Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, History
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who seems made of flesh rather than marble. Walter Isaacson follows the runaway apprentice from Boston to Philadelphia, London, and Paris as he becomes a writer, inventor, scientist, publisher, diplomat, and political leader. Along the way come Poor Richard's Almanack, the Declaration of Independence, the alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises behind the Constitution. Isaacson shows how Franklin helped shape the American identity, and why he still feels so modern.