Surprisingly enjoyable, fluid writing, don't be daunted!

books:

	• Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Walter Isaacson Simon & Schuster, 2004 - 608 pages average customer review:based on 206 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Oldest Founding Father

This book is one of three about Ben Franklin that have been written in the past few years. I have read all three - Gordon Wood's, Edmund Morgan's, and this book by Isaacson, which is the best of the three. Ben Franklin is one of my heroes and I am overwhelmed with how talented this man was. Although Isaacson covers BF's whole life, I would like to talk only about a certain viewpoint I have come to believe. My review meanders a little, but I promise I'll get to the point.

When BF was in his young to middle-aged working life, he created, among other things, "Poor Richard's Almanac." This was first published in 1733 - full of common sense, admonitions to industry and frugality, and homespun proverbs. His last edition was in 1758, reprinted separately as "The Way To Wealth," and attributed to a "Father Abraham."

Later, when BF was in a rare depression following a political failure in England, a friend convinced him he owed it to the public to write an autobiography. He began the first installment as advice to his son, William, and wrote additional entries over a number of years.

BF loved Europe, and they loved him. His work in electricity in his early 40's earned him an international reputation, complete with multiple honorary degrees. Perhaps because he spent so much time abroad, perhaps because his political enemies set the tone, perhaps because he was much older than his political peer group, he was not as appreciated in his home country. Interestingly, he made it back for the writing of both the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution 11 years later.

After BF died, he was virtually ignored in America, while France proclaimed 3 days of mourning and made him a national hero. This contrast is more than striking. There were many signers to the Declaration of Independence, yet only a few of them stand out in America as household names. The rest of them have varied lesser legacies, with perhaps only short encyclopedia entries.

BF's legacy would possibly have shared that fate, had it not been for his writings, particularly his Autobiography and Poor Richard's Almanac. Vitally important to the popularity of BF's writings were the changes that were occurring in American society, lessening the mindless esteem of the seemingly non-working upper class, and celebrating the working man. Perhaps his books helped to expedite these changes.

In the early 1800's these two books became standard issue for those working men who aspired to get ahead in America. "The Way To Wealth" alone had more than a hundred editions in over a dozen languages. His "list of virtues" comprised 13 traits, each one to be concentrated on for a week at a time. At the end of thirteen weeks, they would all have been practiced once, so one starts over. At the end of a year, each virtue would have been rehearsed for four weeks. BF admitted the difficulties he personally experienced while trying to be virtuous, but maintained there was virtue in attempting perfection. One of his famous statement concerns the problems he encountered conquering vanity. He wrote that in trying to keep his vanity under control during "humility" week, he found himself succumbing to proudness for having achieved so much humbleness (or something like that).

In 1836, a copy of BF's Autobiography was amongst Davy Crockett's few possessions found with him at the Alamo. Isaacson has given us a superb presentation of BF's strength's, life, and accomplishments, and a few of his human weaknesses. I give it my highest recommendation.

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This biography brings Franklin to life

If you want to read about Benjamin Franklin then there are two biographies to choose from. This one by Isaacson which I loved and found to be very well rounded. Or Brands' biography "First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin" which is also excellent, but a lot longer and more indepth. Both are great, but then again, both authors have the benefit of writing about this amazing renaisance man, who lead a full life with many ups and downs. Of course, I also recommend reading Franklin's own autobiography which, while never finished, is full of his wit and charm.

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Surprisingly enjoyable, fluid writing, don't be daunted!

Wow, what a fantastic read! One of my personal heroes (and greatest of Americans), Benjamin Franklin is a member of those great mythic figures that never get a full representation beyond the caricature. In many ways, the figure Franklin cut was so vast and multifaceted that it seems the only way to 'sum up' the man was to characterize him by a few selective great exploits: founding father, writer/journalist - Poor Richards Almanac, admirer of the thrifty, electrical magnet, and magnetic with the ladies... but clearly the man was so much more, a veritable powerhouse 'think-tank' of one.

Walter Isaacson's book takes that cartoon-esque figure from the flat days of high school history and fills him out, cutting a cloth that is both expressive and intriguing. I seriously wish I had had this a part of a required reading list in high school, or even college... and I know a fair amount of adults that could do with a refresher on who the founding fathers were. While each American Founding Father played their part in building a nation, it was self-made Franklin and his self-awareness, his undaunted ambition and astute mind that defined the 'American dream,' and infused the nation with the notion that worth was not born but earned, and that truly we could all be created equal. Noteworthy is the recounting of the full man in Isaacson's work ... the inclusion of the fallible Franklin, loyal citizen of the throne pre-Revolution, thick-skinned envoy with cruelly-tongued foreign diplomats, flawed family man and estranged father.

