Common Sense by Thomas Paine

UPDATE - AUDIO LINK FIXED

Common Sense was a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine. It was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, during the American Revolution. Common Sense presented the American colonists with an argument for independence from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided. Paine wrote and reasoned in a style that common people understood; forgoing the philosophy and Latin references used by Enlightenment era writers.

Published in January, 1776, Common Sense became the best-selling work of 18th century America. It helped to foment the American Revolution. George Washington ordered it to be read to all his troops on December 25, 1776, prior to his crossing of the Delaware.

I often hear this mentioned/referenced in discussions of the founding of America so I decided to download it from here and listen to it on my mp3 player while I was working today. It's broken up into seven small mp3 files. FREE download. It was about 1.5 hours of audio total.

Thanks to the anonymous commenter who pointed out the broken link.