Thomas Paine called for American independence in his 1776 pamphlet Common Sense. The pamphlet was distributed widely and had a profound influence on public opinion in America. After publication of the pamphlet, which sold 100,000 copies in three months, he continued to inspire and encourage the patriots in a series of pamphlets called The Crisis.

Paine returned to his native England following the Revolutionary War and published The Rights of Man, which defended the French Revolution in response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. Charged with treason, Paine fled in 1792 to France, where he became a French citizen and was elected to the National Convention.