Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
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- ISBN13: 9780743258074
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson shows how the most fascinating of America’s founders helped define our national character.
In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the spunky run off apprentice who became, during his 84-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard’s Directory and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation’s alliance with France, the treaty that finished the Revolution, and the compromises that made a near-perfect Constitution.
Above all, Isaacson shows how Franklin’s unwavering faith in the wisdom of the common citizen and his instinctive appreciation for the possibilities of democracy helped to forge an American national identity based on the virtues and values of its middle class.Amazon.com Review
Benjamin Franklin, writes journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson, was that rare Founding Father who would sooner wink at a passer-by than sit still for a proper portrait. What’s more, Isaacson relates in this fluent and entertaining biography, the revolutionary leader represents a political tradition that has been all but forgotten today, one that prizes pragmatism over moralism, religious tolerance over fundamentalist rigidity, and social mobility over class privilege. That broadly democratic sensibility allowed Franklin his contradictions, as Isaacson shows. Though a man of lofty principles, Franklin wasn’t shy of using sex to sell the newspapers he edited and published; though far from frivolous, he liked his toys and his mortal pleasures; and though he sometimes gave off a simpleton image, he was a shrewd and even crafty politician. Isaacson doesn’t shy from enumerating Franklin’s occasional peccadilloes and shortcomings, in keeping with the iconoclastic scenery of our time–none of which, but, stops him from considering Benjamin Franklin “the most accomplished American of his age,” and one of the most admirable of any era. And here’s one bit of proof: as a young man, Ben Franklin regularly went lacking food in order to buy books. His example, as permanently, is a excellent one–and this is just the book to buy with the proceeds from the grocery budget. –Gregory McNamee
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As a direct successor of Simon Meredith (1663-1745), father of Hugh Meredith, Benjamin Franklin’s erstwhile business partner in Philadelphia, I looked forwards with fantastic interest to Isaacson’s much touted book, and immediately consulted it between flights, looking up Cousin Hugh. With respect to Hugh, Isaacson, like so many predecessors, again proved shallow, inept, under informed and a grand source of misinformation: as we Merediths know all too well, Franklin simply stiffed Simon and dumped Hugh after the venerable Ben had gained a virtual monopoly to print money. Isaacson remains oblivious of the fact that the Simon Merediths of Radnorshire, members of a medieval college of physicians and clerics, were and remain one of the most distinguished Welsh-American families this country has ever known. I realize Isaacson is reputedly a fantastic publicist and business person, but as an historian and researcher he remains woefully ignorant. Welcome to another silly, sorry Franklin read.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
This was one of the worst books that I have ever dragged myself through. Our bookclub chose to read this thing based on all of the rave reviews. It is a fantastic example of why you shouldn’t trust reviews. Perhaps if you are a history maniac, this book would entertain you. For the rest of us, it brought back memories of college history classes that we just wanted to ‘get through’.
Wow. This book was a total waste of time (lots of it) and money. My college-aged son said that he would drop a class if Benjamin Franklin was on the reading list. My daughter (senior in high school) likes history, but said that she would draw the line at a 500+ page book about Benjamin Franklin.
I should have listened to my kids as a replacement for of the reviewers.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
What a Franklinfest this turned out to be. “Statesman, inventor, all-around-swell guy.” Well, I guess that’s one way to look at Ben. But another way is to focus on his elitist attitude and absolute lack of respect for people of color in his manic push to set up this country. He was swell alright, if you were a white, British aristocrat, but a nightmare to everyone else. Arrogant, proud. He was never shy to tell others how to live their lives. As mentioned in this book, he even had the audacity to rewrite parts of the Constitution that Jefferson had painstakingly labored over. What a jerk.
I loved the mention of the kite-flying incident, but.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
This is a very dull book that is written in a way that will frustrate any reader.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Isaacson seems to prove that editors need editors. This book is one tedious read. We are told about details of Franklin’s life that provide absolutely no useful insights. Isaacson seems to want simply to show us how thorough was his research. Our founding fathers gave birth to a busy nation – we’ve got better things to do than labor through this tome. Franklin was a printer. Isaacson has wasted more ink on this book than Franklin probably used in his entire life. Spare us the details, Mr Isaacson!
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5