The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin

Rating:
Summary: The True Benjamin Franklin
Review: A wonderful insight into the life of a man that we thought that we knew. It's amazing how wrong certain depictions have been about his life in the past. Gordon Wood does a wonderful job bringing Franklin to life for us today.

The founding fathers were real people put into an extraordinary time. It's good to read about them on our own level and not just put them on a pedestal.

I was most interested in the relation between Benjamin and his son William who had been brought to the War Office in Connecticut as a prisoner.

Stephen Shaw
Connecticut, Sons of the American Revolution

Rating:
Summary: Won't the Real Ben Franklin Please Stand Up?
Review: As one who has always been passionate about early American history, I must confess that untill reading Dr. Wood's fine character study, I have not read any books devoted to Benjamin Franklin. Like many others, then, I came to this book imbued by the vision of Franklin that sees him first and foremost as the self-made business person that authored "Poor Richard's Almanac," and the "Autobiography." My vision of Franklin was of the champion of pulling onesself up by one's bootstraps, temperance, and frugality.

Dr. Wood's intention with this book is not so much to dispel this vision - Franklin was indeed those things - as to augment it by filling in those lesser known bits of Franklin's life. While he was the self-made business man and champion of industry, he was also a man who, from there, forayed into the life of a gentleman of leisure and loved every minute of it. While he was a passionate American revolutionary, he was, before all that, a man who passionately believed in the British Empire and worked tirelessly to reconcile American and British inerests. While he was a man who was eventually loved by posterity as a true and exemplary American, he was, during his lifetime, just as often mistrusted and even scorned by fellow Americans.

Dr. Wood, then, has written not so much a biography as a character study that works to explain (a) how Benjamin Franklin morphed into all of these multifarious roles, (b) how, remarkably, he was successful at all of them (well, all but one; you'll see!), and (c) how it wasn't untill after his death that Franklin's early life as a business-person was focused on almost to exclusion of all else, in essence, transforming his image to that of the quintessential American.

Dr. Wood, in all of this, has created a thrilling and very educational book that 'gets into Franklin's head' as well as I imagine any book could. Throught it all, Dr. Wood remains somewhat neutral and defferential as to the character of Franklin, neither denouncing or overly praising him. Rather, he gives us the facts, tells the story, uses enough enthusiasm and warmth to convey the excitement that was Franklin's life, but never resorts to too much by way of polemic. Those expecting either a laudatory cheerleading or a denunciatory expose of Franklin will not find what they are looking for here. Those who simply want a good, robust and erudite, character studty will.



Rating:
Summary: A Pleasant Reading
Review: Being a fairly recent Eastern European immigrant I found the book very inspirational. Gordon Wood tells the story of an extraordinary self-made man in rapidly changing times. If I can relate to Benjamin Franklin, everyone else in this country can.

It is also very informative and a nice take on the times when America was founded as a nation. However, I will give it four starts, as I was a little disappointed with how little weight it was given to the Revolution snowballing events.

Rating:
Summary: A Scholarly Biography that Gets Behind the Franklin Myths
Review: Benjamin Franklin is often considered the quintessential American. A recent best-selling biography of Franklin is entitled "The First American," and many other biographers have also played up the Americanness of his life. His story is a familiar one to most Americans. Franklin overcame his lowly beginnings through a combination of street smarts and hard work. He was intelligent without being theoretical. He was a social joiner but also wary of traditional class distinctions. Because of this, he seemed to typify what many modern Americans feel is most distinctive about their nation.

Historian Gordon S. Wood splashes cold water on these common assumptions of Franklin's life. Wood shows that in many ways Franklin was not typical of his fellow Americans at all. Once he made himself a success, for example, he stopped working and began to imitate a gentleman. After Franklin moved to Europe and got a taste of the civilized life, it was difficult for him to break away from it and return to America. He often misjudged the opinion of his fellow Americans, sometimes leading too far in front of them and sometimes following too far behind. As a result, he was far more popular in Europe than he was in his home land. After his death, the public grieving in the U.S. was mild compared to that of other revolutionary leaders.

Wood's book is largely a conventional biography that is distinctive from other Franklin biographies only in its interpretation. Wood sees the Sage of Philadelphia as a proto-American, someone who became American only in retrospect as more and more nineteenth-century Americans began to lead lives similar to Franklin's. Like him, they worked in the trades and strove for social respectability and financial success while also maintaining a working class identity. As these self-made men began to predominate, Franklin's life became a model for them, and the popularity among Americans that he never saw in his lifetime became his.

Rating:
Summary: A Scholarly Biography that Gets Behind the Franklin Myths
Review: Benjamin Franklin is often considered the quintessential American. A recent best-selling biography of Franklin is entitled "The First American," and many other biographers have also played up the Americanness of his life. His story is a familiar one to most Americans. Franklin overcame his lowly beginnings through a combination of street smarts and hard work. He was intelligent without being theoretical. He was a social joiner but also wary of traditional class distinctions. Because of this, he seemed to typify what many modern Americans feel is most distinctive about their nation.

