Amazon.com description: Product Description: "Common Sense," written by Thomas Paine, was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, during the American Revolution. "Common Sense," signed "Written by an Englishman", became an immediate success. In relation to the population of the Colonies at that time, it had the largest sale and circulation of any book in American history. "Common Sense" presented the American colonists with a powerful argument for independence from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided. Paine wrote and reasoned in a style that common people understood; forgoing the philosophy and Latin references used by Enlightenment era writers, Paine structured "Common Sense" like a sermon and relied on Biblical references to make his case to the people. Historian Gordon S. Wood described "Common Sense" as, "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era". Thomas Jefferson wrote that "no writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style; in perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple unassuming language."