Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life is a biography by Walter Isaacson published in 2003 by Simon & Schuster. It depicts this American Founding Father as instrumental in developing the American character, ensuring the independence of the United States, and promoting democracy. The book became a New York Times bestseller. Isaacson is a journalist and professor of history at Tulane University who has published biographies of other notable figures such as Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Steve Jobs. This guide references the 2004 paperback edition.

Summary

Born in Puritan Boston on January 17, 1706, Benjamin Franklin was the youngest son in his family. He apprenticed as a printer in his brother James’s shop. That occupation was a perfect fit for Franklin given his outstanding writing skills and intellectual curiosity. Knowing that his brother would not print his work, Franklin submitted a series of essays anonymously under the pen name Silence Dogood. These highly successful essays demonstrated Franklin’s wit and ability to write in a conversational style. Chafing under the authority of his brother, Franklin ran away at age 17 to Philadelphia where he arrived virtually penniless. He quickly found work at a print shop. Impressed with Franklin, the governor, Sir William Keith, offered to fund a shop of Franklin’s own. He dispatched Franklin to London to purchase the equipment. Once there, Franklin discovered that the funds would not be forthcoming. He found work in London’s printing industry and returned to Philadelphia when a merchant paid his fare in exchange for Franklin’s promise to work for him.

Franklin’s sponsor died soon after he arrived in Philadelphia. So, using his writing skills and shrewd business instincts, Franklin soon opened his own shop. In time, Franklin succeeded in besting his rivals and built a media empire. He not only published a newspaper but was also named postmaster and won the contract to print official documents. He published Poor Richard’s Almanack for the first time in 1732. The Almanack was very successful and pioneered a particularly American form of folksy humor. Franklin was able to retire from the printing industry at the age of 42.

After he retired from business, Franklin could indulge his scientific curiosity. Isaacson stresses the important contribution Franklin made to science, particularly in the area of electricity. His theories about lightning and the use of metal rods to tame it won him international fame, as lightning had been a scourge previously. Franklin made several other scientific discoveries that had practical benefits for humankind. In his day, many considered him the world’s best scientist.

In 1751, Franklin entered politics, winning a seat in the Pennsylvania Assembly. Two decisions shaped his future, namely, his opposition to the proprietors of Pennsylvania who governed the colony and his efforts to unite the colonies. The proprietors stood for elite privilege, which Franklin detested, and thus he sided with the Assembly in power struggles against them. Faced with threats on the western frontier from the French and native tribes, Franklin attended the Albany Conference where he proposed a national congress. England and the colonial legislatures balked at the plan.

Frustrated with a lack of progress in negotiations with the proprietors over taxes, which they were exempt from paying, the Assembly sent Franklin to London in 1757 to plead its case. Franklin would have no success in this mission and would abandon his penchant for conciliation and instead alienate those with whom he negotiated. With his mission stymied, he could have returned home in 1758 but decided not to do so. He lodged with Margaret Stevenson and her daughter Polly in London and adopted them as a surrogate family. His wife, home with their daughter Sally, declined to travel with Franklin. He seemed to have closer relations with his surrogate family than with his own. Franklin brought William with him to London but was disappointed in his son’s association with the wealthy Tories. When William married into that class, Franklin opted to sail home and not attend the wedding.

Returning to Philadelphia in 1763, Franklin embarked on a 17-month postal tour of the colonies. He had no compunction about leaving his wife for long periods. In 1765, he was sent back to London on an ill-fated mission to convince England to change the form of government in Pennsylvania from a proprietorship to a royal colony. Across the ocean, Franklin initially misread the pulse of American opinion in the aftermath of the Stamp Act. He was seen in the colonies as an apologist for the act and his home in Philadelphia was almost attacked by a mob. Yet, using his adept public relations skills, Franklin soon remedied that image through testimony in Parliament condemning the tax. When the act was subsequently repealed, he became the spokesperson for America in London. During his time in London, Franklin’s wife Deborah pleaded for his help when their daughter Sally sought to marry a man named Richard Bache, who had a poor reputation in business. Franklin declined to return home to help or for his daughter’s wedding. Nor did he come home when his wife was ill. She died before his return to Philadelphia in May 1775.

Franklin’s return home coincided with the Second Continental Congress in which he participated. Franklin was an early supporter of independence and played a significant role in ensuring that outcome. He edited and supported Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, which shifted public opinion toward independence, and he helped to draft the Declaration of Independence. More importantly, Franklin was dispatched to France, where he established America’s first foreign embassy and played an instrumental role in securing an alliance. He astutely waited for favorable conditions on the ground with the victory at Saratoga to plead his case with a combination of realism, appealing to French interests, and idealism, garnering the support of the French public for American ideals. Additionally, he played England and France off one another making the French believe that the Americans might make peace with England. His campaign succeeded, and he was a signatory to the alliance.

Franklin took his grandsons Temple, William’s illegitimate child, and Benny, Sally’s son, with him to France. Because William was a Loyalist, Franklin had broken ties with his only son. When William, who was a royal governor, was jailed at the outset of the war, Franklin did nothing to help him. What is more, Franklin was adamant in the peace negotiations with England that Loyalists, such as his son, not be compensated for the loss of their property. He loved Temple, whom he rescued from a foster family after he was abandoned by William. Although he also loved Benny, he sent him to a school in Geneva where the boy was miserable. Despite being informed of the situation, he left Benny there for four years. In Paris, Franklin formed a flirtatious friendship with one woman and half seriously proposed to another. His offer was declined. He wrote witty stories about his relationships and other matters. His correspondence with his daughter could be stern and cold while he seemed to delight in playing the role of father to other young women. Franklin found himself working alongside John Adams in France. Opposite personalities, the two men irritated but also respected one another.

Franklin was replaced by Thomas Jefferson in Paris. He returned to Philadelphia in 1785. Two years later, at 81, he became the oldest delegate to the Constitutional Convention. With his wit and conciliatory style, he played a critical role in encouraging the delegates to compromise about the nature of the union. He was a signatory of the Constitution, making him the only person to have signed the Declaration of Independence, the alliance with France, the Treaty with England, and the Constitution. He died on April 17, 1790, surrounded by family and surrogate family members. Close to 20,000 attended his funeral.

Isaacson argues that Franklin represented and helped to create one side of the American character. He stood for pragmatism, religious tolerance, and good works. Combining liberalism in its commitment to public projects, conservatism in its advocacy of self-reliance, and populism in its rejection of aristocratic privilege, his outlook shaped that of the American middle class. His conciliatory approach made him a virtue of compromise, which is essential to democracy. He was, according to Isaacson, the most democratic of the Founding Fathers.