This took a while.

Not that the two have a whole lot in common, but the sheer size of it reminded me of War and Peace. It felt like it was too long until after I finished it. Only then could I appreciate that the length itself was a necessary medium for expressing the shocking length of Franklin's life.

Though 85 is not altogether abnormally old, Franklin's life was subjectively twice that, so full and productive as it was.

The final chapter was especially important in conveying the overall takeaways of Franklin's life. I actually wish I'd read the last chapter first, then read the book, and then read the last chapter again. In it, Isaacson presents a number of viewpoints on Franklin and the interpretation of his life, embedded in a commentary on Franklin's role in the history and identity of the US. Something that I, as a Canadian, found incredible and fascinating.

That being said, I still found much of this book to be quite dry.

Isaacson dropped nuggets of amusement throughout, such as the antics of Captain Luke Ryan, pillaging and apologizing and so on. These were charming and humanizing. But they could've been woven into the narrative with more finesse.

Isaacson also devoted much of the book to recounting, in great detail, Franklin's MANY flirt-tationships. I'm not sure if this was one of my favourite things about the book or one of the most frustrating things about the book. I wanted to know more about his scientific endeavours, and yet, I now know too much about how he played chess in the bathroom of Madame Brillon while she languished in the tub.

This book had its strengths and weaknesses, but overall, it provided a comprehensive look at the life of Benjamin Franklin.

This is a thoroughly entertaining, well-researched, and well-written biography of Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson.

It is a lengthy work, exceeding 600 pages, and one feels compelled to read the footnotes as they enhance the content.

The first third of the book progresses rapidly, covering Franklin's childhood, his move to Philadelphia, his start as a printer, and the creation of Poor Richard's Almanac.

The middle third, however, slows down with his life in England and France and the beginning of the Revolution.

The final third then picks up again, with his return to France and his role in negotiating the peace.

While reading this, I realized that I had many preconceptions about Franklin based on rumors.

Yes, he was a flirt and had a penchant for women, but he had only one illegitimate child, William Franklin, who became the Governor of New Jersey.

Franklin's wife, Deborah, with whom he had two children, Sally and a son who died in childhood, was in a common-law marriage as she had been abandoned by her husband who vanished in the Caribbean.

Divorce was illegal, and without a death certificate, she could not remarry.

It seems that he loved her, but she refused to travel with him and never left Philadelphia.

So, he went alone and often stayed away for years. Sadly, despite her longing for his return, he was in Europe for the last 15 years of her life.

On a political level, much of what our country is today can be attributed to Franklin's vision and support of a middle class.

Jefferson, who founded the University of Virginia, believed that the role of education was to train the future leaders of the world by handpicking the best and brightest and providing them with the best education.

Franklin, on the other hand, completely disagreed, believing that educational opportunities should be available to all.

He based the founding of the University of Pennsylvania on these principles. Meritocracy, hard work, and frugality were beliefs he advocated throughout his life.

Isaacson has a great writing style. He is less dry than David McCullough and Joseph Ellis, but not quite as fluid as Doris Kearns Goodwin.

It's not a quick read, but it is truly enjoyable.

This is a big, highly readable biography that is filled with history and humor. It delves into the many aspects of Franklin's life, including his roles as a printer, writer, inventor, scientist, civil servant, community organizer, traveler, family man, ladies man, mentor, pragmatic theologian, philosopher, celebrity, diplomat, and maker of democratic constitutions. Mr. Isaacson has truly given us a masterful work. He has managed to bring Franklin to life on the page, presenting a vivid and detailed portrait of this remarkable man. The book is not only informative but also entertaining, making it a pleasure to read. Whether you are interested in history, science, or just a good story, this biography is sure to satisfy. It offers a unique perspective on one of the most important figures in American history and is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the man behind the legend.

My sincere apologies go out to the unknown library patron whom I compelled to return this book just before the libraries closed down indefinitely so that I could check it out. Had I known, you could have kept it.

