-
Common Sense
- Narrated by: Jennifer Mary Dixon
- Length: 2 hrs and 43 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Common Sense
Buy for $9.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1737-1809), originally published anonymously (by "an Englishman") in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776. This revised edition was published on February 14, 1776. It had a great influence at the time, particularly with regard to the colonies becoming completely independent of Great Britain as well as bringing about the issuance of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress in July 1776.
Some estimated that more than a million copies, in newspapers and in pamphlet form, were sold throughout America and Europe within a year of its first publication. It was very popular in France. As of 2006 it was still the all-time best seller in America and is still in print today. Thomas Paine, an independent British American political activist, philosopher, and writer, edited his pamphlet when he assessed there was no "attempt to refute the Doctrine of Independence" and stressed that the ideas within were influenced by "reason and principle" and not by "party" politics. He was one of the founding fathers of the United States.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
The Age of Reason
- By: Thomas Paine
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 477
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 409
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 413
Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology, published in three parts from 1794, was a best seller in America, where it caused a short-lived deistic revival. Promoting a creator-God while advocating reason in the place of revelation, Paine’s controversial pamphlet caused his native British audience, fearing the results of the French Revolution, to receive it with more hostility than their American counterparts.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Amazed by the energy, originality & bravery
- By Darwin8u on 10-06-12
By: Thomas Paine
-
Thomas Paine
- Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations
- By: Craig Nelson
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 76
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
John Adams told Thomas Jefferson that “history is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine.” Thomas Edison called him “the equal of Washington in making American liberty possible.” He was a founder of both the United States and the French Revolution. He invented the phrase, “The United States of America.” He rose from abject poverty in working-class England to the highest levels of the era’s intellectual elite. And yet, by the end of his life, Thomas Paine was almost universally reviled.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This man should be a household name!
- By Darlene Davis on 11-21-11
By: Craig Nelson
-
The Modern Scholar
- The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
- By: Professor H.W. Brands
- Narrated by: H.W. Brands
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
This course examines the life of Benjamin Franklin and his influence on both American and world history. He remains the model of the American thinker - a man who was interested in nearly everything, and who pursued those interests with an admirable and contagious passion. To study Franklin's life is to learn not only the history of a single man, but to understand some of the most monumental changes in all of human history.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Love it
- By Holly on 02-20-16
-
Samuel Adams
- A Life
- By: Ira Stoll
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 199
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 144
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 142
Ira Stoll's fascinating biography not only restores this figure to his rightful place in history but portrays him as a man of God whose skepticism of a powerful central government, uncompromising support for freedom of the press, concern about the influence of money on elections, voluble love of liberty, and selfless endurance in a war for freedom has enormous relevance to Americans today.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Not just a biography. Must-read American History!
- By scott bowlby on 01-15-11
By: Ira Stoll
-
Reflections on the Revolution in France
- By: Edmund Burke
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 235
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 203
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 197
This famous treatise began as a letter to a young French friend who asked Edmund Burke’s opinion on whether France’s new ruling class would succeed in creating a better order. Doubtless the friend expected a favorable reply, but Burke was suspicious of certain tendencies of the Revolution from the start and perceived that the revolutionaries were actually subverting the true "social order". Blending history with principle and graceful imagery with profound practical maxims, this book is one of the most influential political treatises in the history of the world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A good historical perspective
- By CMC on 08-30-14
By: Edmund Burke
-
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
- Written by Himself
- By: Frederick Douglass
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
- Length: 21 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 574
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 505
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 498
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass was Douglass' third autobiography. In it he was able to go into greater detail about his life as a slave and his escape from slavery, as he and his family were no longer in any danger from the reception of his work. In this engrossing narrative he recounts early years of abuse; his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom, abolitionist campaigns, and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent in so many ways...
