In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character.
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin's life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and...

A biography of the eighteenth-century printer, publisher, inventor, scientist, and statesman who played an influential role in the early history of the United States.

A biography of the eighteenth-century printer, inventor, and statesman who played an influential role in the early history of the United States.

A biography of the eighteenth-century printer, inventor, and statesman who played an influential role in the early history of the United States.

Why did Benjamin Franklin retire from business and become gentleman? Why did he admire the British Empire - and join the American Revolution? Why did he begin writing his Autobiography when he did? And how did the "first American" become an American in the first place? Renowned historian Gordon S. Wood spent ten years studying a legend. In this untraditional biography, he penetrates beneath 200 years' accumulation of images and representations to...

Capturing the essence of this exceptional individual through his original writings and hands-on activities from his era, this resource tells the rich story of one of Americas most celebrated Founding Fathers. Beginning with his time as a young printer, this engaging narrative details how Benjamin Franklin became a celebrity with the publication of Poor Richard: An Almanac and how he founded the colonies first lending library, volunteer fire company,...

In this one-of-a-kind biography you can put yourself in Ben Franklin's bifocals as he makes the choices that will define his life and America's future.

Many consider Franklin the most fascinating American man who ever lived. A scientist, businessman, diplomat, author, inventor, philosopher and politician, he is America's original Renaissance man. His remarkable and varied accomplishments include the discovery of electricity and the modernization of the postal system. Brilliant and bawdy, a master statesman and a cultural icon, Franklin was so important and popular in his day that, according to the...