Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.41 (620 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 074325807X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 586 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2018-01-24 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
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. 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. 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. Benjamin Franklin, writes journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson, was that rare
Cece said This is worth reading. I came upon Isaacson's writing when I became curious about Einstein. His presentation of Einstein was portrayed as accessible for those of us who are not scientists but that nonetheless are interested in the people who developed it. It was such an engrossing book that the next step was reading something else by this author. No disappointment here, notwithstanding the wide differences in the subjects . In a word about Isaason, wow!This was not always easy reading because one finds that time for thought is required for juxtaposing one's beliefs and democratic experience with Frankli. John Paul Sassone said 5 stars. This is the third copy of this book I have purchased, having given away my other two, that how much I love it. Isaacson wrote an excellent biography of Franklin, one that I've reread a few times. I know the expression"like you were there" is overused but this book actually makes you feel you knew the real Franklin. I've been reading a lot about the younger Franklin recently, his time as an apprentice to his brother James, a printer, his self-education, his escape to Philadelphia, but this book presents the complete Franklin in a way thats reachable. Its not complicated reading, it. An excellent biography S. Davidson Benjamin Franklin was a complicated personality whose political views changed over time. Franklin used Greek Philosophy as stepping stones from which he derived his first views on politics, virtues, and moral pragmatism but he shaped and modified these views as he aged. It is probably impossible to capture the essence of Benjamin Franklin's nature but this biography does it as well as it can be done. Franklin was invaluable when it came to editing the Declaration of Independence and negotiating the post-war treaties with France and England which established the first 13 colonies a
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.. 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. 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