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In this engrossing biography, Walter Isaacson chronicles Benjamin Franklin's life from apprentice to America's foremost writer, inventor, diplomat, and political leader.

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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.

Biografie

Walter Isaacson is the bestselling author of biographies of Jennifer Doudna, Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. He is a professor of history at Tulane and was CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2023. Visit him at Isaacson.Tulane.edu.

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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

Details