Franklin Benjamin - Benjamin Franklin and the invention of America: an American life

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Praise for Benjamin Franklin

Isaacsons... will probably supplant Van Dorens as the standard single-volume biography of Franklin.

Gordon S. Wood, The New York Review of Books

Given the nature and accomplishments of the man, any biography of Benjamin Franklin has to be a chronicle of a half-dozen or more lives in one, all lived with amazing energy, and all extremely interesting. And so, happily, it is in this splendid new look at the incomparable Franklin, who remains one of those Americans about whom we can never know enough. Walter Isaacson writes with great vitality, intelligence, and a clear-eyed understanding of the worlds of politics, the press, and the human equations of high-level diplomacy. This is a book Ive looked forward to for a long time and that Ive found wholly enthralling from beginning to end.

David McCullough

A full-length portrait virtually assured to bring Franklins remarkable career before a sizable readership.... Benjamin Franklin: An American Life... is a thoroughly researched, crisply written, convincingly argued chronicle that is also studded with little nuggets of fresh information.... Isaacsons most impressive chapter, a little tour de force of historical synthesis, focuses on Franklins role during the Paris peace negotiations that ended the War of Independence.... A prime candidate for the authoritative Franklin of our time.

Joseph J. Ellis, The New York Times Book Review

Franklin once said, Let all men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly. Every biographer has probed the meaning of that dictum but no one with greater insight than Walter Isaacson. Isaacson gives us the measure of the man in all his relations with the people he let know him: with friends and enemies, with wife and children, with statesmen, philosophers, and diplomats. The result is a complete picture of an extraordinary human being and the company he kept.

Edmund S. Morgan

An immensely readable telling of a remarkable life.... An indispensable and highly entertaining addition to the long afterlife of Benjamin Franklin.

John Freeman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Walter Isaacsons splendid Benjamin Franklin is both an absorbing narrative biography and an acute assessment of the man and his impact on his times and on posterity. After all, Franklin, the man who did so much to invent America, is the most modern of the Founding Fathers and vividly embodies the virtues and contradictions of the national character.

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Isaacson has crafted a wonderfully written biography, and his treatment of Franklins youth and rise to prominence is insightful and imaginative. It sparkles as well in chronicling some areas of Franklins life following his retirement, especially the evolution of his views on religion and slavery, and his troubled and insensitive relationships with members of his family.... The most readable full-length Franklin biography available.

John Ferling, The Washington Post Book World

Walter Isaacson has given us a Ben Franklin for the ages. In this marvelous, groundbreaking book, Franklin stands on center stage in the drama of Americas foundingwhere he has long deserved to stand. The reader will fall in love with this high-spirited, larger-than-life character who, above all the founders, was the most committedin practice and in theoryto the common man.

Doris Kearns Goodwin

[A] solid new biography.... Isaacsons account of Franklins diplomacy during and after the Revolutionary Wardiplomacy that produced, first, an alliance with France that made the American victory possible and, second, a peace treaty that confirmed the victoryis the fullest in any of the Franklin biographies.

H. W. Brands, Los Angeles Times Book Review

One of the clearer and more accurate, as well as perhaps the most entertaining, biography of Franklin since the founding fathers own autobiography some 200 years ago.

Ted Dreiter, The Saturday Evening Post

Isaacson has written a biography worthy of its subject, with a plain, straightforward tone that its subject would likely have approved. This volume is well documented, but it also saunters, making it both diverting and informative.

Tracy Lee Simmons, National Review

The man we encounter in Benjamin Franklin funny, pragmatic, and self-awareseems like one of us, or at least someone wed like to be.... Excellent.

Malcolm Jones, Newsweek

Benjamin Franklin is first-rate popular biography, worthy of David McCullough at his bestdeeply researched and written in prose thats accessible, friendly and intelligent. The book is a labor of love about a most lovable, and important, fellow.

Bob Frost, San Jose Mercury News

Marvelous.... A mesmerizing account of Franklins diverse and extraordinary achievements.... An enthralling one-volume overview of Franklin that should be on the reading list of anyone who is curious about the years leading up to and just after the founding of our nation.

Bob Van Brocklin, The Sunday Oregonian

Isaacsons vivid and readable narrative gives a clear account of Franklins scientific work, of his extraordinary career as a social innovator, of his labors as a diplomat and statesman, and of the vagaries of his love life.

Robin Blackburn, The Nation

Invigorating.... A fresh and organic telling of Franklins life.... Isaacsons narrative is lively, meticulously researched, and well-paced, shifting easily from science and philosophy to the frivolity of Franklins Paris years to his famous sly humor.

David Takami, The Seattle Times

With its exhaustive research laid out in a straightforward and readable manner, with its comprehensive appendixes and its many insightful and surprising conclusions about its subject and his era, Isaacsons book is eminently useful as an important study for anyone curious about the dawning of the American mind.

Charlie Mount, Forbes

Walter Isaacson understands that spin is the essence of Franklin, and so in his immensely readable new biography he builds his portrait around the great diplomats skills for myth-making and subterfuge. It is not a revisionist biography, but a celebratory one that depicts Franklin as, among other things, Americas first public relations genius.... An indispensable and highly entertaining addition to the long afterlife of Benjamin Franklin.

John Freeman, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Isaacson has produced an entertaining, compassionate, and evenhanded look into the mind and life of our most personable founding father.... Settle down with a copy of his Franklin biography and rediscover what being American is really all about.

Dorman T. Shindler, The Denver Post

Franklin is center stage, and he couldnt be more alive, approachable, practical and winking.

Patrick Beach, The Austin American-Statesman

Compelling.... Isaacson is an accomplished writer, and he tells a wonderful story. The book is copiously researched, but it wears its scholarship easily. The writing, whether about diplomatic negotiations or scientific experiments, is clear, direct, and even humorousa touch Franklin would have appreciated. Scholars and lay readers alike will appreciate this nuanced and thoughtful volume.