Episode 3: Common Sense by Thomas Paine (Part 1) | The Pamphlet That Ignited American Independence

Creating America · Jan 29, 2026 · 40m · transcript

In this episode of Creating America: The Documents and Speeches That Shaped the United States, host and narrator Will Sarris presents a dramatic reading of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense—the most influential political pamphlet of the American Revolution.

Written in January 1776, Common Sense made the bold, radical case for full independence from Great Britain at a time when many American colonists still hoped for reconciliation with the Crown. Paine’s plain language and powerful arguments against monarchy, hereditary succession, and the English constitution helped transform public opinion and…