Not Your Usual Founding Father: Selected Readings from Benjamin FranklinThis engaging book reveals Benjamin Franklin’s human side—his tastes and habits, his enthusiasms, and his devotion to democracy and the people of the United States. Three hundred years after his birth, we may remember Franklin’s famous Autobiography, or his status as framer of the Declaration of Independence and the peace with Great Britain, or his experiments in electricity, or perhaps his sage advice on diligence and thrift. But historian Edmund S. Morgan invites us to meet the man himself, a sociable, good-natured, and extraordinary human being with boundless curiosity about the natural world and a vision of what America could be. Drawing on lifelong research in the vast Franklin archives, Morgan assembles both famous and lesser-known writings that offer insights into this founding father’s thinking. The book is organized around four major themes, each with an introduction. The first section includes journal excerpts and letters revealing Franklin’s personal tastes and habits. The second is devoted to Franklin’s inexhaustible intellectual energy and his scientific discoveries. The third and fourth chronicle his devotion to serving the people who became the United States both before and after the Revolution and to advancing his democratic vision of their future. Franklin’s humanity and genius have never seemed more real than in the pages of this appealing anthology. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 38
Page 1
... reason for the omission is that his surviving papers tell us little about the marriage beyond the small details of domestic life. In 1730 Franklin married Deborah Read, a young Philadelphia widow, and for the next twenty-seven years ...
... reason for the omission is that his surviving papers tell us little about the marriage beyond the small details of domestic life. In 1730 Franklin married Deborah Read, a young Philadelphia widow, and for the next twenty-seven years ...
Page 17
... reason to think that he was a native of the branch, that he had not long since been in the same condition with the rest of those little embrios that appeared in the shells, this being the method of their generation; and that ...
... reason to think that he was a native of the branch, that he had not long since been in the same condition with the rest of those little embrios that appeared in the shells, this being the method of their generation; and that ...
Page 20
... reason to wish that in a future State I may not only be as well as I was, but a little better. And I hope it: For I too, with your Poet, trust in God. And when I observe that there is great Frugality as well as Wisdom in his Works ...
... reason to wish that in a future State I may not only be as well as I was, but a little better. And I hope it: For I too, with your Poet, trust in God. And when I observe that there is great Frugality as well as Wisdom in his Works ...
Page 22
... Reason in being jealous of giving it Powers. But its Members are chosen annually, cannot be chosen more than three Years successively, nor more than three Years in seven, and any of them may be recall'd at any [22] the man.
... Reason in being jealous of giving it Powers. But its Members are chosen annually, cannot be chosen more than three Years successively, nor more than three Years in seven, and any of them may be recall'd at any [22] the man.
Page 25
... Reason. None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing. Great talkers should be cropt, for they have no need of ears. Best is the tongue that feels the rein;— He that talks much, must talk in vain We from the wordy Torrent fly ...
... Reason. None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing. Great talkers should be cropt, for they have no need of ears. Best is the tongue that feels the rein;— He that talks much, must talk in vain We from the wordy Torrent fly ...
Contents
1 | |
Part II Nature observed | 67 |
Part III A continental vision | 141 |
Part IV War peace and humanity | 219 |
Chronology | 289 |
Credits | 291 |
Index | 297 |
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