Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
by Walter Isaacson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Walter IsaacsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05-04
ISBN: 074325807X
Number of pages: 608
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Accessories:
- Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
- Einstein: His Life and Universe
- Benjamin Franklin : An American Life
Book Reviews of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Book Review: Very enlightening!
Summary: 4 Stars
Benjamin Franklin's name is recognizable to all because of the progress he made to science, technology, and politics. He invented the lightening rod and the creation of Poor Richard's Almanac. However, after reading this wonderfully crafted organized, and insightful biography of Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson, I found myself very enlightened not only by so many other interesting inventions and creations in Benjamin Franklin's life, but also by how much I learned about his personality and by the philosophical questions he asked, many of which are the same questions America still struggles with today.
The author, Walter Isaacson, is quite interesting in his own right. He attended Harvard College (B.A. in history and literature) and University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar at Pembroke College (M.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics).
His career started in journalism at The Sunday Times of London and eventually joined TIME in 1978 as a political correspondent, eventually becoming the magazine's fourteenth managing editor in 1996. He became Chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and today is president and CEO of the Aspen Institute since 2003. The list of boards and committees are numerous but nevertheless, he is highly respected around the world as a premier journalist and historian. He wrote this biography over the course of several years during the time he was the managing editor of TIME and through his tenure as CEO of CNN. Some of his other works include Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and is the co-author, with Evan Thomas, of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986).
The author most likely chose to write about Benjamin Franklin because he stood for what is quintessentially American - that is, he believed in the notion that society should be comprised of a strong working middle class of shopkeepers, craftsman, and tradesman rather than an aristocratic society, such as England's at the time, comprised of non-workers born in a privileged class. Moreover, he believed that members of a society should be tolerant of one another and that we should learn from our flaws and work together to develop a nation based on a republic. Probably the most interesting thing that I learned from reading this book was just how profound Benjamin Franklin's belief and compassion was for the middle class. In fact, he essentially disowned his own son over this philosophical issue at a critical juncture in our nation's history.
Benjamin Franklin was a courageous and determined self-taught man, born in Boston on January 17th, 1706, the tenth and last-born son of a Puritan immigrant. His father, a minister and a soap and candle maker, had intentions for son to go to Harvard to continue the family legacy of ministry service. As a young spunky kid, he learned rather quickly that following in his father's footsteps wasn't cut out for him. Very early in his life, he discovered that he loved to read and write. He perceived himself to be a pretty good writer after self-teaching himself by rewriting essays he read from a London Journal called the Spectator. He was able to work for his brother as an apprentice at age twelve where he trained as a publisher, printer, and newspaperman. His brother attempted to bring Benjamin under his wing slowly over a period of several years, but Benjamin's passion about this new trade brought about a desire to create and invent new types of literature. Within a short time, he developed a unique conversational style of writing with a sense of humor that he used throughout his career and soon became recognized as the most popular writer in colonial America. He had a great imagination and at the age of sixteen created a series of pseudonymous essays known as "Silence Dogood." In order for his brother to publish these essays, he cleverly disguised his handwriting and slipped it under the print house door. The essays were based on the point of view of a widowed woman living in the outskirts of the city. Franklin's imaginary widow had been married to a minister and was being courted by another minister. The essays were imaginative and funny, but also contained the virtues that he believed should be part of the American character, often poking fun and attacking hypocrisy and religion by questioning the establishment's authority of their beliefs.
After a short stint in Philadelphia and London, he returned to Philadelphia and became a journeyman printer finally obtaining a print shop of his own. He became well established and respected in the community. Additionally, he created a small club known as the Junto, comprised of tradesmen and artisans with the objective to community-organize and help each other professionally and personally. Over time, Junto had become the cornerstone for creating the first subscription public library, volunteer fire force, hospital and for establishing an academy that later became the University of Pennsylvania. Later in his years, with his printing business doing well and recent purchase of the Pennsylvania Gazzete newspaper, he entered into a common-law marriage with his practical and frugal wife, Deborah Read. Together they built a home on Market Street in Philadelphia and raised Franklin's illegitimate son, William who was born right before their common-law marriage. The identity of William's mother is unknown but was a result of Benjamin consorting with, as he says in his autobiography, "low women." Their marriage wasn't intimate but it was still a good marriage in that she was very industrious and helpful with his printing business. Deborah never liked to travel and in fact, never ventured outside of Market Street her entire married life. Benjamin, on the other hand, loved to travel. This left a bit of a dilemma in that Deborah stayed in Philadelphia while Benjamin attended to his franchised printing shops up and down the colonies and later in his life, long trips to Europe. Within just a few years of their marriage, his printing business thrived in creating a newspaper, magazine, and renowned book called Poor Richard's Almanac as a way of ultimately creating substantial wealth for the family. The family became very close and Benjamin, unlike many men in that era, had raised and educated his illegitimate son, William. They later had a daughter named Sally eleven years after their short-lived son, Franky.
