Common Sense

"Common Sense" presented the American colonists with a powerful argument for independence from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided. Paine wrote and reasoned in a style that common people understood; forgoing the philosophy and Latin references used by Enlightenment era writers, Paine structured "Common Sense" like a sermon and relied on Biblical references to make his case to the people. Historian Gordon S. Wood described "Common Sense" as, "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era."