- By Your Old Pal Sisco on 06-24-14
-
The Age of Reason
- By: Thomas Paine
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 477
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 409
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 413
Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology, published in three parts from 1794, was a best seller in America, where it caused a short-lived deistic revival. Promoting a creator-God while advocating reason in the place of revelation, Paine’s controversial pamphlet caused his native British audience, fearing the results of the French Revolution, to receive it with more hostility than their American counterparts.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Amazed by the energy, originality & bravery
- By Darwin8u on 10-06-12
By: Thomas Paine
-
Thomas Paine
- Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations
- By: Craig Nelson
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 76
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
John Adams told Thomas Jefferson that “history is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine.” Thomas Edison called him “the equal of Washington in making American liberty possible.” He was a founder of both the United States and the French Revolution. He invented the phrase, “The United States of America.” He rose from abject poverty in working-class England to the highest levels of the era’s intellectual elite. And yet, by the end of his life, Thomas Paine was almost universally reviled.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This man should be a household name!
- By Darlene Davis on 11-21-11
By: Craig Nelson
-
The Modern Scholar
- The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
- By: Professor H.W. Brands
- Narrated by: H.W. Brands
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
This course examines the life of Benjamin Franklin and his influence on both American and world history. He remains the model of the American thinker - a man who was interested in nearly everything, and who pursued those interests with an admirable and contagious passion. To study Franklin's life is to learn not only the history of a single man, but to understand some of the most monumental changes in all of human history.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Love it
- By Holly on 02-20-16
-
Samuel Adams
- A Life
- By: Ira Stoll
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 199
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 144
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 142
Ira Stoll's fascinating biography not only restores this figure to his rightful place in history but portrays him as a man of God whose skepticism of a powerful central government, uncompromising support for freedom of the press, concern about the influence of money on elections, voluble love of liberty, and selfless endurance in a war for freedom has enormous relevance to Americans today.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Not just a biography. Must-read American History!
- By scott bowlby on 01-15-11
By: Ira Stoll
-
Reflections on the Revolution in France
- By: Edmund Burke
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 235
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 203
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 197
This famous treatise began as a letter to a young French friend who asked Edmund Burke’s opinion on whether France’s new ruling class would succeed in creating a better order. Doubtless the friend expected a favorable reply, but Burke was suspicious of certain tendencies of the Revolution from the start and perceived that the revolutionaries were actually subverting the true "social order". Blending history with principle and graceful imagery with profound practical maxims, this book is one of the most influential political treatises in the history of the world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A good historical perspective
- By CMC on 08-30-14
By: Edmund Burke
-
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
- Written by Himself
- By: Frederick Douglass
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
- Length: 21 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 574
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 505
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 498
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass was Douglass' third autobiography. In it he was able to go into greater detail about his life as a slave and his escape from slavery, as he and his family were no longer in any danger from the reception of his work. In this engrossing narrative he recounts early years of abuse; his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom, abolitionist campaigns, and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent in so many ways...
- By Your Old Pal Sisco on 06-24-14
-
Friends Divided
- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 443
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 394
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 392
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds or been more different in temperament. Jefferson, the optimist with enough faith in the innate goodness of his fellow man to be democracy's champion, was an aristocratic Southern slave owner while Adams, the overachiever from New England's rising middling classes, painfully aware he was no aristocrat, was a skeptic about popular rule and a defender of a more elitist view of government.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Great Read
- By Jean on 12-22-17
By: Gordon S. Wood
-
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 159
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
Central to America's idea of itself is the character of Benjamin Franklin. We all know him, or think we do: In recent works and in our inherited conventional wisdom, he remains fixed in place as a genial polymath and self-improver who was so very American that he is known by us all as the first American.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
I have good news and bad news
- By Ernie on 07-22-04
By: Gordon S. Wood
-
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann, Jon Meacham
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,593
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,798
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,756
In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A Man and Biography Relevant to Our Day
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-12
By: Jon Meacham
-
Our Constitution the Way it Was
- By: Madalyn Murray O'Hair
- Narrated by: David Smalley
- Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 36
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
In these transcripts of her American Atheist Radio programs, Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair tells us about Freedom of Religion in Colonial America, American Deism, Rewriting of History by Christians, The Christianity of our Founding as a Nation, Free thought in American Historical Documents, Free thought Organizations in the Early U.S., Thomas Paine - American Deist and Freethinker, Colonel Ethan Allen, James Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, Jefferson's Idea of Religious Freedom, and Jefferson on Christianity.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Phenomenal!!!
