Thomas Paine arrived in the colonies in November 1774 as a broke 39-year-old outsider, at a time when most colonists still wanted reconciliation with Britain. Within about 14 months he wrote a 47-page pamphlet that became the best-selling American title of all time relative to population, and he made no money from it. This episode explores how he turned a tax dispute into a case for independence.

We follow the publishing drama with printer Robert Bell, the disputed profits Paine meant for soldiers’ mittens, and the public feud that spread the pamphlet even further. We also unpack his arguments: society versus government, attacks on hereditary monarchy built on Old Testament stories, a proposed 390-delegate congress with a rotating presidency, and the pushback from Charles Inglis, James Chalmers, and John Adams.

• Why the colonists were not eager for independence when Paine arrived
• How 18th-century printing costs and possibly creative accounting left Paine with no profit
• Estimates of 120,000 to 500,000 copies in a population of about 2.5 million
• Why an Enlightenment rationalist wrote in the style of a Protestant sermon
• How release timing alongside King George III’s rebellion proclamation sharpened the contrast