Common Sense. By Thomas Paine. Edited with an Introduction by Isaac Kramnic. (New York: Penguin Books, 1986). Recently, I acquired a copy of Thomas Paine’s most recent patriotic pamphlet, entitled Common Sense. I was immediately interested in what Paine had to say in his new work, after such powerful previous works, such as The Crisis series. I was nothing less than astonished at how Paine so powerfully conveyed his patriotic message. Paine theorizes a split between England and the colonial states. At the same time as a split is theorized, it would form a union of the colonial states into one country, united into one body on our American principles, no longer