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Title: Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan, Benjamin Franklin ISBN: 0-300-09532-5 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.65 (31 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A great introduction to Benjamin Franklin
Comment: I have to confess to being almost totally ignorant about Benjamin Franklin, the subject of this lovely book by Edmund Morgan. My knowledge of Franklin stopped with the basics--trained as a printer in colonial Boston, made his way to Philadelphia while still very young, published Poor Richard's Almanac, proved that lighting was electrical, represented the American colonies in England and newly independent America in France.
In slightly more than 300 elegantly written pages, Yale historian Morgan transformed this skeleton into a living, breathing man. Although Morgan based this brief history on a wealth of source documents, he tells Franklin's story effortlessly. I felt as though I had taken a long walk with a very interesting companion, and come away with a whole new understanding of a great and complex figure.
Morgan devotes most of the book to detailing Franklin's central role in the long series of calculations and miscalculations that pushed thirteen loyal and tractable British colonies into revolution and forged them into the United States of America. Franklin, we learn, was there at every step, usually behind the scenes, but always extremely influential, a potent catalyst to change.
It's as fascinating to follow the evolution of Franklin's own thoughts and feelings about the British Empire and the future of America as it is to get to catch a replay of the fateful steps in Britain and the colonies that led to the American revolution. I wish that America were blessed with more statesmen like Franklin; we could certainly use someone like him right now.
Just one caveat--Franklin's scientific accomplishments are mentioned, but really as a side issue. In this, Morgan seems to be following Franklin's own lead; we learn that he viewed the scientific accomplishments that won him universal acclaim as less important than his far-sighted, patient, sometimes personally costly contributions as a politician and statesman.
It's hard to imagine a more readable, edifying or enjoyable introduction to Benjamin Franklin.
Robert Adler
Author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley, 2002).
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the Most Interesting Men in American History
Comment: Edmund S. Morgan is without a doubt one of American's greatest living historians. He is very worthy of the title, as is made evident in the pages of Benjamin Franklin. Morgan manages to give a very insightful look at one of the most interesting Founding Fathers in a book half the size of most Franklin biographies. As Gordon S. Wood wrote on the back cover of the book, "This is the best short biography of Franklin ever written". You would be hard pressed to disagree with him.
You take certain themes from this well written book. One is a total admiration of the man. This is a very subject positive story, as it should be. Franklin was extremely smart, not some storied tinkerer in lightning. Franklin's experiments were recognized world wide as serious steps in scientific achievement. He could speak several languages and was a veracious reader and writer. He also had a wonderful sense of civic duty. It seemed that wherever he went, Franklin strove to improve his surroundings, for himself and his neighbors. Libraries and fire departments all owe some of their origin to Franklin.
The man was also extremely charming. On his many trips around the world, he cultivated an almost cult like following. He was such a friendly fellow that people from all around the globe did anything to get an audience or share a meal with him. Franklin's infidelities are hinted at, but they are not sorid or outrageous. Most of them are unproven anyway.
Only trailing Washington, Franklin should be given the most credit for the independence of the 13 colonies and then the formation of the United States. Franklin managed to squeeze millions and millions of dollars from the already cash strapped French, with later on proved disastrous for Louis XVI. This money and aid was a necessity in winning the war. Also very interesting is how much Franklin loved England. Up until the very end, Franklin was desperate to keep the two countries together in some form of union. Only after the amazingly arrogant actions of the English government did he see that the only answer was independence.
Great writing, wonderful research, and a fascinating subject. What else could you want?
Rating: 5
Summary: biography of a leader
Comment: We hear about many people nowadays who are called "leaders of this or that people"; this is a biography of a man who really was a leader of a people and as such, it is good to read this short and critically-acclaimed biography to discover what a people's leader is.
In these pages, Benjamin Franklin emerges as a man who "did as much as any to shape the world he and" his contemporaries lived. Here we see a person who throughout his life sought to determine what was in the public interest and who then tried to persuade the people to act for their own good. But he never tried to place what he thought good "above what they did". Furthermore, he never tried to gain even adequate compensation for his long and hard years as a public servant because he believed that private property was not a natural but a society-given right and that society should therefore see to it that no-one had too much wealth.
This, of course, is not a view often associated with the author of the Poor Man's Almanac-even though he held this opinion since at least 1750 when he wrote that "what we have above what we can use, is not properly ours, tho' we possess it." Yet it is a view that we in a time littered with corrupt politicians who steal several million here and a billion there; who impose their idea of what is good on a people who as often as not are forced to obey or be killed; in a time when these thugs are yet called "leaders", might do well to recall.
For here in a little over 300 pages we have a portrait of a true leader. A man who spoke little, listened a lot, and who led Americans to independence (although he would have personally preferred a British Empire of Equals). It would be good for us to remember this man for we live in a time when the men we call leaders are often anything but. Yet, perhaps when we recognize what makes a true leader we will once again have them.
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Title: Benjamin Franklin : An American Life by Walter Isaacson ISBN: 0684807610 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders by Bernard Bailyn ISBN: 0375413774 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: John Adams by David McCullough ISBN: 0743223136 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris ISBN: 0812966007 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin ISBN: 0486290735 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: June, 1996 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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