![]() ![]() His formal education ended when he was 12 years old, after which he pursued various occupations without great success. Thomas Paine was born to a Quaker family of modest means in Norfolk, England in 1737. ![]() Paine’s pamphlet was certainly popular and influential in revolutionary America, but the real story of Common Sense‘s creation, dissemination, and reception is less straightforward– and perhaps more interesting– than the myth. As one historian puts it “ Common Sense swept the country like a prairie fire,” and “as a direct result of this overwhelming distribution, the Declaration of Independence was unanimously ratified on July 4, 1776.” Paine often gets credit for more or less single-handedly galvanizing the reluctant colonists to commit to the war of independence. Thomas Paine’s 79-page pamphlet has achieved a mythic status in the history of the American Revolution. Arms as the last resource decide the contest the appeal was the choice of the King, and the Continent has accepted the challenge. Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy, from different motives, and with various designs but all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and America. ![]()
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