The Glorious Cause - Common Sense

American Political History · Apr 21, 2025 · 30m

In January 1776, the American war was 9 months old and nobody would say the word. The colonists were fighting, dying, and still hoping to be loyal British subjects again — independence was very nearly treason, and the King was still beloved. Then a 46-page pamphlet by a penniless immigrant who signed himself only “an Englishman” said the unsayable, in plain tavern language anyone could read aloud.

This is the story of Thomas Paine — a failed corset-maker and twice-fired tax man, 14 months off the boat — and the pamphlet that changed the mind of a continent in a single winter. Common Sense…