In 1774, an Englishman named Thomas Paine, having met Benjamin Franklin and received letters of introduction from him, immigrated to Pennsylvania and entered the print media industry. Paine’s ties to Franklin thrust him into revolutionary circles almost immediately, and, at his American friends’ urging, in early January 1776, he published an essay called “Common Sense.” Paine’s tract became a best-seller virtually overnight—arguably the most popular printed work ever produced in America, right up to the present. Within 90 days of its release, it had been purchased by roughly one out of every eight adult colonists; most Americans read “Common Sense,” and if they couldn’t read it, someone else read it to them. On Monarchy In true Enlightenment fashion, Paine’s essay used reason (or “common sense”) to excoriate the very notion of monarchy—and the men and women who wore the crown. Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others …