Bloody Dawn: The Christiana Riot and Racial Violence in the Antebellum North (1991); and The Natures of John and William Bartram (1996). He also edited the Library of America edition of The Writings of William Bartram (1996). His books have won the National Historical Society Book Prize, the American Revolution Round Table Award, the Society of the Cincinnati Award, and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities Distinguished Author Award. He is a former fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Shelby Cullom Davis Center. He is currently writing two books, Vision Quest: Lewis and Clark's Search for the Known and The Snake in the Garden and Snakes in the Grass: History and Culture in Early America.

Table of Contents

Foreword	v
Preface	vii
A Note about the Texts	xi
List of Illustrations	xv
PART ONE Introduction: Thomas Paine's America	1	(56)
Young Tom Paine	3	(6)
Growing Up	9	(2)
Excise Man	11	(2)
Passages	13	(1)
Slavery	14	(4)
British Army	18	(5)
Marriage	23	(4)
Common Sense	27	(16)
Publication and Circulation	29	(4)
Equality	33	(1)
Biblical Authority	34	(3)
The Economy of Freedom	37	(1)
Intellectual Influences	37	(3)
Propaganda	40	(3)
The Forester	43	(2)
Radical Politics	45	(1)
The American Crisis	46	(5)
Thomas Paine's Future	51	(6)
PART TWO The Documents	57	(86)
African Slavery in America, 1774	57	(5)
A Serious Thought, October 18, 1775	62	(1)
A Dialogue between General Wolfe and General Gage in a Wood Near Boston, January 4, 1775	63	(3)
Thoughts on Defensive War, July 1775	66	(3)
Reflections on Unhappy Marriages, June 1775	69	(3)
Common Sense, January 10, 1776	72	(48)
The Forester, Number 1, April 1, 1776	120	(5)
The American Crisis, Number 1, December 19, 1776	125	(18)
APPENDIXES
A Thomas Paine Chronology (1737-1819)	133	(4)
Questions for Consideration	137	(4)
Selected Bibliography	141	(2)
Index	143