Plot Summary
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, written by Walter Isaacson, gives us the portrait of a great American figure, known for climbing from obscurity up the social ladder, to eventually dine with politicians and principalities.
Through the full scope of Franklin’s journey as a printer, a scientist, and statesmen, we see the charming Benjamin Franklin whose greatest legacy could be his ability to reinvent himself. The knack for public relations, for creating and maintaining and polishing a persona to be remembered for all posterity–this skill could be his most relevant to contemporary culture.
Indeed, Franklin’s mark of the sly wit, his love of democracy, and his pragmatic sometimes puritanical ideals of productivity have all shaped the American archetypal image of itself. Some of the colorful details which Isaacson also brings to life are Franklin’s turbulent relationship with his illegitimate stepson, his marriage (a practical one), and his dalliance with the females of Paris. Most vividly, however, Isaacson shows us how this commoner turned Founding Father shaped and still resonates with American cultural values today.
Walter Isaacson is a writer and biographer born in 1952 in New Orleans, Louisiana. First a journalist, later a political correspondent, managing editor of Time and eventual a chairman and CEO of CNN, he is currently president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies organization. He is chairman emeritus for Teach for America, and was selected as Time’s 100 most influential people of the world for 2012. He has also contributed biographies on Steve Jobs, Einstein, and Henry Kissinger.
“Surprised by how much I enjoyed and how engaged I became with this book. It had everything. Wonderful job by Walter Isaacson. This is a great vehicle for learning, not only about Benjamin Franklin, but about the times in which he lived. Totally recommend it.
”—
Donna (4 out of 5 stars)
Publisher Summary
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us — an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings.
In bestselling author Walter Isaacson’s vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turns to us from history’s stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. In Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson shows how Franklin defines both his own time and ours.
The most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself. America’s first great publicist, he was consciously trying to create a new American archetype. In the process, he carefully crafted his own persona, portrayed it in public, and polished it for posterity. His guiding principle was a “dislike of 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 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.
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