Download or read book Franklin s Father Josiah written by Nian-Sheng Huang and published by American Philosophical Society. This book was released on 2000 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Josiah Franklin, a tallow chandler and soapmaker, remains a marginal figure in most biographies of his well-known son, Benjamin Franklin, due largely to a lack of written documentation. Biographers of Franklin included him mainly from a genealogical viewpoint, and few of them gave him further attention. Here, Huang has reconstructed Josiah Franklin's life based on fragmented yet valuable manuscripts in several archival sites in the Boston area, such as his bills, letters, subscriptions, participation in petitions, and court warrants for his legal disputes. She has also drawn info. from newspapers, diaries, business accounts, inventories, deeds, and probate records which were useful to assess his trade and financial circumstances. Illus.
Download or read book Benjamin Franklin and His Gods written by Kerry S. Walters and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Against the religious backdrop of pre- and postcolonial America stands the towering figure--and mind--of Benjamin Franklin. A Renaissance man in a Revolutionary time, Franklin had interests and knowledge not only in religion but in literature, philosophy, politics, publishing, history, and scientific inquiry, among many other disciplines. Kerry S. Walters examines Franklin's search for the Divine using a similar, multifaceted approach--and in so doing has created the first extended treatment of Franklin's religious thought in thirty years. Walters brings the same intellectual range and depth to the understanding of Franklin's beliefs that Franklin brought to his own quest. What emerges from this pilgrimage into the soul of one of America's greatest figures is a very human Benjamin Franklin who grew with the accumulation of knowledge to arrive at a "theistic perspectivism," which provided him with a philosophical explanation for the diversity of religious faiths--and a justification for the liberty of conscience he advocated throughout his life. Benjamin Franklin and His Gods is an original and beautifully challenging spiritual and intellectual biography. Destined to be a classic.
Download or read book CliffsNotes on Franklin s The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin written by Merrill Maguire Skaggs and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2002-05-02 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This CliffsNotes guide includes everything you’ve come to expect from the trusted experts at CliffsNotes, including analysis of the most widely read literary works.
Download or read book Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of Microfinance written by Bruce H. Yenawine and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book A Study Guide for The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin written by Gale, Cengage Learning and published by Gale, Cengage Learning . This book was released on 2015-03-13 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Study Guide for "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Literary Themes for Students: The American Dream.This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Literary Themes for Students: The American Dream for all of your research needs.
Download or read book Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire written by Carla J. Mulford and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing from Benjamin Franklin's published and unpublished papers, including letters, notes, and marginalia, Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire examines how the early modern liberalism of Franklin's youthful intellectual life helped foster his vision of independence from Britain that became his hallmark achievement. In the early chapters, Carla Mulford explores the impact of Franklin's family history - especially their difficult times during the English Civil War - on Franklin's intellectual life and his personal and political goals. The book's middle chapters show how Franklin's fascination with British imperial strategy grew from his own analyses of the financial, environmental, and commercial potential of North America. Franklin's involvement in Pennsylvania's politics led him to devise strategies for monetary stability, intercolonial trade, Indian affairs, and imperial defense that would have assisted the British Empire in its effort to take over the world. When Franklin realized that the goals of British ministers were to subordinate colonists in a system that assisted the lives of Britons in England but undermined the wellbeing of North Americans, he began to criticize the goals of British imperialism. Mulford argues that Franklin's turn away from the British Empire began in the 1750s - not the 1770s, as most historians have suggested - and occurred as a result of Franklin's perceptive analyses of what the British Empire was doing not just in the American colonies but in Ireland and India. In the last chapters, Mulford reveals how Franklin ultimately grew restive, formed alliances with French intellectuals and the court of France, and condemned the actions of the British Empire and imperial politicians. As a whole, Mulford's book provides a fresh reading of a much-admired founding father, suggesting how Franklin's conception of the freedoms espoused in England's ages old Magna Carta could be realized in the political life of the new American nation.
