Nonfiction · 1776
The American Crisis
“These are the times that try men’s souls.” Thomas Paine wrote the first Crisis paper in December 1776, with Washington’s army in retreat across New Jersey, and went on writing them as the war itself rose and fell — sixteen papers by the peace of 1783, each signed “Common Sense”: arguments, rebukes, open letters to Lord Howe and to the people of England, accounts of taxation and of nerve.
This Bibliomancer edition presents the complete Crisis papers in the order they appeared, from the text of Moncure Daniel Conway’s edition of Paine’s writings.
Contents
- The Crisis I. (These Are the Times That Try Men’s Souls)
- The Crisis II. To Lord Howe
- The Crisis III. (In the Progress of Politics)
- The Crisis IV. (Those Who Expect to Reap the Blessings of Freedom)
- The Crisis. V. To Gen. Sir William Howe
- To the Inhabitants of America
- The Crisis VI. (To the Earl of Carlisle and General Clinton)
- The Crisis VII. To the People of England
- The Crisis VIII. Address to the People of England
- The Crisis IX. (Had America Pursued Her Advantages)
- The Crisis Extraordinary
- The Crisis X. On the King of England’s Speech
- The Crisis. XI. On the Present State of News
- A Supernumerary Crisis
- The Crisis. XII. To the Earl of Shelburne
- The Crisis. XIII. Thoughts on the Peace, and Probable Advantages Thereof
- A Supernumerary Crisis: To the People of America
New editions
Never lose your place.
This book is free to read in full, and stays that way. Leave an address: one click confirms it and opens a free account, so your progress and bookmarks sync across every device. You'll also hear when the next restored edition enters the archive. Terminate at any time.
About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
Source mind
About the author
1737–1809 · Enlightenment
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was born in Thetford, Norfolk, worked as a staymaker and excise officer, and emigrated to Philadelphia in 1774 with a letter from Benjamin Franklin. Common Sense (1776) and the American Crisis papers made him the voice of the Revolution; Rights of Man (1791–92) defended the French Revolution and forced him to flee England; The Age of Reason (1794–95) attacked organised religion. He died in New York, largely ostracised.
Adjacent records
