The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin

About this book

In the first comprehensive biography of Benjamin Franklin in over sixty years acclaimed historian H. W. Brands brings vividly to life one of the most delightful bawdy brilliant original and important figures in American history. A groundbreaking scientist leading businessman philosopher bestselling author inventor diplomat politician and wit Benjamin Franklin was perhaps the most beloved and celebrated American of his age or indeed of any age. Now in a beautifully written and meticulously researched account of Franklins life and times his clever repartee generous spirit and earthy wisdom are brought compellingly to the page. His circle of friends and acquaintances extended around the globe from Cotton Mather to Voltaire from Edmund Burke to King George III from Sir Isaac Newton to Immanuel Kant. Franklin was gifted with a restless curiosity and his scientific experiments with electric currents and the weather made him the leading pioneer in the new field of electricity on both sides of the Atlantic; among his many inventions were the lightning rod the Franklin stove and the harmonica a musical instrument that became the rage of Europe. From his humble beginnings in Boston as a printers apprentice he became within two decades the leading printer and one of the most important businessmen in the Colonies. A longtime Philadelphia civic leader he created Philadelphias first fire department wrote the bestseller Poor Richards Almanac served as Postmaster General for the Colonies and in the process completely modernized the mail service. A bon vivant and ladies man throughout his life he matched wits with Parliament and the Crown during the decade leading up to the Stamp Act; and as the official agent to Parliament representing several of the Colonies he helped push the Colonies into open rebellion. Tracing Franklins gradual transformation from reluctant revolutionary to charismatic leader in the fight for independence Brands convincingly argues that on the issue of revolution as Franklin went so went America. During the Revolutionary War Franklin was charged by Congress with wooing the King of France to the American cause and it was the diplomatic alliances he forged and funds he raised in France that allowed the Continental Army to continue to fight on the battlefield. In his final years as president of the Constitutional Convention it was Franklin who held together the antagonistic factions and persuaded its members to sign the Constitution. Drawing on previously unpublished letters to and from Franklin as well as the recollections and anecdotes of Franklins contemporaries H. W. Brands has created a rich and compelling portrait of the eighteenth-century genius who was in every respect Americas first Renaissance man and arguably the pivotal figure in colonial and revolutionary America. A fascinating and richly textured biography of the man who was perhaps the greatest of our Founding Fathers The First American is history on a grand scale as well as a major contribution to understanding Franklin and the world he helped to shape.