Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

The Founding Father winking at us is Benjamin Franklin. He appears formed of flesh rather than stone. An ambitious urban entrepreneur, he ascended the social ladder from a leather-averse shopkeeper to eating with monarchs. Discover the reason behind Franklin's seemingly twinkling eyes as he turns to face us from history's stage in acclaimed author Walter Isaacson's colorful and humorous full-scale biography. Isaacson illustrates how Franklin contributed to the definition of his own and our times by bringing him to life.

Over the course of his 84 years, he was not only the greatest scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and corporate strategist in the United States, but he was also one of its most pragmatic political thinkers, if not its most deep. He created a rod to control lightning after demonstrating its electrical nature by flying a kite. He looked for doable solutions to reduce smoke from stoves and corruption in commonwealths. He set up national legislatures, local lending libraries, international alliances, and neighborhood constabularies. In order to support the federal compromise of the country, he blended two kinds of lenses to produce bifocals and two notions of representation. All of America's foundational documents—the Albany Plan of Union, the Declaration of Independence, the Alliance with France, the Peace Treaty with England, and the Constitution—were crafted by him alone. Additionally, he contributed to the development of American comedy, democratic principles, and intellectual pragmatism.

The most intriguing invention that Franklin created and kept creating, however, was himself. The nation's first great publicist, he intentionally attempted to redefine the American archetype both in his life and in his writings. He meticulously created his own character throughout this process, performed it in public, and polished it for future generations.

More than the hearts and brains of any inbred elite, he trusted the hearts and minds of his fellow "leather-aprons" through it all. Rather than being something to be mocked, he considered middle-class ideals as a source of societal power. His credo was to "dislike everything that tended to debase the spirit of the common people." Few of his fellow founders felt this comfort with democracy so fully, and none so intuitively.

In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin's amazing life, from his days as a runaway printer to his triumphs as a statesman, scientist, and Founding Father. He details Franklin's stormy relationship with his grandson and illegitimate son, his pragmatic marriage, and his dalliances with Parisian women. Additionally, he demonstrates why Franklin is especially relevant in the twenty-first century and how he contributed to the development of the American character.