Here is a link to the full text of “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine (Links to an external site.) Download “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine (Links to an external site.)(1776).
Read the Introduction and the first chapter (“Of the Origin and Design of Government in general, with concise Remarks on the English Constitution”).
Here’s a link to the document’s Librivox page (Links to an external site.) for accessibility reasons, or for anyone who wants to practice hybrid reading. (I think version two is slightly better than version 3, and that version 1 is kind of terrible, but these are all free audiobooks–none of them is going to be stellar.) For any given week, choose one prompt question. Yes, I might have two or three there, but you only need to do one.
Answer that question with at least 150-250 words. No filler, please.
Option A: “The Sense of ‘Sense'”
Consider this line from the Introduction of “Common Sense”: When Thomas Paine says “Time makes more converts than reason,” is this a good thing or a bad thing? I’m not asking for what you think Thomas Paine meant, but what you think about the implications of this truism.
Option B: “Personal Paine”
We only read a selection of “Common Sense.” Read some more yourself (or the rest). If you were to lead class on a portion of “Common Sense” that we did not read for class, which portion would it be, and what would be the emphasis of your discussion?
Option C: “The Airing of Grievances”
Choose one of the denunciations of King George from the Declaration of Independence, and argue that some recent event or trend is the modern equivalent.
Option D: “Facts Submitted to a Candid World”
Choose a passage of the Declaration of Independence which you believe is largely overlooked in the modern discussion of the document, and tell why you find it particularly important–even urgent–to pay attention to it.
This prompt was a student suggestion! Don’t forget that that’s an option! Our power dynamic isn’t entirely Jacobean; you can take a hand in the progression of this course!
