Benjamin Franklin

"Benjamin Franklin", writes journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson in An American Life, "was that rare Founding Father who would sooner wink at a passer-by than sit still for a formal portrait". "What's more", Isaacson relates in this fluent and entertaining biography, "the revolutionary leader represents a political tradition that has been all but forgotten today, one that prizes pragmatism over moralism, religious tolerance over fundamentalist rigidity, and social mobility over class privilege". That broadly democratic sensibility allowed Franklin his contradictions, as Isaacson shows. Though a man of lofty principles, Franklin wasn't shy of using sex to sell the newspapers he edited and published; though far from frivolous, he liked his toys and his mortal pleasures; and though he sometimes gave off a simpleton image, he was a shrewd and even crafty politician. Isaacson doesn't shy from enumerating Franklin's occasional peccadilloes and shortcomings, in keeping with the iconoclastic nature of our time--none of which, however, stops him from considering Benjamin Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age", and one of the most admirable of any era. And here's one bit of proof: as a young man Ben Franklin regularly went without food in order to buy books. His example, as always, is a good one--and this is just the book to buy with the proceeds from the grocery budget. --Gregory McNamee, Amazon.com

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A Thorough Biography - Rated
This a strange book. I've read biographies of the key protagonists of the American War of Independence (i.e Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton and, now, Franklin). None really entered my heart, though Adams is the one I have most affection for. I think I'm not too fond of them because they spent a while kick British butt for a few years.

This book is a thorough biography of Ben Franklin. It starts with his early life, covers his escapades in printing, his literary and scientific pretensions (though I'm more inclined to argue he was an inventor rather than a scientist) and his slow conversion to American statehood and his post war ambassadorship roles.

In each period in his life,Franklin is presented as a dedidated, hard working humourous man, who was commited to what he believed in. So why am I so ho hum about the gut now? Well it's the way that he treats his family I have concerns about. He never formally "made an honest women" out of his wife by marrying her. He had illegitimate childen (who he really screwed after the War of Independence), and flirted heavily with anything in a skirt.

Given how I view family, I'm sorry to say that he was lessened in my eyes by this book. I wanted a little bit of hero worship. When I didn't get it, I found myself getting more and more disconcerted by the book. If you can overlook how he treated his family, you'll enjoy this book. If you can't get round his attitudes to family, don't read this book because his family issues will only get in the way.