To begin with, this book is rather long and astonishingly dull for a popular biography. Secondly, as of page 92, where I ultimately decided to give up, there was remarkably scant historical detail. It focuses so intently on the biographical aspects that it almost seems divorced from history, which is quite unusual for a biography of someone who lived over 200 years ago. Thirdly, it is filled to the brim with repetitive adoration of Franklin. Barely a page goes by without us being informed that he was pragmatic and that whatever he was doing at the moment exemplified his pragmatic nature. Or earnest, canny, frugal, and so on. This is particularly jarring considering that much of the behavior described isn't actually admirable. For instance, driving another newspaper editor out of business to clear the way for his own paper, writing anonymous letters to his own paper criticizing his competitors and praising himself, including for his restraint in not criticizing his competitors, allowing his wife to be openly nasty to his son, her stepson, and publishing a piece a few weeks after his marriage about how wives need to serve their husbands in everything and "deny yourself the trivial satisfaction of your own will," among many other similarly unfortunate exhortations. Isaacson treats all this material uncritically, and I have little use for biographies that can't take an honest and balanced look at their subject, no matter how widely loved that person may be. But Isaacson appears to be too enamored of Franklin's self-improvement plans, all of which are discussed in great detail, to do so.

At any rate, there are numerous Franklin biographies available, and I can't say I have much use for this one. If only the library would take it back!

Trying to summarize a life as remarkable as Benjamin Franklin’s within a single volume is an extremely challenging task. Franklin had a plethora of pursuits and accomplishments, each of which could easily fill entire volumes on its own. His scientific work was on par with that of any of his contemporaries. In fact, although he is better known today for his role as a statesman during the American Founding, his scientific achievements alone would be enough to immortalize his name as one of the greatest minds in Western civilization. Similarly, he earned his enduring reputation in multiple fields, such as printing, inventing, philosophy, and diplomacy.

Presented mostly in chronological order, with some exceptions for presenting like ideas together, this book is a triumph in rendering Franklin’s story in a seemingly complete and yet approachable way. Isaacson’s approach seems fitting for the subject. As he pointed out in the first chapter, “Benjmain Franklin is the founding father who winks at us.” He is arguably one of the most accomplished polymaths in human history, yet still comes across as the kind of person one could have a conversation with. The book details his accomplishments with appropriate seriousness but also with enough humor that one can imagine Franklin himself approving of it.

The author treats his subject with due respect but not excessive deference. He describes Franklin’s complicated relationships with his relatives and is not afraid to criticize the relative simplicity of his views, especially earlier in his life, on religion and philosophy. However, if I were to offer a minor criticism, I would suggest that Isaacson could have taken more time to fully trace the evolution of Franklin’s theology over the years. Nevertheless, the reader gets a good understanding of Franklin’s thinking from this book and can easily refer to his own papers for more details.

At the end of the day, Isaacson’s work in this biography is excellent and worthy of his reputation as one of the leading biographers of our time. But the subject is so fascinating that it’s hard to say which of them deserves more credit for the book’s simultaneously enlightening and entertaining nature.

This book has been sitting on my shelf for numerous years, and I have made at least three attempts to read it. This summer, having delved into a plethora of biographies, I decided to give it one more go. I persevered and managed to finish it. I have a liking for Walter Isaacson, and Franklin is undoubtedly an interesting character. However, for some reason, this book and his life either seem overwhelmingly complex or rather dull. There was no grand romance. His marriage to Deborah was more of a practical arrangement. He flirted quite a bit with younger women, especially in his later years, but it wasn't something that could truly capture one's imagination.

He was a good person and made significant contributions to science, which would have made him famous regardless. But he was also actively involved in the formation of the United States and had a profound impact on what became American culture. He was always the elder statesman lurking on the sidelines among the Founding Fathers. In fact, I don't even think he made an appearance in the musical Hamilton. Nevertheless, he contributed so much to all of that, and yet I have never seen a hip hop musical dedicated to him.

