Common Sense: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Common Sense, credited to Thomas Paine, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Common Sense, by Thomas Paine. Read by Gary Gilberd. Common Sense, Paine's pro-independence monograph published anonymously on 10 January 1776, spread quickly among literate colonists. Within three months, 120,000 copies are alleged to have been distributed throughout the colonies, which themselves totaled only four million free inhabitants, making it the best-selling work in 18th-century America. Its total sales in both America and Europe reached 500,000 copies. It convinced many colonists, including George Washington and John Adams, to seek redress in political independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and argued strongly against any compromise short of independence. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Common Sense
• Author credits: Thomas Paine
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 7
• Listed recording duration: 2:02:38

Catalogue topics

• paine
• pamphlet

Track guide

1. 0 Introduction and Preface — 3:30
2. 1 Origin of Government in General — 14:07
3. 2 Monarchy and Hereditary Succession — 22:49
4. 3a Thoughts on the Present State of America pt. 1 — 21:44
5. 3b Thoughts on the Present State of America pt. 2 — 20:38
6. 4 The Present Ability of America — 26:49
7. 5 Appendix — 20:44

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.