Benjamin Franklin is perhaps the most remarkable figure in American history: the greatest statesman of his age, he played a pivotal role in the formation of the American republic. He was also a pioneering scientist, a best-selling author, the country's first postmaster general, a printer, a bon vivant, a diplomat, a ladies' man, and a moralist - and the most prominent celebrity of the 18th century.
Franklin was, however, a man of vast contradictions, as Edmund Morgan demonstrates in this brilliant biography. A reluctant revolutionary, Franklin had desperately wished to preserve the British Empire, and he mourned the break, even as he led the fight for American independence. Despite his passion for sciences, Franklin viewed his groundbreaking experiments as secondary to his civic duties. And although he helped to draft both the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, he had personally hoped that the new American government would take a different shape. Unraveling the enigma of Franklin's character, Morgan shows that he was the rare individual who constantly placed the public interest before his own desires.
Written by one of our greatest historians, Benjamin Franklin offers a provocative portrait of America's most extraordinary patriot. The book is published by Yale University Press.
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"Edmund Morgan's Benjamin Franklin is a great biography of an extraordinary human being. Morgan, a distinguished historian, wisely avoids relying on secondary sources, and instead focuses on Franklin's own words and those of his contemporaries, as collected in the Papers of Benjamin Franklin. The result is an extremely well-written biography that tells Franklin's life story effectively and economically. Morgan's Franklin is familiar in some ways, as the prodigious inventor, the ceaselessly industrious man of business, the gifted writer; but Morgan adds some new elements to the picture. In Morgan's view, Franklin is someone who put public service above every other endeavor, even including the scientific experimentation he loved; and Morgan emphasizes Franklin's belief in respecting the will of the people at all times, even when the will of the people differed from Franklin's own sense of what was best. One finishes this book wishing that one could have met Franklin."
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Paul (5 out of 5 stars)