Is learning about his life important? The answer is yes. I did gain a clearer understanding of all that he contributed. He began his career as an apprentice in a print shop and managed to make a living as a printer. He claimed to be a "leather apron," which I assume, in Colonial Times, was equivalent to a blue-collar worker. He remained true to the tradesmen and the regular middle-class folk. In France, he didn't even don a powdered wig like everyone else to be fashionable. But he did have dinners with the King and was respected by both royalty and scientists.

There are several things I didn't realize about him. For instance, since the 1750s, he had been instrumental in shaping every major document that led to the creation of the new republic. He was the only person to sign all four of its founding papers: the Declaration of Independence, the treaty with France, the peace accord with Britain, and the Constitution. He also devised legislatures and lightning rods, lotteries and lending libraries. He sought practical ways to make stoves less smoky and commonwealths less corrupt. He organized neighborhood constabularies and international alliances. He combined two types of lenses to create bifocals and two concepts of representation to foster the nation's federal compromise. He snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants.

Indeed, the roots of much of what distinguishes this nation can be found in Franklin. His cracker-barrel humor and wisdom, his technological ingenuity, his pluralistic tolerance, his ability to weave together individualism and community cooperation, his philosophical pragmatism, his celebration of meritocratic mobility, the idealistic streak ingrained in its foreign policy, and the Main Street (or Market Street) virtues that serve as the foundation for its civic values. He was egalitarian in the American sense: he approved of individuals making their wealth through diligence and talent but opposed giving special privilege to people based on their birth.

His support for religion was mainly based on his belief that it was useful and practical in making people behave better, rather than because it was divinely inspired. He supported all churches and beliefs but didn't belong to any. Recently, upon reading that Harvard has an atheist chaplain, I thought of Franklin. The atheist chaplain Epstein has a book titled GOOD WITHOUT GOD, which was Franklin's idea. And yet, he worried that without religion, people would have no morals.

He embodied a spirit of Enlightenment tolerance and pragmatic compromise. A stand for compromise may not be the stuff of heroism, virtue, or moral certainty, but it is the essence of the democratic process. Though averse to rabble rule, he favored direct elections, trusted the average citizen, and resisted anything resembling elitism. We were truly fortunate to have the old man around when the country was being formed.

I had a significant problem when it came to paying attention to history during my high school years, and this issue persisted even in college. Although I managed to do passably well in my history courses, I unfortunately forgot a whopping 90% of what I had learned. I was far more focused on subjects like biology and astronomy, firmly believing that history was an incredibly boring topic. As a consequence, whenever history would come up in conversations, I would feel completely out of the loop, and it was a rather embarrassing situation.

I've been making efforts to rectify this shortcoming by delving into biographies. I initially thought it would be an excruciatingly difficult task, similar to pulling teeth, but to my great surprise, it has been delightfully entertaining. I never expected this to be the case.

This particular book was written in such a way that it seemed as though the author had an actual personal acquaintance with Ben Franklin. There is an extensive bibliography at the back of the book, which is approximately 60 pages long, indicating that it has been extraordinarily well researched.

The author wrote in a tone as if he were Franklin's best friend, sharing not just a list of accomplishments and dates but also fascinating stories and tidbits from his life. In fact, it almost sounded like a narrative, which I absolutely loved. This aspect actually made the biography so engaging that it was hard to put down, something I didn't even know was possible.

Right from the very first page, I started learning new things. And this man, Ben Franklin, led one of the most interesting lives I've ever heard of. If he were a fictional character, people would likely say that his character was written in an over-the-top and unbelievable manner.

