Jan Priddy’s Reviews > Common Sense > Status Update

In every year I offered this as a reading to seniors and college students, not a single student had heard of it. That is an appalling failure of Social Studies teachers k-12. At a time when our population was considerably less than 3 million, 500,000 copies were sold within months of publication. Aside from that, Americans were capable of UNDERSTANDING Paine's detailed logic, reasoning, and common sense.

". . . but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth enquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind." Paine is logically examining the power and role of hereditary privilege in governance. He has already defined humanity as born to be equals in defiance of birthright royalty and aristocracy. Bravo!