benjamin franklin book by walter isaacson

Jefferson and Adams are just as intimidating.

George Washington's colleagues found it hard to imagine touching the austere general on the shoulder, and we would find it even more so today. It's all topped off with the old man's deft little affirmation - 'as I certainly did' - in which his self-deprecation barely cloaks the pride he felt regarding his remarkable rise in the world.īenjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us. Inserted into the sentence about his pilgrim's progress up Market Street is a phrase, written in the margin, in which he notes that he passed by the house of his future wife, Deborah Read, and that 'she, standing at the door, saw me and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward ridiculous appearance.' So here we have, in a brief paragraph, the multilayered character known so fondly to his author as Benjamin Franklin: as a young man, then seen through the eyes of his older self, and then through the memories later recounted by his wife.

Peel back a layer and we can see him as a 65-year-old wry observer, sitting in an English country house, writing this scene, pretending it's part of a letter to his son, an illegitimate son who has become a royal governor with aristocratic pretensions and needs to be reminded of his humble roots.Ī careful look at the manuscript peels back yet another layer.

His arrival in Philadelphia is one of the most famous scenes in autobiographical literature: the bedraggled 17-year-old runaway, cheeky yet with a pretense of humility, straggling off the boat and buying three puffy rolls as he wanders up Market Street. Citește tot RestrângeĬhapter One: Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of America Just as David McCullough brought life to the historic figure of John Adams, Isaacson portrays Franklin in the flesh, showing readers how this radical man helped define America's national character and personality. Isaacson examines the run up to the Revolutionary war, the intimate relations between Britain, France and the colonies and the decisive events that led to America's independence. But this is not just a biography of Benjamin Franklin but rather a fascinating look at American and European political history at that time. In this riveting new biography Walter Isaacson provides readers with a full portrait of Franklin's public and private life - his loyal but neglected wife, his bastard son with whom he broke over going to war with England, his endless replacement families and his many amorous, but probably unconsummated, liaisons. America's first great publicist, he carefully crafted his own persona, portrayed it in public and polished it for posterity. He was also one of its most practical political thinkers. During his 84-year life Benjamin Franklin was America's best scientist, inventor, publisher, business strategist, diplomat, and writer.

Benjamin franklin book by walter isaacson