Scott Liell

While Thomas Paine is the obvious hero who led the colonists to revere Independence over Reconciliation,
without doctor John Kearsley to save him from typhus, future Americans might have been a lost and unhappy colony for many, many long years.

Scott Liell offers this and more background to set the stage for Englishman Thomas Paine's unlikely emergence as a trusted and honored
American revolutionary. The volume is short, yet comprehensive.

And, as Joseph Ellis wrote:

"Common Sense is probably the most influential piece of journalism in all American history."… (altro)

I first read Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”, the “46 Pages” referred to in the title of Scott Liell’s book, a few years ago and I could not understand why every student in the United States is not required to read it. Could it be that the book is considered to be as dangerous to today’s government as it was to King George’s in 1776? Liell examines the history of the US Revolution’s most influential pamphlet and its author. At only about three time the length of its topic the book is not a heavy, detailed, scholarly work. Instead it is a very informative and entertaining introduction to one of the world’s most liberal writers and his best known work.

Liell starts with Paine’s early life in England, how he gained experience as a writer, how he came to know Ben Franklin, and how he came to the Colonies. Paine is shown as a regular guy, thankfully Liell avoids the impulse that many biographers succumb to, to paint their subjects as all around supermen. When “Common Sense” was published and its logic gripped the country Paine really was something of a superman, donating his profit to the cause, answering every challenge to his ideas that was published, and joining the Continental Army as an enlisted man when his growing fame could have won him an appointment as an officer.

The real hero of the book is the pamphlet, “Common Sense”. Before reading it George Washington fought against the British Parliament's unjust laws but was loyal to the King. After reading Paine’s pamphlet Washington was devoted to independence. In an age when type was set and presses were powered by hand, when news spread on horseback, “Common Sense” swept across the 13 colonies changing loyal British subjects who disagreed with Parliament into revolutionaries declaring their independence.

After the United States won independence Paine was recognized as one of the principal catalysts for American independence. He traveled and in France he wrote more about “The Rights of Man” and the wealthy colonials who now held power, who had once celebrated “Common Sense” shunned his liberalism. Liell’s book ends with Paine’s death and looks at the way the country he helped found rejected his mortal remains as completely as it did his politics.… (altro)

An interesting look into the writing of "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine: how the author's upbringing and the colonial political climate helped influence its writing, its reception both in the colonies and abroad, and its long-lasting effect on America's founding. Readers will learn how it was almost luck that the pamphlet was heralded, as many others before Paine ventured forth similar ideas but were resoundly villified. What was it about Paine and his 46 pages that hit a chord with the American colonial people? Liell does a thorough job of finding out.

This edition includes the full text of "Common Sense" in the appendix -- a fortunate choice for readers who have been, by the end of Liell's text, whipped into a whole new appreciation for the work.… (altro)