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Benjamin Franklin is generally considered one of America's most versatile and talented statesmen, scientists, and philosophers. His achievements include publisher of Poor Richard's Almanac and many articles on political, economic, religious, philosophical and scientific subjects. He was the inventor of bifocals, the Franklin stove, lightening rod, he was one of the signers of the 'Declaration of Independence', and the founder of, what is now the University of Pennsylvania. This book presents a detailed and riveting review of Franklin's life based on excerpts from the renowned 1899 book on Franklin by Sydney George Fisher. This overview is augmented by a substantial selective bibliography, which features access through title, subject and author indexes.
This compelling biography interprets Franklin as the embodiment of Protestant attitudes toward print culture, urban life, science, intellectual life, and politics. It shows that Franklin should be included in the company of figures like Lincoln for whom Protestant convictions informed their outlook on and contribution to the world.
"Explores Benjamin Franklin's network of partnerships and business relationships with printers. His network altered practices in both European and American colonial printing trades by providing capital and political influence to set up working partnerships with James Parker, Francis Childs, Benjamin Mecom, Benjamin Franklin Bache, David Hall, Anthony Armbruster, and others"--Provided by publisher.
An exploration of Benjamin Franklin's diverse legacies in American life from 1790, the year of his death, to 1990. This book also focuses on the intricate relations between the functions of images and perceptions in society on the one hand and the changing social and cultural conditions that have constantly affected the alterations of those images and perceptions on the other. Includes a Selected Bibliography. Illustrations.
Explore the hidden niches of American history to discover the tug between our yearning for privacy and our insatiable curiosity. Book jacket.
In life, Benjamin Franklin sought to manage debt, organize credit, build capital and promote virtue. After death, he continued this work by leaving a codicil to his last will and testament, bequeathing £2,000 to Boston and Philadelphia. This study examines Franklin’s codicil and the financial history of America over the 200 years since his death.
Although he called himself merely a "printer" in his will, Benjamin Franklin could have also called himself a diplomat, a doctor, an electrician, a frontier general, an inventor, a journalist, a legislator, a librarian, a magistrate, a postmaster, a promoter, a publisher—and a humorist. John Adams wrote of Franklin, "He had wit at will. He had humor that when he pleased was pleasant and delightful... [and] talents for irony, allegory, and fable, that he could adapt with great skill, to the promotion of moral and political truth." In Benjamin Franklin's Humor, author Paul M. Zall shows how one of America's founding fathers used humor to further both personal and national interests. Early in...
A thorough examination of Benjamin Franklin's works on philosophy and politics, arguing that Franklin was a philosopher of natural right
Benjamin Franklin wrote his posthumously published memoir—a model of the genre—in several pieces and in different temporal and physical places. Douglas Anderson’s study of this work reveals the famed inventor as a literary adept whose approach to autobiographical narrative was as innovative and radical as the inventions and political thought for which he is renowned. Franklin never completed his autobiography, choosing instead to immerse his reader in the formal and textual atmosphere of a deliberately “unfinished” life. Taking this decision on Franklin’s part as a starting point, Anderson treats the memoir as a subtle and rewarding reading lesson, independent of the famous life ...