Benjamin Franklin: An American Life – Walter Isaacson
Benjamin Franklin was the most accomplished American of his age: a printer, writer, scientist, inventor, diplomat, businessman and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. In Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Walter Isaacson shows why he is also the founder who feels most like one of us.
Isaacson follows Franklin from his escape from an apprenticeship in Boston, arriving in Philadelphia as a runaway teenager with a few coins in his pocket, to his rise as a successful printer and publisher of Poor Richard’s Almanack. He explores Franklin’s famous experiments with electricity, his inventions from bifocals to the lightning rod and the Franklin stove, and his remarkable civic projects, including a lending library, a fire company, a hospital and a university.
He then traces Franklin’s evolution from loyal British subject to revolutionary, his role in drafting the Declaration of Independence, his triumphant diplomacy in France that secured a crucial alliance, and his contributions to the Constitutional Convention in his final years.
Throughout, Isaacson captures Franklin’s wit, curiosity, practicality and contradictions, including his complicated relationships with his wife Deborah and his son William, who remained loyal to the British Crown.
Rich in detail and vividly written, this biography is a fascinating portrait of a man whose ideas about tolerance, self-improvement and community helped shape the American character, and a perfect read for history lovers and newcomers alike.
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