Download or read book Benjamin Franklin written by Thomas S. Kidd and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- INTRODUCTION -- 1. Child of the Puritans -- 2. Exodus to Philadelphia, Sojourn in London -- 3. Philadelphia Printer -- 4. Poor Richard -- 5. Ben Franklin's Closest Evangelical Friend -- 6. Electrical Man -- 7. Tribune of the People -- 8. Diplomat -- 9. The Pillar of Fire -- CONCLUSION -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z
Download or read book The Claims of Experience written by Nolan Bennett and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-21 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why have so many figures throughout American history proclaimed their life stories when confronted by great political problems? The Claims of Experience provides a new theory for what makes autobiography political throughout the history of the United States and today. Across five chapters, Nolan Bennett examines the democratic challenges that encouraged a diverse cast of figures to bear their stories: Benjamin Franklin amid the revolutionary era, Frederick Douglass in the antebellum and abolitionist movements, Henry Adams in the Gilded Age and its anxieties of industrial change, Emma Goldman among the first Red Scare and state opposition to radical speech, and Whittaker Chambers amid the second Red Scare that initiated the anticommunist turn of modern conservatism. These historical figures made what Bennett calls a "claim of experience." By proclaiming their life stories, these authors took back authority over their experiences from prevailing political powers, and called to new community among their audiences. Their claims sought to restore to readers the power to remake and make meaning of their own lives. Whereas political theorists and activists have often seen autobiography to be too individualist or a mere documentary source of evidence, this theory reveals the democratic power that life narratives have offered those on the margins and in the mainstream. If they are successful, claims of experience summon new popular authority to surpass what their authors see as the injustices of prevailing American institutions and identity. Bennett shows through historical study and theorization how this renewed appreciation for the politics of life writing elevates these authors' distinct democratic visions while drawing common themes across them. This book offers both a method for understanding the politics of life narrative and a call to anticipate claims of experience as they appear today.
Download or read book Ben Franklin s Almanac written by Candace Fleming and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What good shall I do today?" How Ben Franklin answered that question -- through his work as a writer, printer, statesman, and inventor -- forever established him as one of America's greatest figures. On one day in 1729 he published the first edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette; on another day he changed the Declaration of Independence by adding the famous words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident"; and it was all in a day's work when he planted the first willow trees in America. Modeled on his own Poor Richard's Almanack, this unique scrapbook captures Franklin's countless accomplishments. Biography and anecdote, cartoon and etching mesh to create a fascinating portrait of this most fascinating man. Anyone interested in the birth of American democracy...or curious about the rise of the U.S. postal system...or wondering how paper money came to be...or wanting to know how Ben Franklin was part of it all, is sure to pore over Ben Franklin's Almanac.
Download or read book Benjamin Franklin s Intellectual World written by Paul E. Kerry and published by Fairleigh Dickinson. This book was released on 2012-12-27 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume attempts to throw fresh light on two areas of Benjamin Franklin’s intellectual world, namely: his self-fashioning and his political thought. It is an odd thing that for all of Franklin’s voluminous writings—a fantastically well-documented correspondence over many years, scientific treatises that made his name amongst the brightest minds of Europe, newspaper articles, satires, and of course his signature on the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution—and yet scholars debate how to get at his political thought, indeed, if he had any political philosophy at all. It could be argued, that he is perhaps the American Founder most closely associated with the Enlightenment. Similarly, for a man who left so much evidence about his life as a printer, bookseller, postmaster, inventor, diplomat, politician, scientist, among other professions, one who wrote an autobiography that has become a piece of American national literature and, indeed, a contribution to world culture, the question of who Ben Franklin continues to engage scholars and those who read about his life. His identity seems so stable that we associate it with certain virtues that apply to the way we live our lives, time management, for example. The image of the stable figure of Franklin is applied to create a sense of trust in everything from financial institutions to plumbers. His constant drive to improve and fashion himself reveal, however, a man whose identity was not static and fixed, but was focused on growth, on bettering his understanding of himself and the world he lived in and attempted to influence and improve.
Download or read book Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution written by Jonathan R. Dull and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inventor, the ladies’ man, the affable diplomat, and the purveyor of pithy homespun wisdom: we all know the charming, resourceful Benjamin Franklin. What is less appreciated is the importance of Franklin’s part in the American Revolution: except for Washington he was its most irreplaceable leader. Although aged and in ill health, Franklin served the cause with unsurpassed zeal and dedication. Jonathan R. Dull, whose decades of work on The Papers of Benjamin Franklin have given him rare insight into his subject, explains Franklin’s role in the Revolution, what prepared him for that role, and what motivated him. The Franklin presented here, a man immersed in the violence, danger, and suffering of the Revolution, is a tougher person than the Franklin of legend. Dull’s portrait captures Franklin’s confidence and self-righteousness about himself and the American cause. It shows his fanatical zeal, his hatred of King George III and George’s American supporters (particularly Franklin’s own son), and his disdain for hardship and danger. It also shows a side of Franklin that he tried to hide: his vanity, pride, and ambition. Though not as lovable and avuncular as the person of legend, this Franklin is more interesting, more complex, and in many ways more impressive.
