A failed corset-maker's pamphlet talked America into declaring independence

Thomas Paine had been in America barely a year — having failed at several trades in England — when he published Common Sense in January 1776. Arguing that hereditary monarchy was absurd and independence simply common sense, it sold hundreds of thousands of copies in a population of 2.5 million and is widely credited with turning colonial opinion decisively toward declaring independence.

— Thomas Paine, Common Sense — Published January 1776
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