Thomas Paine’s Common Sense at 250

Ahead of the 250th anniversary of its publication, presidential historian Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky and Jim Ambuske, Director of Digital History at In Pursuit, discuss the origins, arguments, and enduring impact of Common Sense.

The conversation explores who Thomas Paine was, why his language resonated so powerfully with ordinary Americans, how Common Sense reframed monarchy as “unnatural,” and why its central claim — that “we have it in our power to make the world again” — still matters today.