Historian Gordon S. Wood splashes cold water on these common assumptions of Franklin's life. Wood shows that in many ways Franklin was not typical of his fellow Americans at all. Once he made himself a success, for example, he stopped working and began to imitate a gentleman. After Franklin moved to Europe and got a taste of the civilized life, it was difficult for him to break away from it and return to America. He often misjudged the opinion of his fellow Americans, sometimes leading too far in front of them and sometimes following too far behind. As a result, he was far more popular in Europe than he was in his home land. After his death, the public grieving in the U.S. was mild compared to that of other revolutionary leaders.

Wood's book is largely a conventional biography that is distinctive from other Franklin biographies only in its interpretation. Wood sees the Sage of Philadelphia as a proto-American, someone who became American only in retrospect as more and more nineteenth-century Americans began to lead lives similar to Franklin's. Like him, they worked in the trades and strove for social respectability and financial success while also maintaining a working class identity. As these self-made men began to predominate, Franklin's life became a model for them, and the popularity among Americans that he never saw in his lifetime became his.

Rating:
Summary: Focused Biography of Founding Father
Review: Gordon S. Wood has done another great job in his newest work of history, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. This is not in any way a definitive biography but instead is a more focused work, essentially examining Franklin's move from a lover of the British Empire into an American patriot and then, finally, into an American icon, possibly one of American's most resonant. Franklin is always a fascinating tale, as his own Autobiography has shown for centuries, and Wood captures the tale of artisan of lowly origins turned into a diplomat at foreign courts with great skill. The author's look at how Franklin became an icon after his death is very interesting. For those who missed reading the massive biography of Franklin two summers ago, this one is not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: The definitive Franklin
Review: Gordon S. Wood is such a fabulous writer and such a skilled historian that it's impossible to not be impressed by his work. He writes history that reads so smoothly and argues so gracefully that it's impossible to not be convinced. Wood has a comfort zone that he likes to operate in, and all of his books are resident in this zone. It has two components. First, he constructs all his arguments in a "before" and "after" style in order to frame the central points of his thesis. He says, once upon a time things were like this. Then a critical event happened that changed everything. That event, for Wood, is always the Peace of Paris in 1783. But it's not the military or political or economic consequences of the Revolution that Wood insists changed everything. It's the change in social structure and, more to the point, the blurring of social class lines due to social mobility (both physical and economic) that moved America and its people from feudalism to democracy. THE RADICALISM OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION went something like this, and the current biography of Franklin puts him in this context. It's a view of Franklin in terms of social class. Now, I'm sure Dr. Wood would argue with me, saying that I reduce his theses down into far too simple terms. Granted, I'm not criticizing him. This work, as his others, is a penetrating study and should attract much scholarly and critical acclaim.

Rating:
Summary: The definitive Franklin
Review: Gordon S. Wood is such a fabulous writer and such a skilled historian that it's impossible to not be impressed by his work. He writes history that reads so smoothly and argues so gracefully that it's impossible to not be convinced. Wood has a comfort zone that he likes to operate in, and all of his books are resident in this zone. It has two components. First, he constructs all his arguments in a "before" and "after" style in order to frame the central points of his thesis. He says, once upon a time things were like this. Then a critical event happened that changed everything. That event, for Wood, is always the Peace of Paris in 1783. But it's not the military or political or economic consequences of the Revolution that Wood insists changed everything. It's the change in social structure and, more to the point, the blurring of social class lines due to social mobility (both physical and economic) that moved America and its people from feudalism to democracy. THE RADICALISM OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION went something like this, and the current biography of Franklin puts him in this context. It's a view of Franklin in terms of social class. Now, I'm sure Dr. Wood would argue with me, saying that I reduce his theses down into far too simple terms. Granted, I'm not criticizing him. This work, as his others, is a penetrating study and should attract much scholarly and critical acclaim.

Rating:
Summary: A Distinguished Examination of Franklin's Life and Careers
Review: Gordon S. Wood, the Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History, Brown University, is the preeminent American historian of the American Revolution and of the United States through the end of the early Federalist period (End of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries). For decades he has argued persuasively that the American Revolution was truly a revolutionary event in all aspects ranging from politics to the social structure of American society. Here, in his latest book, "The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin", he adds more persuasive evidence towards the central thesis - the revolutionary nature of the American Revolution - behind his distinguished historical scholarship.

