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U-M Clements Library commemorates 250th anniversary of Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

The library holds 58 editions of Paine’s iconic pamphlet, published in January 1776

This 1791 French edition, "Le Sens-Commun," shows how Paine's ideas resonated amid the upheaval of the French Revolution and fueled transatlantic debates on freedom and governance. Image courtesy: U-M's Clements Library
This 1791 French edition, “Le Sens-Commun,” shows how Paine’s ideas resonated amid the upheaval of the French Revolution and fueled transatlantic debates on freedom and governance. Image courtesy: U-M’s Clements Library

In 2026, going viral refers to a piece of content spreading rapidly across the internet and into common parlance, becoming a widespread sensation or defining a cultural moment. In early 1776, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America” did just that, no internet required.

Within a week of its publication, the work’s passionate call for independence and its strident denunciation of the British monarchy made it a sensation and a runaway bestseller. Now, 250 years since its publication, four editions of Paine’s “Common Sense” are featured in the student-curated exhibit “Revolutionary Paine,” running through May 8 at the University of Michigan’s William L. Clements Library.

The Clements holds 58 editions of the pamphlet. And although historians debate the precise number of printings, they generally agree that “Common Sense” was reprinted more than any other title in colonial America. The Clements Library’s collection of these editions reflects the edits, additions, translations, typographical changes and imitations that this breathtakingly popular pamphlet underwent as it transformed both the print culture and the politics of Revolutionary America—and beyond.

An early influencer

Students of U-M Professor Andrew Murphy’s political science course, “Revolutionary Political Thought in Early America and Beyond,” spent a semester investigating Paine’s impact as one of the nation’s earliest influencers.

Curating the exhibit for Murphy’s course allowed them to actively explore Paine’s work, along with that of his contemporaries and critics, to better understand his political thought and his controversial legacy.

The frenzied publishing of the pamphlet in its early months and years set the stage for its social nature, said librarian Emi Hastings, the Clements curator of books and digital projects.

“If we look at where ‘Common Sense’ was printed before 1800, it starts, of course, with the different editions in Philadelphia,” Hastings said, “and then it spreads outwards along the mail routes, as people are mailing it to their friends, and then it gets reprinted by other printers in other local towns.”

Title page of the anonymously published "Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America," printed and sold in 1776 by R. Bell, Philadelphia. The initial run was 1,000 copies. Demand soared within weeks. Image courtesy: U-M's Clements Library
British first edition of Paine's "Common Sense," London 1776. Portions critical of the British monarchy were removed to prevent the government from prosecuting the publisher for sedition or treason. Readers or sellers often filled in the censored portions with the original text. Image courtesy: U-M's Clements Library
This satirical French engraving of the "famous Anglo-American empiricist" derides Paine as a quack physician peddling independence as a remedy for oppression. On the right is "the Anglo Peace Commissioner appointed to deal with the United States of America." Image courtesy: U-M's Clements Library
Fifteen years after the publication of "Common Sense," Paine published the first part of his "Rights of Man" in defense of the French Revolution. "Contrasted Opinions of Paine's Pamphlet" is a hand-colored engraving by Frederick George Byron (1791) featuring revolutionary figures in the Americas and Europe. Image courtesy: U-M's Clements Library, on loan from Roger Genser – The Prints & The Pauper – Santa Monica, Calif.
Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" (1791) was widely read and celebrated but also sparked significant political backlash. By including this caricature of "Mad Tom" in a British edition of the pamphlet, the publisher presents Paine as a target of ridicule. Image courtesy: U-M's Clements Library
This engraving by British artist William Sharp is based on a painting by renowned portraitist George Romney. Sharp and Romney were Paine's allies and depicted him positively. Image courtesy: U-M's Clements Library
London broadside advertising the Trial of Mr. R. Carlile for publishing Paine’s "The Age of Reason." In 1819, a London jury found the publisher guilty of blasphemy, libel and sedition. The Clements' online exhibit features an audio recording of U-M students Sanaya Hoskote, Max Janevic and David Sandall performing portions of Carlile’s testimony. Image courtesy: U-M's Clements Library
U-M student curator Kristina Bland with her mother, Dr. Kimberly Bland, in the Avenir Foundation Reading Room of the Clements Library. Image courtesy: U-M's Clements Library

‘The Age of Reason’

Murphy’s student curators also presented a symposium, which included a broadside advertising the trial of Richard Carlile, who faced prosecution by the Society for the Suppression of Vice for his publication of Paine’s “The Age of Reason.” Students Sanaya Hoskote, Max Janevic and David Sandall recorded a reenactment of proceedings from the 1819 trial, which is available on the Clements Library website.

“I was looking for a class that was small in size, and that featured a nontraditional work environment,” said Jerry Yang, a senior studying political science. “I think the effect that this has, is that it allows a much higher quality of education, both in the classroom and at the Clements Library.”

Maggie Vanderford, Clements librarian for instruction and engagement and recent recipient of the University Librarian Recognition Award, has hosted students in Murphy’s classes before, working with materials relating to Frederick Douglass. Collaborating on a student-curated exhibit felt, to Murphy, as the “logical next step” in his relationship with the Clements.

The exhibit “Revolutionary Paine” will be on display at the Clements Library through May 8. Visit the library weekdays noon-4 p.m. or view the exhibit online.

Located on the campus of the University of Michigan, the William L. Clements Library collects, preserves and makes available historical resources about the Americas, with particular strengths in 18th and 19th century American history. The mission is to collect and preserve primary sources, to make them available for research, and to support and encourage scholarly investigation of our nation’s past.

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