What I could remember about him from my high school days was that he was an eccentric inventor who was also involved in politics. However, I didn't realize the extent to which he single-handedly developed the city of Philadelphia. When he arrived there, the city had only around 2,000 people living in it and did not have paved roads. He was responsible for developing the school system and the tax system to fund it. He also played a crucial role in establishing the first school for black children. He practically invented the police department, transforming it from a gang of paid thugs into a tax-paid civil service. He did the same for the fire department, postal service, and militia. He went from being a Loyalist to King George to an outspoken Rebel who significantly contributed to the development of the Declaration of Independence. There are countless other things I'm leaving off this list. He dabbled with electricity and developed the lightning rod, which was a huge deal back then, and also helped in the development of paper currency.

What I truly appreciated about the author was that he did not shy away from highlighting the negative aspects of Franklin's life. He had great difficulty maintaining personal and intimate relationships, even with his own family. He did not treat his brother, John, very well, nor his son William. His wife ended up dying alone. He initially owned slaves and even argued that America should be more white. However, later in life, after working with the school for black children, he had a change of heart and became an outspoken abolitionist, nearly 100 years before slaves would be set free.

Holy wow, this guy's life was truly something else. It's amazing to see the complex and multifaceted nature of his existence, with both remarkable achievements and significant flaws.

I FINISHED IT!

This about sums up my experience with the book. I have a great love for reading about our founding fathers, and Benjamin Franklin was truly a remarkable character.

The book was extremely well researched, which I really appreciated. However, at the same time, it was a little on the long side and perhaps a bit too detailed for my personal taste.

Nonetheless, I am quite happy that I made the commitment to read it. It provided me with a wealth of knowledge and a deeper understanding of Franklin's life and contributions.

Despite its length and detail, it was still an engaging and informative read. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about our nation's history and the fascinating individuals who helped shape it.

Overall, I am glad I took the time to read this book and look forward to exploring more works on the subject in the future.

Walter Isaacson’s 2003 “Ben Franklin: An American Life” is an excellent addition to Carl Van Doren’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Benjamin Franklin.” Van Doren’s book is detailed and exhaustive, expressing admiration for both the man and his work. Isaacson is also thorough, but his writing is more accessible and critical, especially when it comes to Franklin’s personal life. I read the Van Doren book several years ago and don’t plan to do a point-by-point analysis. However, if you can only read one, I recommend Walter’s.

Most people know something about Franklin’s humble beginnings and his role as a signer of the Declaration of Independence and framer of the Constitution. They associate his name with Poor Richard and the Almanac, the Franklin Stove, the lightning rod, and bifocals. Fewer people, perhaps, are aware of his business acumen. He turned a small Philadelphia print shop into a multi-colonial franchise, allowing him to retire at age 42 (1747) to pursue scientific and community improvement projects.

He used his “leisure” time to make significant contributions in various fields. He led the world in the discovery and use of electricity, invented a musical instrument (the Armonica), corresponded with scientists and philosophers worldwide, wrote the Pennsylvania constitution, organized fire departments, raised and led a militia, and established a postal service. All of this was achieved before the revolution was even a glimmer in Samuel Adams’ eye.

So, why was a man of such talent and intellect labeled “bourgeois”? Because he was the quintessential Rotarian. He never worked alone and was always involved in some kind of organization, usually one he founded. Isaacson focuses on Franklin as a community do-gooder. He was not a Newton or a Voltaire, and he would never have invented Calculus or delved deeply into the nature of God. Instead, he loved to gather data and put it to practical use. Religion was fine as long as it improved people’s lives and promoted kindness. He never patented his inventions, preferring to make them widely available.

The same practical approach applied to his advice. Nearly all of Poor Richard’s aphorisms were pragmatic hints for getting by in daily life. There was little of the spiritual or abstract. This is the part of Franklin that the world knows best and that draws criticism from romantics and theorists who expect grand ideas and passions.

In many ways, Franklin was indeed lacking in grand and intimate passion and was guilty of neglecting his family. He acknowledged and cared for his illegitimate son but was never close to him. He had a long and affectionate marriage, but he spent much of the last years of that marriage abroad and made no effort to return home when his wife was ill. He was more affectionate to some members of his surrogate family in England than to his American relatives. He engaged in numerous flirtations but never consummated them. He was a rationalist who never fully opened his heart.

