Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet arguing for independence from Great Britain in the Thirteen Colonies was Common Sense.
Published anonymously in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776, the 47-page pamphlet attacked monarchy and hereditary rule while presenting independence as a practical and moral choice. Paine wrote in direct, accessible language rather than the formal style common in political writing of the era.
Common Sense became an immediate sensation. It was sold widely, circulated among the colonies, and frequently read aloud in taverns and meeting places. Its arguments helped strengthen public support for separating from Britain several months before the Declaration of Independence.
Paine’s authorship was initially concealed; the pamphlet was signed “by an Englishman.” The title is sometimes confused with Paine’s later Revolutionary War pamphlet series, The American Crisis, which began with the famous phrase “These are the times that try men’s souls.”