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
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Page 23
... Conduct . They are of the People & return again to mix with the People , having no more durable Pre - eminence than the different Grains of Sand in an Hourglass . Such an Assembly cannot easily become dangerous to Liberty . They are the ...
... Conduct . They are of the People & return again to mix with the People , having no more durable Pre - eminence than the different Grains of Sand in an Hourglass . Such an Assembly cannot easily become dangerous to Liberty . They are the ...
Page 32
... Conduct . I should even be malicious enough to say you were too knowing , and tell you the old Story of the Girl and the Miller [ this has not been identified ] . I enclose you the Songs you write for , and with them your Spanish Letter ...
... Conduct . I should even be malicious enough to say you were too knowing , and tell you the old Story of the Girl and the Miller [ this has not been identified ] . I enclose you the Songs you write for , and with them your Spanish Letter ...
Page 40
... Conduct , as she promises to lead me to Heaven in a Road so delicious , when I could be content to travel thither even in the roughest of all the Ways with the Pleasure of her Company . How kindly partial to her Penitent , in finding ...
... Conduct , as she promises to lead me to Heaven in a Road so delicious , when I could be content to travel thither even in the roughest of all the Ways with the Pleasure of her Company . How kindly partial to her Penitent , in finding ...
Page 43
... conduct , if the good Doctor had not told me that in this Lady I should see a genuine French Woman , wholy free from affectation or stifness of behaviour and one of the best women in the world . For this I must take the Drs . word , but ...
... conduct , if the good Doctor had not told me that in this Lady I should see a genuine French Woman , wholy free from affectation or stifness of behaviour and one of the best women in the world . For this I must take the Drs . word , but ...
Page 53
... conducting them . The old Men sit in the foremost Ranks , the Warriors in the next , and the Women and Children in the ... Conduct of a polite British House of Commons , where scarce a Day passes without some Confusion that makes the ...
... conducting them . The old Men sit in the foremost Ranks , the Warriors in the next , and the Women and Children in the ... Conduct of a polite British House of Commons , where scarce a Day passes without some Confusion that makes the ...
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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