Download or read book Franklin in His Own Time written by Kevin J. Hayes and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2011-05-08 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his time Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) was the most famous American in the world. Even those personally unacquainted with the man knew him as the author of Poor Richard’s Almanack, as a pioneer in the study of electricity and a major figure in the American Enlightenment, as the creator of such life-changing innovations as the lightning rod and America’s first circulating library, and as a leader of the American Revolution. His friends also knew him as a brilliant conversationalist, a great wit, an intellectual filled with curiosity, and most of all a master anecdotist whose vast store of knowledge complemented his conversational skills. In Franklin in His Own Time, by reprinting the original documents in which those anecdotes occur, Kevin Hayes and Isabelle Bour restore those oft-told stories to their cultural contexts to create a comprehensive narrative of his life and work. The thirty-five recollections gathered in Franklin in His Own Time form an animated, collaborative biography designed to provide a multitude of perspectives on the “First American.” Opening with an account by botanist Peter Kalm showing that Franklin was doing all he could to encourage the development of science in North America, it includes on-the-spot impressions from Daniel Fisher’s diary, the earliest surviving interview with Franklin, recollections from James Madison and Abigail Adams, Manasseh Cutler’s detailed description of the library at Franklin Court, and extracts from Alexander Hamilton’s unvarnished Minutes of the Tuesday Club. Franklin’s political missions to Great Britain and France, where he took full advantage of rich social and intellectual opportunities, are a source of many reminiscences, some published here in new translations. Genuine memories from such old friends as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, as opposed to memories influenced by the Autobiography, clarify Franklin’s reputation. Robert Carr may have been the last remaining person who knew Franklin personally, and thus his recollections are particularly significant. Each entry is introduced by a headnote that places the selection in its historical and cultural contexts; explanatory notes provide information about people and places; and the editors’ comprehensive introduction and chronology detail Franklin’s eventful life. Dozens of lively primary sources published incrementally over more than a hundred years illustrate the complexity of the man, his mind, and his mannerisms in a way that no single biographer could.
Download or read book Book of Ages written by Jill Lepore and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR NPR • Time Magazine • The Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • The Boston Globe A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK From one of our most accomplished and widely admired historians—a revelatory portrait of Benjamin Franklin's youngest sister, Jane, whose obscurity and poverty were matched only by her brother’s fame and wealth but who, like him, was a passionate reader, a gifted writer, and an astonishingly shrewd political commentator. Making use of an astonishing cache of little-studied material, including documents, objects, and portraits only just discovered, Jill Lepore brings Jane Franklin to life in a way that illuminates not only this one extraordinary woman but an entire world.
Download or read book Letters of Benjamin Franklin and Jane Mecom written by Carl Van Doren and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-08 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The delightful correspondence between Benjamin Franklin and his favorite sister, with an introduction and notes by Carl Van Doren. Franklin wrote more letters to Jane Mecom than he is known to have written to any other person, and as she emerges through these letters we understand the reasons for the esteem in which he held her. The letters cover a period of over sixty years, give new and intimate glimpses of Franklin and of the times, particularly in Philadelphia and Boston, and will enchant any reader of 18th century Americana. Originally published in 1950. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Download or read book Episodic Poetics written by Matthew Garrett and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Merges narrative theory with social and political history to explain the early American fascination with the episodic, piecemeal plot."--Book jacket
Download or read book Young Benjamin Franklin written by Nick Bunker and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new account of Franklin's early life, Pulitzer finalist Nick Bunker portrays him as a complex, driven young man who elbows his way to success. From his early career as a printer and journalist to his scientific work and his role as a founder of a new republic, Benjamin Franklin has always seemed the inevitable embodiment of American ingenuity. But in his youth he had to make his way through a harsh colonial world, where he fought many battles with his rivals, but also with his wayward emotions. Taking Franklin to the age of forty-one, when he made his first electrical discoveries, Bunker goes behind the legend to reveal the sources of his passion for knowledge. Always trying to balance virtue against ambition, Franklin emerges as a brilliant but flawed human being, made from the conflicts of an age of slavery as well as reason. With archival material from both sides of the Atlantic, we see Franklin in Boston, London, and Philadelphia as he develops his formula for greatness. A tale of science, politics, war, and religion, this is also a story about Franklin's forebears: the talented family of English craftsmen who produced America's favorite genius.
Download or read book Walter Isaacson Great Innovators e book boxed set written by Walter Isaacson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-10-24 with total page 1707 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This includes the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs and bestselling biographies Benjamin Franklin and Einstein.
