American History -- Thomas Paine
Modern examination of the roots that birthed this nation illuminates with steadfast clarity the manner, importance, and weight of the movements of the past. Bernard Bailyn knows this firsthand; in his analysis of Common Sense, he not only studies the historiography of Thomas Paine's revolutionary pamphlet, but by placing himself in retro-active historical context, he is able to find age-old movement in the piece to share with the political historian today. Inside the Englishman's pamphlet on logic and politics, he finds not just a call for revolution, but instead a greater amass of the smaller pleas for transition that, when united under the banner of intellectual outreach and historical debate, reaffirms the common sense Pain purported two hundred and thirty years ago.
In The Most Uncommon Pamphlet of the Revolution: Common Sense, Bailyn supports the widely held belief that Thomas Paine's pamphlet that urged America to war against England is among the most brilliant pieces of sociopolitical thought from not only that era, but all of history. While most historians weigh themselves down with the examination of Common Sense as the motivating literature for revolution, Bailyn finds new debate....
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