Media in the American Revolution Thomas Paine and His...

The writings of Thomas Paine and his famous pamphlet, Common Sense, are viewed by many as having a profound and instrumental part in the ideology supporting the American Revolution. As important as Paines writings were, there were a great many other publications that played a major part in developing and reporting the process that eventually resulted in the Revolution and the ultimate formation of a new government in the former British colonies. To fully understand the nature of the power of the printed media in the years leading up to the American Revolution one must develop recognition for how information traveled in the late 18th century. Print media and word of mouth were the only two available methods of communication in those years and the print media was still in its infancy. Nevertheless, limited circulation newspapers such as the Boston Gazette, the New England Courant, the Gazette of the United States, and the National Gazette were used by their owners and writers as both v ehicles of information and as propaganda weapons in the philosophical and political debate that led up to the American Revolution. Leaders on both sides of the Revolutionary debate contributed to the information being provided by the colonial newspapers. The range of these contributions was wide in both style and purpose. Benjamin Franklins approach was to be subtle and witty and to suggest an accommodation with the crown while Samuel Adams was openly defiant and oppositional. In betweenShow MoreRelatedAmerican Revolution Essay2256 Words   |  10 PagesA revolution is defined as being a generally violent attempt by many people to end one rule of governing, and to create their own (Websters Dictionary). The founding of our own independent country is based on such a notion, with our forefathers fighting to gain their freedom from the oppressive rule of Colonial England. With rampant fears of tyranny from a country deemed a super power, the American people were divided in their views of creating their own government, making the definition of a revolutionRead MoreFounding Brothers9626 Words   |  39 PagesPreface: The Generation Some people thought that American independence was Manifest Destiny, Tom Paine, for example, claimed that it was simply a matter of common sense that an island could not rule a continent. But for the most part, triumph of the American revolution was improbable, and therefore it is a remarkable event in history. No one expected that Britain, the strongest country in the world would be defeated by the colonies, and that Americas Republic, a government uncommon inRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesby Bradley H. Dowden This book Logical Reasoning by Bradley H. Dowden is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. That is, you are free to share, copy, distribute, store, and transmit all or any part of the work under the following conditions: (1) Attribution You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author, namely by citing his name, the book title, and the relevant page numbers (but not in any way that suggests that the book