Common Sense (Thomas Paine)

This will be the first entry in my political book sequence.  It will be followed by the Declaration of Independence and the rest of the founding documents, before moving onto the Federalist Papers.  It seems like a good way to set the stage and get a feel for the popular feeling of the time before moving on to the formal philosophy and language.

Thinking it over, I find it shocking that I never read Common Sense in a History course in high school.  We learned about it, of course-- learned that it was written by Thomas Paine, and it laid out a case for the revolution.  Apparently, that was enough for the state standards, and as students that sure seemed like enough for us.  What the hell is wrong with our education system?

Originally I thought I'd read this online, but there was a free edition available for Kindle, so I'm reading it that way, on the computer.  Perhaps a purchase for later, if I ever find a good edition with several founding documents at once.