Common Sense Themes

The central question informing Thomas Paine's Common Sense is whether or not the United States should go to war with Britain in order to gain their independence. Paine is firmly in the "Yes" colum...

If the British didn't treat their American colonies so horribly, Thomas Paine might not have had to write Common Sense. But the truth is that the Brits imposed brutal taxes and treated Americans'...

For Thomas Paine, standing up for America and declaring independence isn't just about wanting war; it's about standing up for what's right and creating a new democracy that can inspire freedom all...

Thomas Paine knows that many readers of Common Sense will be staunchly against war with Britain for various reasons. He goes on to tackle these reasons one by one, but at the same time he hints th...

People sometimes forget that even while Thomas Paine spends all of Common Sense talking about the importance of freedom, he was still writing in a country where slavery was a regular part of life....

Thomas Paine's major beef with the English isn't just their tyrannical rule over America; it's the entire structure of their society. And here's his problem: English people are born into rich and p...

One of the major deals in Common Sense is Paine's hope that the U.S. can be a place of total religious freedom. Many of the people who first came to America did it so they could practice their rel...

At its core, Common Sense is about freedom in America. It's not just about freedom from the British, but the kind of freedom that will exist in America once it becomes an independent nation with i...