Professor Wood's book is not a biography in the classical sense of the term. Instead, it is a critical examination of the popular myth - first embraced by artisans and other middle class Americans in the early 19th Century - of Benjamin Franklin as the successful, self-made man who never foresook his lowly origins in the working class. In five long chapters, Wood analyzes the relevance of that myth to Benjamin Franklin's life and careers, most notably in public service. In the first chapter, "Becoming a Gentleman", Wood describes how Franklin transformed himself from an intelligent, if luckless apprentice printer into the most important politician in Pennsylvania, if not the colonies, relying on the influential, timely aid of more affluent - and well connected - friends and acquaintances. "Becoming a British Imperialist" chronicles Franklin's ascendancy as the foremost American supporter of the British Empire, while receiving ample - and well deserved acclaim - throughout Europe as a leading intellectual of the Enlightenment for his important, almost pioneering, research on electricity. "Becoming a Patriot" demonstrates Franklin's relatively last minute conversion to the Patriot cause, and his fanatical devotion to the notion of American independence, which he foresaw months before fellow members of the Continental Congress such as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. "Becoming a Diplomat" describes Franklin's importance to the United States as its senior diplomat representing it to the French monarchy, preserving and sustaining the alliance which would lead to American victory over the British (Indeed, Wood considers Franklin to be America's most important diplomat.). "Becoming an American" is a concise examination of the rise of the myth of Franklin as a self made American hero rising from poverty (At his death, Franklin was virtually ignored by fellow Americans; news of his death was deemed much more important in Europe, especially in France.). This was a myth based on his autobiography, in which Franklin portrayed himself as the quintessential self-made successful American.

Professor Wood has made a brilliant, persuasive case in this book that Franklin was the least American of all the Founding Fathers (Despite this, Wood regards him as second in importance only to Washington.). And yet, to Franklin's credit, he was an extremely astute observer of his fame and popularity in Europe, using both well in winning aid from France when French assistance was so desperately needed. Professor Wood is such a brilliant, skillful writer, that I will be disappointed if he doesn't earn another Pulitzer Prize for this splendid book (I am proud to say that he is one of two Pulitizer Prize-winning authors whom I count as among the finest teachers I have ever had.). Without question, this book will be highly regarded by historians for its important critical examination of Franklin and the man behind the myth; it could be the definitive examination of Franklin's life.

Rating:
Summary: An insightful and provocative fresh study of Franklin
Review: Gordon Wood is known to students of the American Revolution as one of the foremost authorities on the subject. Therefore, a new study of Benjamin Franklin by a scholar of his stature is certain to provoke considerable interest. As Prof. Wood rightfully points out, 2006 will see the tercentenary of Franklin's birth, so this will undoubtedly be one in a stream of books on him. It is hard to imagine that we will find many graced with more insight. I heartily recommend this as one of the finest of the recent spate of books on Franklin, though it is important to emphasize that it is not a complete biography; it is, rather, a targeted biography covering only one aspect of Franklin's life. For a complete biography, I still recommend Carl Van Doren's older biography, or either of two superb recent biographies by H. W. Brands and Edmund Morgan. I am less enthusiastic about Walter Isaacson's biography, which tends to view Franklin far too often in contemporaries terms.

Wood focuses on a specific question, which nonetheless takes one into the heart of both Franklin's life and his historical legacy: given that for most of his life Franklin was an ardent British subject and give that he was not as highly regarded by his contemporary Americans as he was bu subsequent generations, how did Franklin make the transition to avid patriot and revolutionary and how did American come to embrace him with Washington as the most important of the Founding Fathers? That Franklin was a devoted Englishman Wood confirms as being as beyond doubt, as he in exquisite detail recreates the social world in which Franklin lived and moved, and the social roles to which he aspired. Better than any other book on Franklin that I have read, Wood does a masterful job at situating Franklin in his social context. This is important, because all too often American's today tend to impose upon Franklin values and priorities that he did not himself hold. For instance, many treat Franklin as a super entrepreneur, which he himself looked askance at the passionate accumulation of great wealth and certainly did not look upon the gathering of wealth to be life's major goal. As Wood correctly tells it, Franklin is not the avid capitalist that many today would view him as. Wood is also superb at limning the many ways in which Franklin held onto a view of America nestled in the British Empire, even when many in America had come to believe that a split between the two had become inevitable.

Franklin did not so much become a patriot by his own volition as he was pushed into the position by humiliations heaped upon him by the British government. But once Franklin converted to the patriot cause, he was surpassed by none in his dedication. Nonetheless, many Americans persisted in distrusting him and numerous enemies held that he favored the interests of foreign governments, especially France. Wood does a masterful job of portraying the lack of appreciation that his contemporaries had for his work as ambassador to France and as architect of the peace with England.

The story of the second aspect of Franklin's Americanization--i.e., the gradual realization of Franklin's central importance in the creation of the nation--is told less linearly and perhaps not quite as clearly, but it nonetheless is the second important theme of Wood's book. Most Americans today would be stunned to learn that it took a few decades for Franklin's achievements to be compared favorably with those of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and John Adams. Here Wood makes us aware of lacuna in the national memory that few scholars take the time to point out.

Although not written as a full length biography, one need not have read a previous biography of Franklin to grasp all the central points of this one. But I think the volume will prove even more valuable to those who are otherwise familiar with the life of Franklin, for Wood brings out a number of central themes in Franklin's life that other biographers either do not stress or do not call attention to. This easily stands as one of the finest studies on Franklin that I have read, and adds another superb title to Prof. Wood's impressive bibliography.