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Summary
Summary
A New York Times BestsellerA Book of the Month Club Main SelectionA History Book Club Alternate SelectionIn 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 chronicles Franklin's tumultuous relationship with his illegitimate son and grandson, his practical marriage, and his flirtations with the ladies of Paris. He also shows how Franklin helped to create the American character and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.
Author Notes
Walter Isaacson was born on May 20, 1952 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He received a B. A. in history and literature from Harvard College. He then attended the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar at Pembroke College and read philosophy, politics, and economics.
He began his career in journalism at The Sunday Times of London and then the New Orleans Times-Picayune/States-Item. He joined TIME in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor and editor of new media before becoming the magazine's editor in 1996. He became Chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and then president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003.
He has written numerous books including American Sketches, Einstein: His Life and Universe, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Kissinger: A Biography, Steve Jobs, and The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. He is the co-author, with Evan Thomas, of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Following closely on the heels of Edmund Morgan's justly acclaimed Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson's longer biography easily holds its own. How do the two books differ? Isaacson's is more detailed; it lingers over such matters as the nature of Franklin's complex family circumstances and his relations with others, and it pays closer attention to each of his extraordinary achievements. Morgan's is more subtle and reflective. Each in its different way is superb. Isaacson (now president of the Aspen Institute, he is the former chairman of CNN and a Henry Kissinger biographer) has a keen eye for the genius of a man whose fingerprints lie everywhere in our history. The oldest, most distinctive and multifaceted of the founders, Franklin remains as mysterious as Jefferson. After examining the large body of existing Franklin scholarship as skillfully and critically as any scholar, Isaacson admits that his subject always "winks at us" to keep us at bay-which of course is one reason why he's so fascinating. Unlike, say, David McCullough's John Adams, which seeks to restore Adams to public affection, this book has no overriding agenda except to present the story of Franklin's life. Unfortunately, for all its length, it's a book of connected short segments without artful, easy transitions So whether this fresh and lively work will replace Carl Van Doren's beloved 1938 Benjamin Franklin in readers' esteem remains to be seen. Agent, Amanda Urban. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Nicely done life of "the most accomplished American of his age." Benjamin Franklin may have been among the leading revolutionary firebrands of his time, but, suggests Aspen Institute president Isaacson (Kissinger, 1992), he wouldn't be at all out of place in an office park or perhaps Rotary Club meeting today. That doesn't mean to say that Franklin was a proto-Republican, but instead a practical-minded businessman who found much virtue in striking compromises, building consensus, and networking--and who pinched pennies with the best of them, adopting vegetarianism only so that the money saved on meat could go into his savings and studies. Yet, all that said, Isaacson reminds us that Franklin essentially retired, wealthy and content, in his early 40s and devoted the rest of his days to doing acts of public good, pressing the cause of meritocracy in the service of "social mobility rather than an established elite" and furthering the cause of American independence at considerable risk to his property and person. Isaacson charts the trajectory of Franklin's political thought on all kinds of matters; he notes, for instance, that although Franklin enthusiastically accepted advertisements for slave sales in the newspapers he published and owned "one or two household slaves off and on for much of his life," he came to see the incompatibility of such commerce with the revolutionary ideals he espoused and ended his days as a committed abolitionist. Similarly, as the very exemplar of a self-made man, Franklin gave much thought to the inequalities wrought by inherited fortune, arguing "that the accumulation of excess wealth and the idle indulgence in frivolous luxuries should not be socially sanctioned." Alas, Franklin's arguments did not carry the day in most particulars, but he remains an ideal American type--and one well served by this sympathetic and admiring study. A little less sophisticated than H.W. Brands's The First American, but a solid contribution to Frankliniana all the same. