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 43
Page 14
... keep up the pleasure and spirit of conversation : and if there are one or two pair of us that can sometimes entertain one another for half an hour agreeably , yet perhaps we are seldom in the humour for it together . I rise in the ...
... keep up the pleasure and spirit of conversation : and if there are one or two pair of us that can sometimes entertain one another for half an hour agreeably , yet perhaps we are seldom in the humour for it together . I rise in the ...
Page 15
... keep just before his nose , and he seems to govern himself in his motions by their direction ; while the rest surround him on every side indifferently . A shark is never seen without a retinue of these , who are his purveyors ...
... keep just before his nose , and he seems to govern himself in his motions by their direction ; while the rest surround him on every side indifferently . A shark is never seen without a retinue of these , who are his purveyors ...
Page 16
... keep each other company; but this I look upon to be only matter of course, for if ships are unequal in their sailing they seldom stay for one another, espe- cially strangers. This afternoon the wind that has been so long contrary to us ...
... keep each other company; but this I look upon to be only matter of course, for if ships are unequal in their sailing they seldom stay for one another, espe- cially strangers. This afternoon the wind that has been so long contrary to us ...
Page 17
... keep the weed in salt water , renewing it every day till we come on shore , by this experiment to see whether any more crabs will be produced or not in this manner . I remember that the last calm we had , we took notice of a large crab ...
... keep the weed in salt water , renewing it every day till we come on shore , by this experiment to see whether any more crabs will be produced or not in this manner . I remember that the last calm we had , we took notice of a large crab ...
Page 22
... keep their Children at home , because I think there is no Nurse like a Mother ( or not many ) and that if Parents did not imme- diately send their Infants out of their Sight , they would in a few Days begin to love them , and thence be ...
... keep their Children at home , because I think there is no Nurse like a Mother ( or not many ) and that if Parents did not imme- diately send their Infants out of their Sight , they would in a few Days begin to love them , and thence be ...
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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