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Summary: Start your Franklin readings here
Review: I found this book to read very smoothly,...chapter integration was seemless. Packed with information, as a book on Franklin should be, yet not overly done. An excellent starting point for those who wish to know Franklin better.
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Summary: An American's Tale
Review: The biographical account of Benjamin Franklin's life by Walter Isaacson provides insight into who the real Benjamin Franklin was. Prior to reading this book I was familiar with Franklin and many of his inventions but I didn't have a clear understanding of who he really was, what he valued, and all the value he added to the life of Americans. This biography delved into the man as an entrepreneur, an inventor, a satirist, a statesman, and even as a lecherous old man. Walter Isaacson leads the reader on a journey through Franklin's life that puts him under the microscope and provides the reader with intimate information about how Franklin lived during is life, the philosophies and principles that guided him, and his innate curiosity that drove him to experimentation. While he was always looking for a useful purpose for his discoveries he recognized he might not be the one to realize all the possibilities his research might one day prove. This was the case with his research of the Gulf Stream, which he conducted on his many trips overseas. Many of his graphs and charts are similar to those used today.
Isaacson's book shows a great deal of history including the American education movement and the part Benjamin Franklin played in bringing education to the forefront during this era when, in general, basic survival was a major undertaking in life. Not only did Benjamin Franklin lay the framework for the first university in Philadelphia, which later became the University of Pennsylvania (Isaacson p. 438). Franklin was forward thinking in his belief of education and attempted to provide his grandchildren with as much formal education and life-experience as he possibly could. Shortly after the Constitutional Convention he stepped outside the box and rallied on the side of freeing slaves and further vocalized his ideas of providing the black people with education as well. Franklin worked to establish libraries both for his private groups and later for the public. He also left a provision in his will for funds in Philadelphia and Boston which were to be utilized over a 200 year period for making loans to budding entrepreneurs; one of the earliest examples of small business loans. The history also shows the part that Franklin played in developing satire as a way of influencing public opinion and his part in establishing printing wars. All of which led to the education of the public on matters of public concern.
This work creates a warm feeling for Benjamin Franklin and the contributions he made. It expounds on his many successes and virtues and also shows with brutal honesty his shortcomings and pitfalls. In general, Benjamin Franklin was well loved not only by Americans but also by nearly everyone who met him. He was so well liked that Americans named a state after him. The State of Franklin was later changed to Tennessee. At his funeral there were nearly 20,000 mourners and clergymen from every faith marched in the front of the procession (Isaacson p. 470).
Franklin's work as a diplomat was vividly shown during his final speech at the Constitutional Convention. Historian, Clinton Rossiter said of the speech, "the most remarkable performance of a remarkable life" (Isaacson p. 459). Clearly he was a remarkable man in so many ways. His life's work benefits us still today in ways we often fail to realize.
I would recommend anyone read this book that is interested in learning more about Benjamin Franklin as a man, the American Revolution and the men who played key roles in establishing our government and bringing about peace. I was truly amazed as I read this book by all the maxims and ideas that we still use today that came from Benjamin Franklin or, at the very least, were popularized by him over 200 years ago. Perhaps one of the most unique and memorable things that can be attributed to Franklin is the nation's great seal, suggested by Franklin in 1776, E Pluribus Unum, out of many one (Isaacson p. 457).Isaacson, W. (2003). Benjamin Franklin An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.
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Summary: Transcendent life lessons of lasting resonance
Review: To many, Benjamin Franklin represents to them a man who is venerable, yet aloof; hearty, yet frugal; inventive, yet practical; compromising, yet rigid; bourgeois, yet elitist; industrious, yet leisurely; moralistic, yet far from Puritan; & affectionate, yet inscrutably emotionally detached from his own family. And to many more, he simply is the prosaic caricature of an unassuming old man in round spectacles flying a kite in the rain and magically summoning lightning from the sky. While the persona of Benjamin Franklin has been made to be many things by many people in the many years since his death in 1790 at the age of 84, it is neither, however, fair, nor accurate, to pigeonhole him into any one confining mold or category. That would be committing a most grievous affront to Franklin, as well as to the annals of history. Moreover, it would make you out to be an inanely foolish knave. What Walter Isaacson has accomplished is no small minor miracle. He has written a biography that allows you, the mere reader, to not only understand, but to live, Franklin's life as it plays out in the text, interestingly whose type font itself was championed by Franklin and used for the first printing of The Declaration of Independence. Indubitably, Franklin's popularity has risen and waned just as the prevailing moods of divergent epochs have arbitrarily shifted. While haughty Romanticists such as D.H. Lawrence overtly deplored Franklin, the middle class of America has revered his example and looked to him for his timeless sage advice during times of duress and volatility, such as The Gilded Age and The Great Depression. Isaacson candidly reveals all aspects of Franklin's extraordinary life from his momentous swaying of the French to join the struggling colonies in The Revloutionary War to such seemingly mundane, yet stangely provocative occurrences such as him getting caught kissing the daughter of his English landlord, who just happened to be 33 years his junior. Franklin, as many historians contend, was truly the first ever self-made man of The New World. Franklin created, and truly came to symbolize, the first ever group of "middling" class that would lay the foundation of our great country, a country that Franklin vowed to give everyone an opportunity, irrespective of heritage and birth, as well as explicitly devoid of elitist pretensions. This fledgling group of "leather-aprons" should adhere, said Franklin, to such virtues as religious tolerance, humility, respect of others, faith in the virtues of hard work and frugality, benevolent belief in voluntary efforts to help others, & resentment to unnecessary luxury, hereditary privileges. Seeing as my meager review will hardly do this infinitely intriguing and masterfully written book justice, you absolutely must read this incredible journey through the prodigiously captivating life of the man who, given the incomprehensible breadth of his achievements, I consider to be the most underrated figure in American history. "Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices."