In addition, he never fully came to terms with slavery. He owned slaves for most of his adult life, even though he was friends with abolitionists. By the time he became committed to abolition, he was too old to take effective action. It seemed that, like his family, slavery was an issue he preferred to keep at a distance.

Despite these flaws, Franklin was a great master at improving lives and societies. Outside of his family, he was a remarkable statesman. His years in Paris were legendary, and his efforts in London to prevent the colonies from breaking away from England were less well-known but no less important. He was one of the last to support the revolution, hoping until the last minute to find a way to keep the colonies in the Empire. Once the war began, however, he became a passionate advocate.

He became Congress’ first ambassador to France at age 70 and achieved some of his most significant accomplishments in his later years. His work in France was crucial in securing the 1778 treaties of alliance and commerce and in helping to negotiate the final peace treaties. At the age of 83, he played a vital role in the Constitutional Convention, making compromises and persuading others to do the same. His attitude, as expressed in his concluding address, was one of practicality and flexibility, which is a model for us in this age of stridency and opinionatedness.

Isaacson tells this story in a lively and engaging prose that keeps the reader hooked long after curfew. His clever phrasing and entertaining descriptions bring Franklin to life as a down-to-earth and familiar figure. It’s a delicious read that makes you want to sit in a coffee house with Franklin and listen to him tell stories.

Walter Isaacson's books are renowned for their in-depth exploration of their subjects, and this one about Benjamin Franklin is no exception.

Benjamin Franklin made diverse and significant contributions to the world. He published articles and stories in the newspaper to inform and entertain readers. His administrative work was crucial in developing and establishing policies and the constitution for America. He also negotiated war affairs and formed peace treaties. Moreover, he set a stage for awareness and direction against discrimination and the ownership of labors, and established policies for the blacks to have rights for education and the ability to work with equality. In addition, he had various scientific discoveries, such as flying a kite in a thunder to prove that it consists of electricity and proposing to ground the rooftop of houses with lightning rods to prevent thunder strikes.

Apart from his contributions to the world, this book also delves deeply into Franklin's personal life, including his romantic affairs, his ideologies, and his perspectives during each stage of life.

There are also some fun facts. For example, the tags "positive" and "negative" for the polarity of electricity were first hypothesized by Benjamin Franklin as a temporary arrangement and later adopted by all other scientists worldwide. Many well-known maxims were reworked and perfected by him to make them simple and catchy, like "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise".

In conclusion, the book contains a wealth of information that has been compiled and organized according to the years of Benjamin Franklin's lifespan. It is quite informative and entertaining. However, it lacks the "oomph" that I was hoping for. It is a one-time read, but the highlights can be revisited once every two years. I rate it 3.6/5 ✨.

Benjamin Franklin - The Enlightened Printer

What does it take for Walter Isaacson, the most highly regarded and currently most popular biographer, to become interested in your life? It's very simple: you just need to be a printer, an opinion-forming journalist, a brilliant scientist and inventor, and also in your retirement years become a diplomat and lobbyist, the founding father of the United States who went to the court of Marie Antoinette in a fur hat, and on top of that, live in interesting times. In other words, you just have to be Benjamin Franklin.

The first thing that caught my eye when I flipped through the book before reading was the extremely extensive bibliography. A good 80 pages out of 650 are just a list of sources: publications, materials used by Isaacson in writing the book, illustrations, and so on. This pleased me at least as much as Franklin's signing of the Declaration of Independence, because solid sources are for me the foundation in this type of works and they promise a well-executed research job. In fact, the author was helped by a great many competent people, as evidenced by the acknowledgments to scientists and researchers of both Franklin's life and fate and his era, which is a plus for solidity already on the introduction.

The publication of the book can also be described as solid. Admittedly, it is bound in a soft cover with flaps, but on the other hand, it is editorially and graphically at a very high level and I enjoyed interacting with Isaacson's work. If I had to pick on something, first of all: the soft cover mentioned above (this would not be a problem for me if there was a hardcover edition on the market and the potential buyer had a choice, but there isn't) and the second flaw, more serious and annoying me like the enlightenment of romantics, is the footnotes placed at the end of the book, not directly under the text. This is extremely frustrating because there are a lot of footnotes and chapters in "Franklin" (there are 18 chapters) and each time turning to this brick disrupted my reading rhythm, and it is worth reading the footnotes by Isaacson because they contain a lot of interesting information. By the way, I know that there is a special circle in hell for people who put footnotes in books, so be careful!

However, let's move on to the most important thing, that is, to the text itself. As I wrote above, the book is divided into eighteen chapters, arranged chronologically. Each chapter in the book is also a new chapter in Franklin's life, sometimes caused by personal matters, sometimes professional ones. In addition, Isaacson gives the reader a broader historical, social, and cultural context, translating the described events into "modern times". I must admit that the method adopted by the author - simple and elegant - works great with such a rich and vivid hero as Franklin, because often it happens that a large amount of material and the accuracy in its use ultimately makes the book, perhaps a valuable work for the researcher, but for the ordinary reader it is a boring and overwhelming mess of dates, surnames, etc.

In "Franklin" this is not the case. Isaacson writes straightforwardly and purposefully, sometimes wittily, which makes the image of the hero he creates multifaceted, both in terms of private, emotional, and professional or political aspects.

Isaacson also does not shy away from controversies, and Franklin's figure has raised and still raises a lot of them. Moreover, Isaacson does not hide his positive attitude towards him and the role that Franklin played in history, so ultimately we get a comprehensive but not boring biography, written in a positive tone, but not ignoring the "dark sides and grays".

So when next time someone asks me: "Hey, haven't you read any good biography lately?" I will definitely and with pure intentions, like a Puritan conscience, recommend to him "Benjamin Franklin", and I add Walter Isaacson himself to the list of authors worthy of attention.

I衷心 thank the reviewer club of the portal nakanapie.pl for the book - it was really a great read.

Biographies generally bore me, and this was no exception.

It was so pedestrian, so conventional, and so obviously a poor rehashing of much better Franklin biographies that preceded it. One can't help but wonder why Isaacson even bothered to write the book. Was it for money, perhaps? Whatever his motivation, the result is truly underwhelming.

One of the difficulties with writing a biography is that the reader already knows most of the plot and probably how it ends too. To create a sense of suspense and excitement, two things are necessary. Firstly, a "plot" that is more than just a chain of events needs to be constructed - the life must be turned into a story. Secondly, enough originality and insight must be added to give the reader something they hadn't thought of before - a new twist on a familiar tale.

Isaacson fails to do either. He follows Franklin from birth to death, covering his life with reasonable thoroughness, some attention to alternative sources and viewpoints, and with excellent command of English grammar and vocabulary. For this, he is to be commended - his experience as a successful journalist shows. However, he has not managed to create anything that engages the reader - neither a "what next" plot nor "what will he tell me next" insights.

The fault of the book lies not only in its subject but also in how Isaacson writes about him. Its chief fault is the lack of narrative flair. With the notable exception of the first and last chapters, we have a chronological account broken into small sections. Here's one particularly mundane succession: "Constitutional Ideas" (a mere 2 pages), "Meeting Lord Howe Again" (5 pages), "To France, with Temple and Benny" (4 pages). A more satisfying approach would have been to trace Franklin's domestic political thought in one larger chapter, but this would violate Isaacson's chronological imperative. At times, the book's equally weighted, well-ordered facts result in a pace that is both plodding and boring. The book is at its best when it manages to integrate larger themes with the strictly biographical details.