Crisis

In the winter of 1776, the American War of Independence, which had been declared months before, was in trouble. British troops had quickly advanced through New York to crush the rebellion, and the Continental army was in retreat and on the verge of disintegration. At the end of that year, on the 23rd of December, Thomas Paine, who had previously inspired the revolutionary cause with his stirring pamphlet Common Sense, published the first of a new series of essays aptly titled The Crisis. Pa...