- Poor Richard(aka Benjamin Franklin)
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Summary: Whattaguy!
Review: This biography maintains a beautiful balance between the political, scientific, philosophical and personal Benjamin Franklin. And what a task! He was the only man to actively contribute to and to sign all four great documents that were instrumental in forming the United States of America; the Dclaration of Independence, the alliance with France, the treaty with England and finally the Constitution.
He never stopped looking at natural events and making lists, keeping statistics, finding ways to make practical the scientific theories he discovered; electricity with the famous key and lightening experiment, the effects of color and heat, leading to the dark clothes in winter, light clothes in summer syndrome, depth of water and degree of warmth, the famous stove, the bifocals. The list goes on.
His philosophical writings were also practical. He tried to have his life mirror his moral code; be frugal, speak the truth, be industrious and speak ill of no man, and his success in his personal and political actions can be attributed much to his following these precepts.
Walter Isaacson's research is wide and deep (Franklin would have been proud)and because it deftly goes from the political to the personal to the scientific, it is never boring and indeed, quite revealing of a national figure you probably thought you had heard everything. You will be surprised and end up loving this patriarch of democracy as much as the author seems to.
A summa cum laude award for this excellent biography!
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Summary: Things we never knew
Review: This was a great book if you love history, especially American history. There are a lot of things about Benjamin Franklin that are in this book that you do not learn in history class. Walter Isaacson did a great job in writing this book. I am sure to treasure it and have my children read it when they are old enought to understand American history.
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Summary: FOUNDING GRANDFATHER
Review: It's very easy to forget that Benjamin Franklin was among the generation of leaders known as the Founding Fathers. I am sure that he would want it that way. More than a politician, Franklin's interests ranged just about as far as his imagination would allow ranging from science to inventions to diplomacy to agriculture to publishing. Nothing seemed to escape his eye or his intellect. In Benjamin Franklin: An American Live author Walter Isaacson offers the sort of multifaceted look at Franklin that is most fitting. Isaacson describes a life that aptly takes it place among our nation's greatest individuals. If George Washington is, appropriately, our preeminent Founding Father then perhaps Franklin rightly assumes the role of Founding Grandfather who, as most grandfathers do, "winks at us" and invites us to not take ourselves too seriously, to not be afraid to ask appropriate questions and to believe in ourselves both as individuals and collectively as Americans. Most importantly, with nothing else to prove to himself, Franklin's role as described by Isaacson seems to be that of a benevolent overseer, watching the activities of a group of ambitious children and stepping in only when they needed more experienced guidance. Isaacson's book is a must read describing Franklin's humble beginnings to his loftiest achievements. Whether it's flying a kite in a thunderstorm, inventing bifocals and stoves, or mentoring men who would become the first governmental leaders of America, Isaacson's Franklin provides a new perspective of an American icon. Douglas McAllister
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Summary: Amazon.com is right - use your grocery money to buy this!
Review: The official Amazon.com review is right - this is indeed a book on which to spend your grocery money, and also an ideal book to give parents, grandparents, history major grandchildren, friends at work and whoever else for Christmas. How encouraging that a book as good as this is on the Amazon top 100 bestseller list. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)
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Summary: A fabulous reading of a fabulous book
Review: I disagree with the reviewer who thought the CD version is "boring." I found it to be very engaging. Additionally, it's an appropriate abridgement--it's not so short you lose the flavor of the book and the fun details. As for the book itself, it was interesting enough to hold my attention, and I generally hate biographies.
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Summary: decent
Review: I dont recommend the Cd verison, its a little boring. Franklin was an extraordinary individual who predicted americas expansian, negotiated our peace and set the basis for our way of life. At the same time he was a scientist and a brilliant businessman. AN important book about a man who was quintisentially American. Pulling himself up by his bootstraps.
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Summary: Succeeds on so many different levels
Review: An incredibly impressive work by someone who can be described as an armchair historian, taking into account his day job. Isaacson has clearly done exhaustive research on Franklin's life and, fortunately for the reader, does not get lost in the minutiae. Isaacson gives a wonderful sense of just who Franklin was and what he was like. The reader is actually able to get to know this subject. Some of his qualities are very likeable and admirable, others, such as his relationship with his family and relatives (with the exception of his sister), are not so admirable. But Isaacson successfully avoids getting too close to his subject, and presents Ben with his "warts and all."
Isaacson also gives a very good sense of the times in which Franklin lived, a quality which is necessary for any good biography. While understanding a subject's actions is important, it is perhaps even more important to understand the reasons behind those actions. Isaacson wonderfully paints a picture for the reader of 18th century America.
And then, finally, Isaacson, in his last chapter, explains how Franklin has been perceived throughout our nation's history, and why his reputation rises and falls. It is a fascinating look at how important these Founding Fathers have become to us, in terms of using them as measuring sticks. They have become our Rohrschach test, our archetypes.
All in all, a splendid read.
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