At the midpoint in his life, Benjamin would retire from the printing business because he wanted to spend more time with his civic associations and other interests. He sold his printing business to his partner and leaving him in a favorable financial situation where he would continue to obtain roughly half of the profits of the business over the next eighteen years. He also took advantage of this phase of his life by immersing himself into the interest he had towards science, which was driven by sheer intellectual curiosity and the thrill of discovery, even though he never received academic training. Possibly because he was already financially independent, he declined to patent his inventions and was pleased to share his discoveries. He first developed scientific theories, and sought practical uses for them later. Some of his more practical inventions included the wood-burning stove that could be built into fireplaces to maximize heat and minimize smoke and drafts; the lightening rod after discovering the single-fluid theory of electricity; and the electrical battery after experimenting with the capturing and storing of electrical charges in what was a primitive form of a capacitor called a Leyden jar. Of course, there are many other discoveries as a result of his curiosity, such as the motion of the Gulf Stream, the earth's magnetism, and refrigeration based on evaporation concepts.
As mentioned earlier, one of his major accomplishments during this period of dedication to his civic associations was the creation and establishment of the University of Pennsylvania and in the founding documents he states that education shouldn't only be for the elite class but that the importance of education is to help every aspiring person from all walks of life move upward so that society would benefit as a whole.
After a lengthy stay throughout Europe where he engaged in civil matters as a popular and respected diplomat representing colonial America, he returns in 1775 and is asked to join committee to draft the Declaration of Independence. After Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft, he was asked by Jefferson to see if he can improve it. Franklin most significant edit was changing the words of the second paragraph from "sacred and undeniable" to "self-evident". The original content was based that the equality of men and their endowment by their creator with inalienable rights was an assertion of religion. Franklin's edit turned the meaning into an assertion of rationality. In explaining to his peers, he conveyed to the committee that the rights of the people were based on the consent of the governed and not handed down as divined rights. He believed that a society should be built on working principles that are useful to all as opposed to one built on ideologies and perceived dogma.
Franklin returns to Europe where he inevitably forges an alliance with France and because of his popularity promotes the new American ideals through a public relations campaign. This was a significant endeavor because of personal and political challenges. Personally, not only was he suffering from gout and kidney stone complications, his son, William was remaining a British loyalist at a time when Benjamin supported a revolution back home. Eventually, he would get France to acknowledge America's independence and establish a treaty of alliance and commerce. Moreover, partly because of some good fortunes, such as the death of a major foe, Lord Rockingham and a victory at the Battle of Saratoga, he was able to resolve Britain's differences and forge a peace treaty with England. At the end of the war, while still in Passy, France, Franklin was able to resume his personal endeavors and focus on his autobiography and even perfect one of his most useful inventions, bifocals - or as he put it, "Double Spectacles".
Although still in discomfort from his illnesses, he would take his final voyage back home to the colonies. Shortly thereafter, it became apparent through colonial disputes that a federal convention was warranted in order to unite the colonies. Franklin was selected to represent one of the Pennsylvania's delegates and a convention was held to propose new amendments. The colonies at the time were debating over how they should be fairly represented in the new union. Franklin, being the elder statesmen twice the age of his peers, gets up and makes a motion for a House and a Senate through an inspiring speech. Franklin's speech has been regarded as one of the most influential speeches of the century. The basic premise was for the House to have primary authority over taxes and spending, the Senate over the confirmation of executive officers and matters of state sovereignty. Establishing this compromise was probably Franklin's greatest achievement at this critical juncture in American history.
Franklin life achievements are significant to say the least. He has been instrumental in shaping every major document that led to the creation of the new republic. He was the only person to sign all four of its founding papers: the Declaration of Independence; the treaty with France, the peace accord with Britain, and the Constitution. At the end of his life, he wrestled with one issue that not only he struggled with for a long time but also America has wrestled with since its foundation. That is, the issue of slavery. Franklin spent the last few years of his life on a moral crusade to pursue abolishment of slavery. He freed his own two slaves and persuaded others to do the same. Although he was unsuccessful in his attempt to petition abolishment of slavery to Congress, he denounced it and in one of his last acts, accepted the presidency of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.
All his life, Franklin dedicated himself to community service utilizing his creative and inventive persona. He was persistent in standing up for the middle class and understood that together we can be a strong union through compromise and common purpose. It is fitting that he called himself a "Printer" over any other distinguishable profession because it was his extraordinary ability to persuade and rationalize through his writing skills that made him so memorable as a one of our founding fathers.
I enjoyed reading Walter Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin. The book was well written and for the most part, was fairly easy to read. The chapters were organized in a chronological order, but on a few occasions, while providing a narrative on a particular character that was introduced in his life, he would detour from the regular linear timeline of the book. I certainly would recommend Benjamin Franklin - An American Life (2003) to anyone with an interest in American History and you will certainly appreciate the diligence that Walter Isaacson put into this wonderful biography of Benjamin Franklin. I look forward to reading Isaacson's latest book, Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007).
Report by Roger Lord
Garden Grove, CA
Summary of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
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 runaway 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 Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation's alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created 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.
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 formal 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 nature of our time--none of which, however, 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 without food in order to buy books. His example, as always, is a good one--and this is just the book to buy with the proceeds from the grocery budget. --Gregory McNamee
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