Thomas Paine

Common Sense and The Rights of Man (Complete and Unabridged) Thomas Paine

Paine's immensely popular and influential pamphlet Common Sense helped inspire the American colonists. Of Paine John Adams said, "Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain." The Rights of Man" was in part a defense of the French Revolution.
"Part of Paine's work was to render complex ideas intelligible to average readers of the day, with clear, concise writing unlike the formal, learned style favored by many of Paine's contemporaries." (Wikipedia.)