| This dissertation is a textual history of Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the American independence movement during the first half of 1776. The study uses the methodologies and vocabularies of rhetorical studies, early modern history, and political theory to analyze the 180-degree turn in colonial public opinion away from a preference for reconciliation with Great Britain and towards political independence. The dissertation incorporates textual criticism and archival research into an integrative analysis of the mechanisms by which public discourse accelerated the complex process that led to the Declaration of Independence. The study includes detailed treatments of republican ideology, colonial print culture, early modern science, British political theory, transatlantic society, constitutional democracy, national sovereignty, and the Continental Congress. The conclusion of the project demonstrates the central role of Common Sense and the debate over independence in the formation of the American public. |
