At 250, Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" still matters

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At 250, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” still matters
With authoritarianism on the rise, the pamphlet that helped spark the American Revolution remains relevant

By Edward J. Larson
Published January 10, 2026 9:00AM (EST)


(Salon) Two hundred-and-fifty years ago, on Jan. 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published words that changed the course of history: “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” Characterized by Paine as “nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense,” his words transformed a colonial fight for rights under royal rule into a globally significant revolution for liberty under representative government.

Paine’s timing for “Common Sense,” the first widely-read pamphlet proposing independence rather than pleading for rights and reconciliation, was perfect. Only a year earlier, his words would have not been taken seriously. Patriots had been fighting for their rights as British subjects since the Stamp Act Crisis of 1765, the result of Parliament imposing taxes on colonists who were not represented in that body, but they had always looked to the king for relief.

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At a time when absolutist regimes ruled most of the globe and threatened to engulf the rest, “Common Sense” called for popular governments with frequent elections to assure “their fidelity to the Public will.” Asserting that “monarchy and succession have laid (not this or that kingdom only) but the world in blood and ashes,” Paine wrote that “Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.”

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Popular rule became the animating spirit of 1776, and it remains the reason why “Common Sense” still matters. A quintessentially American document that became foundational for the ideals of the emerging republic, it denounced authoritarianism in all its forms, called for radically representative government, embraced an almost libertarian sense of individual liberty and pointed toward political equality for all. ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/10/at-250-thomas-paines-common-sense-still-matters/