Common Sense was an instant bestseller when it was published—in fact, it was the first bestseller in America, selling 120,000 copies within three months alone. (Source)

It's pretty universally accepted that the book (or pamphlet, as Mr. Paine calls it himself) had a tangible impact on inspiring public opinion to favor independence in the months before the official Declaration.

The pamphlet's divided into four sections, each on a different topic related to systems of government, or the state of America in relation to Britain. Paine has some pretty good quotes in there (some shady ones as well), and given the pamphlet's popularity, the document also provides us with valuable insight into what everyday people thought about the colonies' declaration (and Declaration) of independence, not just what the small group of government leaders believed.

Chapter 1: Of the Origin and Design of Government…

The first section of Common Sense focuses on the origin of government, and why it exists in human civilization. Paine sums it up nicely right at the beginning: "Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness." (Source)

Paine says that humans need government to protect us from ourselves. Government is,

…a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right. (Source)

Basically, people can be terrible, so we had to create governments to make our society function properly.

Chapter 2: Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession

The second section muses on monarchy, and asks the question: how does someone get to be a monarch, and how do we know they deserve it?

Hoo boy. That's a tricky one

He states:

Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth enquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind. (Source)

Basically, let's think about why certain people get such power just by their birth, because something's very wrong with this picture

There's a section of this chapter where Paine basically claims that creating monarchies is one of the sins of the ancient Jews. Paine uses the Bible as his sole source of historical events; he didn't have the knowledge of ancient civilizations that we have today, which trace the evolution of monarchies back much further and across many regions.

There were few Jewish people in the colonies, and anti-Semitism was fairly universal, so his comments probably didn't stir up too much outrage at the time. We don't want to ignore these kinds of statements, but they can be commonplace in historical texts. As historians, we recognize how accepted this type of thinking was at that time, and compare to how things are now.

Later in his life, Paine and his writing was largely dismissed after he published a criticism of Christian theology called The Age of Reason, so it's actually not totally clear how much his religious views accurately reflected public sentiment.

It can be distracting to see how people used to blame marginalized groups for their problems (because it's gross and nasty and wrong) so it's helpful to focus on the main idea of the text. Here, that idea is that hereditary monarchy is the definitely the wrong way to run a government.

Chapter 3: Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs

The third section of Common Sense argues that, contrary to what Loyalists have asserted, the colonies are not better off under the control of Britain, nor do they owe Britain for their prosperity.

"We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat," Paine says, "or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty." (Source)

Paine presents a number of arguments as to why the connection with Great Britain is not a benefit to the colonies, and is in many ways actually a disservice. Ooh. Burn.

Chapter 4: Of the Present Ability of America, With Some Miscellaneous Reflections

The final part of Paine's text presents his evidence that now is the time to break with Great Britain. Paine claims that everyone in the colonies knows it will happen sometime, they only differ on when, and by this time the colonies have the manpower and financial resources to fight for independence.

Paine even includes a helpful table to show readers how much it costs to build a ship for the British navy, and how much it cost to build the entire British navy, to illustrate that the colonies are capable of creating a fleet for themselves. (Source)

Common Sense in Common Thought

Common Sense will come up whenever you study the American Revolution, because it was first published in January of 1776, and helped sway public opinion towards supporting the Declaration of Independence within a few months.

Thomas Paine (or Tom Pain, as he was born, which sounds like a hardcore WWF name), had a pretty interesting life, including imprisonment in France during the French Revolution. Like the Declaration of Independence, Paine argues that the colonies have been regularly mistreated by the British government, and the time has come to break ties.

Dang straight, Paine.

Bonus: Paine's language and rhetoric is much more passionate and detailed than the Declaration, because it is an appeal to the common man, instead of an official government document. If the Declaration represents the summary of the ideals of the Founding Fathers, Common Sense represents public opinion for those supporting independence.

Whether his words are actually "common sense" is up to the reader (that means you…among others), but they certainly got people's attention and supported the basic claims of the Declaration.