Thomas Paine's Common Sense

It was on January 10, 1776 that Thomas Paine published the most successful American publication of its time, the pamphlet Common Sense, which went on to sell more than 500,000 copies and, more importantly, spur on the cause for American Independence.

"He spent several months traveling around Pennsylvania, going to various bars and taverns and talking to ordinary people about their opinions on American independence. He used these conversations to develop a writing style that an ordinary person could easily understand...
It helped persuade many Americans to support revolution, and seven months later, the colonies officially declared independence." (The Writer's Almanac)

Read the whole thing here:

http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/singlehtml.htm

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.