Introduction

By January 1776 the American colonies had been fighting Britain for nine months, yet most people still wanted only to recover their rights as colonists and dared not think of independence. At that moment Paine published, anonymously, Common Sense, a pamphlet of under fifty pages. In plain and forceful language he told ordinary people that hereditary monarchy is absurd, that it is against common sense for an island to rule a continent for ever, and that 'tis time to part'. Within months it sold hundreds of thousands of copies, almost one for every household in the population of the day, and turned public opinion towards independence; the Declaration of Independence followed six months later. Fifteen years on, answering Burke's attack on the French Revolution, he wrote Rights of Man, defending the natural rights all men are born with and the right of a people to change its government. This volume contains both works.