Common sense has always been a cornerstone of American politics. In 1776, Tom Paine"s vital pamphlet with that title sparked the American Revolution. And today, common sense the wisdom of ordinary people, knowledge so self-evident that it is beyond debate remains a powerful political ideal, utilized alike by George W. Bush"s aw-shucks articulations and Barack Obama"s down-to-earth reasonableness. But far from self-evident is where our faith in common sense comes from and how its populist logic has shaped modern democracy. Common Sense: A Political History is the first book to explore this essential political phenomenon. The story begins in the aftermath of England"s Glorious Revolution, when common sense first became a political ideal worth struggling over. Sophia Rosenfeld"s accessible and insightful account then wends its way across two continents and multiple centuries, revealing the remarkable individuals who appropriated the old, seemingly universal idea of common sense and...