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Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
List Price: £20.00Amazon.co.uk's Price: £16.47 You Save: £3.53 (18%)as of 29/07/2010 07:11 BST
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.3092
EAN: 9780684807614
ISBN: 0684807610
Label: Simon & Schuster International
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster International
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 589
Publication Date: August 04, 2003
Publisher: Simon & Schuster International
Studio: Simon & Schuster International
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.co.uk Review:
"Benjamin Franklin", writes journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson in An American Life, "was that rare Founding Father who would sooner wink at a passer-by than sit still for a formal portrait". "What's more", Isaacson relates in this fluent and entertaining biography, "the revolutionary leader represents a political tradition that has been all but forgotten today, one that prizes pragmatism over moralism, religious tolerance over fundamentalist rigidity, and social mobility over class privilege". That broadly democratic sensibility allowed Franklin his contradictions, as Isaacson shows. Though a man of lofty principles, Franklin wasn't shy of using sex to sell the newspapers he edited and published; though far from frivolous, he liked his toys and his mortal pleasures; and though he sometimes gave off a simpleton image, he was a shrewd and even crafty politician. Isaacson doesn't shy from enumerating Franklin's occasional peccadilloes and shortcomings, in keeping with the iconoclastic nature of our time--none of which, however, stops him from considering Benjamin Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age", and one of the most admirable of any era. And here's one bit of proof: as a young man Ben Franklin regularly went without food in order to buy books. His example, as always, is a good one--and this is just the book to buy with the proceeds from the grocery budget. --Gregory McNamee, Amazon.com
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
This a strange book. I've read biographies of the key protagonists of the American War of Independence (i.e Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton and, now, Franklin). None really entered my heart, though Adams is the one I have most affection for. I think I'm not too fond of them because they spent a while kick British butt for a few years.
This book is a thorough biography of Ben Franklin. It starts with his early life, covers his escapades in printing, his literary and scientific ... Read More
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Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
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