Of course it's near impossible to eliminate the author's opinion of their subject, Isaacson clearly respects Franklin, but the reader isn't fettered by Isaacson's personal vision. Franklin is portrayed as he was, a witty man interested in the world around him and not easily satisfied to sit on any laurels. An epicurian man who enjoyed life, travel, science and culture.

Surprisingly enjoyable, fluid writing, don't let the massive size of this text daunt you. It's well worth the time and will likely pay you back a hundred-fold.

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An in-depth quality portrait of Benjamin Franklin

This major work provides a comprehensive history of the great American legend's life. Beginning with his childhood in Boston and taking readers to his run off to Philadelphia at age 16 and his subsequent periods in England and in France, this book traces Franklin's moral, professional, family and personal development at each stage of his life.

Isaacson provides a comprehensive view of Franklin, both the respectable (his civic accomplishments and scientific experiments) and the less adulatory (his coldness towards his family). The majority of the book is composed of the history of his long (84 year) life. But it is nicely wrapped up at the end with a summary of how Franklin has been viewed over the ages since his death. This critical analysis discusses the various sides of Franklin's life and character and provides a useful placement of Franklin's character into American society and history.

In the audio version, Nelson Runger provides an excellent reading, with a strong, consistent voice, and imitations of Franklin that make it seem as though it is Franklin himself reading.

A quality work for anyone who wants an in-depth look at the iconoclastic American character.

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A far more complex man that most Americans realize

Walter Isaacson's excellent and comprehensive biography of Benjamin Franklin does an excellent job of putting the pieces together in a life with many seeming contradictions.

I would like to discuss several periods in the life of Franklin and then discuss the major 'disconnect' in his life; which is the revered public figure compared to the almost negligent family life experienced by his common-law wife, Deborah, and his two children, Sally and William.

First, the young Franklin is presented as shrewed beyond his years and a young man of infinite intellectual interests as well as an approach to romance and love that reminds me of the free love movement of the 1960s.

Second, Franklin's rise in Pennslyvania civic government lays the groundwork for his dual feelings of loyalty and rebellion against the British. This is often the case with a highly bright and successful person in a repressive society. They gain recognition far beyond the average citizen and thus are invested in the status quo, and yet they see beyond the repression and thus can visualize strategies to move beyond these constraints toward a more just society. The Penn family hated Franklin for he called their bluff and negotiated continually for justice for the Pennsylvanian colonists.

Third, Franklin's early years in England, as negotiator for the colonists, gave him the intellectual and practical background to eventually negotiate with the French for alliance, negotiate a peace treaty with the British, and help construct a new national government. Yes, he was shamed by insolent British short-sighted politicians, but this shame forged a disposition that allowed great statemanship for the service of the nation he helped create.

Fourth, Frankin's years in France are delightful to read. He was one of the most famous men alive, celebrated everywhere he went, and yet he saw this as facade, or mask, and worked to both enjoy a wonderful private life with philosophers and scientists and bright beautiful women as well as a carefully constructed negotiation relationship with the Foreign Minister of France.

Fifth, Franklin's negotiations for peace with the British were as brilliant as his negotiations were with the French for their wartime assistance.

Sixth, Franklin's role in the establishment of our governmental structures is fascinating since he was the most democratic of all the delegates, proposing a single house legistature based on population representation and the direct election of the President rather than an electorial college. I know Al Gore wished Franklin's wisdom had won out.

The reader will be fascintated by the six sections I have mentioned above and yet there is a very strange blimish in the core of Franklin's personality. He is seduced and entranced by brilliance and intellect and whereas he philosophically supports the middle class, including middle class interests and intellect, in his own personal life, he deprives family members of his personal presence and support as he spends most of his life with persons of greater wit and intelligence than his blood relatives. What do we make of this? We all know that we select our friends but we inherit our relatives. Franklin chose to spend the majority of his life with his friends, even to the detriment of his family. His wife Deborah does not see him during her last 17 years and dies alone while he is in Paris. Yet Franklin had outgrown her and had moved far beyond her as an international celebrity and diplomat on whose actions two empires were waxing and waning and a new nation was being born. It appears that his family, at least the Bache family in Philadelphia, forgave him and cherished every moment he did give them in his old age.

Fascinating, complex, brilliant, strategic, focused, and wise only begin to describe this unique character in world history.

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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