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Benjamin Franklin

An American Life

By Walter Isaacson

(10)

| Audio Cassette | 9780743533645

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Book Description

Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us -- an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings.

In bestselling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turnContinue

Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us -- an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings.

In bestselling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turns to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. In Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson shows how Franklin defines both his own time and ours.

The most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself. America's first great publicist, he was consciously trying to create a new American archetype. In the process, he carefully crafted his own persona, portrayed it in public, and polished it for posterity. His guiding principle was a "dislike of everything that tended to debase the spirit of the common people." Few of his fellow founders felt this comfort with democracy so fully, and none so intuitively.

In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin's amazing life, from his days as a runaway printer to his triumphs as a statesman, scientist, and Founding Father. He chronicles Franklin's tumultuous relationship with his illegitimate son and grandson, his practical marriage, and his flirtations with the ladies of Paris. He also shows how Franklin helped to create the American character and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.

Critics

  • America's founding yuppie

    Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Walter Isaacson 590pp, Simon & Schuster, £20 If Winston Churchill, by popular acclaim, was the greatest Englishman, Ben Franklin was the greatest American. He was certainly the most lovable of the Founding Fathers, ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • Benjamin Franklin By Walter Isaacson

    Benjamin Franklin's extraordinary and complex life as a printer, entrepreneur, postmaster and diplomat, among other activities had a profound effect on the development of the United States. As Walter Isaacson points out in his superb new biography, B ... (read full critics)

    bookpage published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

1 Review

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  • Not So Franklin

    This is a (too) serious book about Benjamin Franklin. The author has used a very conservative perspective (though very comprehensive) to write about Franklin's life. There are so many speculations about Franklin's love affairs, which were discredited by the author with lacking of evidence.

    I ... (continue)

    This is a (too) serious book about Benjamin Franklin. The author has used a very conservative perspective (though very comprehensive) to write about Franklin's life. There are so many speculations about Franklin's love affairs, which were discredited by the author with lacking of evidence.

    I thought it was quite a boring book comparing to the Franklin's exciting and interesting life.

    Is this helpful?

    artie said on May 3, 2009 | Add your feedback

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