- By Average Joe on 01-17-18
-
Inventing a Nation
- Washington, Adams, Jefferson
- By: Gore Vidal
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht, Gore Vidal
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 323
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 157
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 159
Volumes have been written about George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, but no previous work captures the intimate and vital details the way Inventing a Nation does. Vidal's consummate skill takes you into the minds and private rooms of these great men, illuminating their opinions of one another and their concerns about crafting a workable democracy.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Reader Beware: Mixed with a political agenda
- By Robert on 09-09-04
By: Gore Vidal
-
John Adams
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 29 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,987
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,177
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 7,159
McCullough's John Adams has the sweep and vitality of a great novel. This is history on a grand scale, an audiobook about politics, war, and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, it is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An outstanding biography
- By Davis on 07-10-06
By: David McCullough
-
Our Lost Declaration
- America's Fight Against Tyranny from King George to the Deep State
- By: Mike Lee
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 132
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 115
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 115
New York Times best-selling author and committed constitutional conservative Senator Mike Lee reveals the little-known stories behind the founders' takedown of a tyrannical king and the forgotten document that created America.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great listen.
- By chas on 07-14-19
By: Mike Lee
-
William Wilberforce
- A Hero for Humanity
- By: Kevin Belmonte
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity is the definitive biography of the English statesman who overcame incredible odds to bring about the end of slavery and slave trade. Called 'the wittiest man in England' by philosopher and novelist Madame de Stael, praised by Abraham Lincoln, and renowned for his oratorical genius, Wilberforce worked tirelessly to accomplish his goal. Whether you are an avid student of history, a pupil of prominent leaders of the past, or simply someone who reads for pleasure, you will love award-winning biographer Kevin Belmonte's vivid account....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Genuine Hero
- By mathmac on 09-30-17
By: Kevin Belmonte
-
Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence
- By: Harlow Giles Unger
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
From New York Times best-selling author and Founding Fathers' biographer Harlow Giles Unger comes the astonishing biography of the man whose pen set America ablaze, inspiring its revolution, and whose ideas about reason and religion continue to try men's souls.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
well written and researched
- By K D on 09-29-19
-
Rights of Man
- By: Thomas Paine
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 83
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 73
Rights of Man presents an impassioned defense of the Enlightenment principles of freedom and equality that Thomas Paine believed would soon sweep the world. He boldly claimed, "From a small spark, kindled in America, a flame has arisen, not to be extinguished. Without consuming...it winds its progress from nation to nation."
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
By his voice alone he helped transform the West
- By Darwin8u on 12-23-12
By: Thomas Paine
-
John Quincy Adams
- American Visionary
- By: Fred Kaplan
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 27 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 236
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 219
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 218
In this fresh and lively biography rich in literary analysis and new historical detail, Fred Kaplan brings into focus the dramatic life of John Quincy Adams - the little known and much misunderstood sixth president of the United States and the first son of John and Abigail Adams - and persuasively demonstrates how Adams's inspiring, progressive vision guided his life and helped shape the course of America.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Destined by birth, mentored by greats...
- By Jonathan Love on 03-04-16
By: Fred Kaplan
-
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 24 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,640
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,575
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,541
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us - an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings. In best-selling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turns to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. In Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson shows how Franklin defines both his own time and ours. The most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good book, not crazy about the narrator
- By Cathi on 07-20-13
By: Walter Isaacson