Common Sense

Common Sense PDF Author: Sophia Rosenfeld
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674057813
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Common sense has always been a cornerstone of American politics. In 1776, Tom Paine’s vital pamphlet with that title sparked the American Revolution. And today, common sense—the wisdom of ordinary people, knowledge so self-evident that it is beyond debate—remains a powerful political ideal, utilized alike by George W. Bush’s aw-shucks articulations and Barack Obama’s down-to-earth reasonableness. But far from self-evident is where our faith in common sense comes from and how its populist logic has shaped modern democracy. Common Sense: A Political History is the first book to explore this essential political phenomenon. The story begins in the aftermath of England’s Glorious Revolution, when common sense first became a political ideal worth struggling over. Sophia Rosenfeld’s accessible and insightful account then wends its way across two continents and multiple centuries, revealing the remarkable individuals who appropriated the old, seemingly universal idea of common sense and the new strategic uses they made of it. Paine may have boasted that common sense is always on the side of the people and opposed to the rule of kings, but Rosenfeld demonstrates that common sense has been used to foster demagoguery and exclusivity as well as popular sovereignty. She provides a new account of the transatlantic Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions, and offers a fresh reading on what the eighteenth century bequeathed to the political ferment of our own time. Far from commonsensical, the history of common sense turns out to be rife with paradox and surprise.

Common Sense

Common Sense PDF Author: Sophia Rosenfeld
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674057813
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book Here

Book Description
Common sense has always been a cornerstone of American politics. In 1776, Tom Paine’s vital pamphlet with that title sparked the American Revolution. And today, common sense—the wisdom of ordinary people, knowledge so self-evident that it is beyond debate—remains a powerful political ideal, utilized alike by George W. Bush’s aw-shucks articulations and Barack Obama’s down-to-earth reasonableness. But far from self-evident is where our faith in common sense comes from and how its populist logic has shaped modern democracy. Common Sense: A Political History is the first book to explore this essential political phenomenon. The story begins in the aftermath of England’s Glorious Revolution, when common sense first became a political ideal worth struggling over. Sophia Rosenfeld’s accessible and insightful account then wends its way across two continents and multiple centuries, revealing the remarkable individuals who appropriated the old, seemingly universal idea of common sense and the new strategic uses they made of it. Paine may have boasted that common sense is always on the side of the people and opposed to the rule of kings, but Rosenfeld demonstrates that common sense has been used to foster demagoguery and exclusivity as well as popular sovereignty. She provides a new account of the transatlantic Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions, and offers a fresh reading on what the eighteenth century bequeathed to the political ferment of our own time. Far from commonsensical, the history of common sense turns out to be rife with paradox and surprise.

Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of ThomasPaine

Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of ThomasPaine PDF Author: Thomas Paine
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101219505
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
A volume of Thomas Paine's most essential works, showcasing one of American history's most eloquent proponents of democracy. Upon publication, Thomas Paine’s modest pamphlet Common Sense shocked and spurred the foundling American colonies of 1776 to action. It demanded freedom from Britain—when even the most fervent patriots were only advocating tax reform. Paine’s daring prose paved the way for the Declaration of Independence and, consequently, the Revolutionary War. For “without the pen of Paine,” as John Adams said, “the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain.” Later, his impassioned defense of the French Revolution, Rights of Man, caused a worldwide sensation. Napoleon, for one, claimed to have slept with a copy under his pillow, recommending that “a statue of gold should be erected to [Paine] in every city in the universe.” Here in one volume, these two complete works are joined with selections from Pain's other major essays, “The Crisis,” “The Age of Reason,” and “Agrarian Justice.” Includes a Foreword by Jack Fruchtman Jr. and an Introduction by Sidney Hook

Common Sense and Other Political Writings

Common Sense and Other Political Writings PDF Author: Thomas Paine
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : France
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description


Common Sense

Common Sense PDF Author: Thomas Paine
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description


Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine PDF Author: N. F. Adkins
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description


The Political Philosophy of Thomas Paine

The Political Philosophy of Thomas Paine PDF Author: Jack Fruchtman Jr.
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801892848
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
This concise, insightful study explores the sources and impact of one of the early republic's most influential minds. An Englishman by birth, an American by choice and necessity, Thomas Paine advocated ideas about rights, equality, democracy, and liberty that were far advanced beyond those of his American compatriots. His seminal works, Common Sense and the Rights of Man, were rallying cries for the American and French Revolutions. More than any other eighteenth-century political writer and activist, Paine defies easy categorization. A man of contrasts and contradictions, Paine was as much a believer in the power of reason as he was in a benevolent deity. He was at once liberal and conservative, a Quaker who was not a pacifist, and an inherently gifted writer who was convinced he was always right. Jack Fruchtman Jr. analyzes Paine's radical thought both in the context of his time and as a blueprint for the future development of republican government. His systematic approach identifies the themes of signal importance to Paine's political thought, demonstrating especially how crucial religion and God were to the development and expression of his political ideals.

Common Sense

Common Sense PDF Author: Thomas Paine
Publisher: Macmillan Higher Education
ISBN: 1319242103
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is one of the most important and often assigned primary documents of the Revolutionary era. This edition of the pamphlet is unique in its inclusion of selections from Paine’s other writings from 1775 and 1776 — additional essays that contextualize Common Sense and provide unusual insight on both the writer and the cause for which he wrote. The volume introduction includes coverage of Paine’s childhood and early adult years in England, arguing for the significance of personal experience, environment, career, and religion in understanding Paine’s influential political writings. The volume also includes a glossary, a chronology, 12 illustrations, a selected bibliography, and questions for consideration.

Political Writings

Political Writings PDF Author: Thomas Paine
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521667999
Category : Political science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Recoge:Common Sense; Rights of Man; The age of Reason; Agrarian justice.

Try Common Sense: Replacing the Failed Ideologies of Right and Left

Try Common Sense: Replacing the Failed Ideologies of Right and Left PDF Author: Philip K. Howard
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324001771
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Award-winning author Philip K. Howard lays out the blueprint for a new American society. In this brief and powerful book, Philip K. Howard attacks the failed ideologies of both parties and proposes a radical simplification of government to re-empower Americans in their daily choices. Nothing will make sense until people are free to roll up their sleeves and make things work. The first steps are to abandon the philosophy of correctness and our devotion to mindless compliance. Americans are a practical people. They want government to be practical. Washington can’t do anything practically. Worse, its bureaucracy prevents Americans from doing what’s sensible. Conservative bluster won’t fix this problem. Liberal hand-wringing won’t work either. Frustrated voters reach for extremist leaders, but they too get bogged down in the bureaucracy that has accumulated over the past century. Howard shows how America can push the reset button and create simpler frameworks focused on public goals where officials—prepare for the shock—are actually accountable for getting the job done.

Common Sense

Common Sense PDF Author: Thomas Paine
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
Common Sense is the timeless classic that inspired the Thirteen Colonies to fight for and declare their independence from Great Britain in the summer of 1776. Written by famed political theorist Thomas Paine, this pamphlet boldly challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy to rule over the American colonists. By using plain language and a reasoned style, Paine chose to forego the philosophical and Latin references made popular by the Enlightenment era writers. As a result, Paine united average citizens and political leaders behind the central idea of independence and transformed the tenor of the colonists' argument against the British. As the best-selling American title of all time, Common Sense has been eloquently described by historian Gordon S. Wood as "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era." Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was an English-American political activist, philosopher, and revolutionary. As one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, he authored the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution and inspired the colonists to declare independence from Great Britain in 1776. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era rhetoric of transnational human rights and the separation of church and state. He has been called a corset-maker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination.