In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character.
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard’s Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation’s alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution.
In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.
By:
Walter Isaacson
Imprint: Simon & Schuster
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Height: 235mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 36mm
Weight: 792g
ISBN: 9780743258074
ISBN 10: 074325807X
Pages: 608
Publication Date: 05 July 2004
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of America CHAPTER TWO Pilgrim's Progress: Boston, 1706-1723 CHAPTER THREE Journeyman: Philadelphia and London, 1723-1726 CHAPTER FOUR Printer: Philadelphia, 1726-1732 CHAPTER FIVE Public Citizen: Philadelphia, 1731-1748 CHAPTER SIX Scientist and Inventor: Philadelphia, 1744-1751 CHAPTER SEVEN Politician: Philadelphia, 1749-1756 CHAPTER EIGHT Troubled Waters: London, 1757-1762 CHAPTER NINE Home Leave: Philadelphia, 1763-1764 CHAPTER TEN Agent Provocateur: London, 1765-1770 CHAPTER ELEVEN Rebel: London, 1771-1775 CHAPTER TWELVE Independence: Philadelphia, 1775-1776 CHAPTER THIRTEEN Courtier: Paris, 1776-1778 CHAPTER FOURTEEN Bon Vivant: Paris, 1778-1785 CHAPTER FIFTEEN Peacemaker: Paris, 1778-1785 CHAPTER SIXTEEN Sage: Philadelphia, 1785-1790 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Epilogue CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Conclusions Cast of Characters Chronology Currency Conversions Acknowledgments Sources and Abbreviations Notes Index
Walter Isaacson is president of the Aspen Institute. He has been chairman and CEO of CNN and managing editor of TIME magazine. He is the author of several books including the US bestseller BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: AN AMERICAN LIFE.
Reviews for Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
The Washington Post Book World The most readable full-length Franklin biography available.