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and even Adams stare down at you from Mt. Olympus. But Benjamin Franklin has always seemed the most accessible of our Founding Fathers. He looks out benignly from our $100 bill. He dispenses grandfatherly wisdom spiced with humor from Poor 0 Richard's Almanac. Of course, Franklin was a complicated and interesting personality, as this book illustrates. Isaacson, formerly the CEO of CNN and managing editor of Time 0 magazine, is currently president of the Aspen Institute. He has written a chronological biography that pays due tribute to Franklin's genius while revealing his harder edges. Franklin was clearly driven and supremely ambitious. In serving his ambition, he could be manipulative and a shameless self-promoter. His personal and political loyalties often shifted, yet he never forgave the "betrayal" when his illegitimate son remained loyal to Britain. --Jay Freeman Copyright 2003 Booklist
Choice Review
New biographies of Franklin are appearing as often as diet books, although the public has less obvious need of the former. This rendition is a birth-to-death work that treats the many sides of Franklin--printer, scientist, politician, diplomat, and family man--a formidable job. The author believes Franklin is the sort of person one would enjoy a beer with after work, and that is the Franklin one finds in this biography. Isaacson commends Franklin for his modeling of middle-class, bourgeois, public-spirited American character. The virtues shown here are the same ones found in Franklin's own autobiography: reasonableness, moderation, equanimity, practicality, and self-confidence. Isaacson does not doubt the success and the desirability of these virtues in the US. He has moderately researched the topic, reading Franklin's own writings and his other biographers, and writes engagingly; the book is a good choice for anyone who will enjoy only one biography of Franklin. But the biography uncovers almost nothing new about Franklin and broaches no new opinions about him. Isaacson read few collateral materials, mostly in manuscript, about Franklin or his times. This lack of in-depth work renders the author's sweeping judgments glib and of little interest to scholars. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Public libraries, general collections, undergraduates. J. D. Marietta University of Arizona
Library Journal Review
A former Time magazine managing editor and former CNN chair/CEO, now serving as Aspen Institute president, Isaacson (Kissinger: A Biography) here presents what he calls "a chronological narrative biography" of Benjamin Franklin. The result is an admirable work that takes its place among recently acclaimed biographies by H.W. Brands and Edmund Morgan as one with special appeal to a general audience. Isaacson considers the social activist and historical actor, focusing on Franklin as "a civic-minded man" who expressed the virtues and values of a rising middle class, America's new ruling class of ordinary citizens. He also highlights Franklin's personal relations with numerous individuals-including his common-law wife, Deborah Read-his famous moments and achievements, e.g., the kite-flying electricity experiment, and his evolving social thought on a range of issues, including slavery. Isaacson serves the needs of nonspecialists with three helpful sections: a "Chronology" of Franklin's life, a "Cast of Characters" of the most important men and women Franklin knew, and "Currency Conversions." A fine addition to the Franklin literature, this book is recommended mainly for public libraries.-Charles L. Lumpkins, Pennsylvania State Univ., State College (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Chapter 1 Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of America | p. 1 |
| Chapter 2 Pilgrim's Progress: Boston, 1706-1723 | p. 5 |
| Chapter 3 Journeyman: Philadelphia and London, 1723-1726 | p. 36 |
| Chapter 4 Printer: Philadelphia, 1726-1732 | p. 52 |
| Chapter 5 Public Citizen: Philadelphia, 1731-1748 | p. 102 |
| Chapter 6 Scientist and Inventor: Philadelphia, 1744-1751 | p. 129 |
| Chapter 7 Politician: Philadelphia, 1749-1756 | p. 146 |
| Chapter 8 Troubled Waters: London, 1757-1762 | p. 175 |
| Chapter 9 Home Leave: Philadelphia, 1763-1764 | p. 206 |
| Chapter 10 Agent Provocateur: London, 1765-1770 | p. 219 |
| Chapter 11 Rebel: London, 1771-1775 | p. 252 |
| Chapter 12 Independence: Philadelphia, 1775-1776 | p. 290 |
| Chapter 13 Courtier: Paris, 1776-1778 | p. 325 |
| Chapter 14 Bon Vivant: Paris, 1778-1785 | p. 350 |
| Chapter 15 Peacemaker: Paris, 1778-1785 | p. 382 |
| Chapter 16 Sage: Philadelphia, 1785-1790 | p. 436 |
| Chapter 17 Epilogue | p. 471 |
| Chapter 18 Conclusions | p. 476 |
| Cast of Characters | p. 495 |
| Chronology | p. 503 |
| Currency Conversions | p. 507 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 509 |
| Sources and Abbreviations | p. 513 |
| Notes | p. 519 |
| Index | p. 567 |