Franklin: The Essential Founding Father

by James Srodes

Book Overview

Historian and biographer James Srodes tells Benjamin Franklin's incredible life story, making full use of the previously neglected Franklin papers to provide the most riveting account yet of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0895261049
• ISBN13: 9780895261045
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Regnery History
• Length: 435 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Fur Hatted Superstar

Franklin accomplished more in his lifetime than most people could in two. Thorough and warmly written Srodes shows Franklin's tireless tenacity, ability to finesse, explore, and intellect as nothing short of brilliant. A wonderfully self-made, successful man in the truly American sense; meaning by his boostraps rather than by birth. I loved it.

The Essential Father is an excellent book!

An enjoyable, informative book that doesn't spend time trying to find a cause to disagree with. Srodes is a masterful story teller who reports information without judgement, a refreshing concept these days.Very pleasant book to re-read. Makes one wonder if this quality of leader will ever emerge again.

An Excellent Biography of Benjamin Franklin

This is an excellently researched and written book. Recently discovered documents, unseen for centuries, allow the author to more fully describe Franklin's critical role as a diplomat. This is a thorough biography that shows us the many sides of Franklin: as politician, as Scientist, as inventor, and as a most important figure in the creation of our nation. Franklin was an early proponent of unifying the colonies, even advocating such before others considered uniting for purposes of independence from England. Franklin advocated creating a Governor General for all British colonies who could lead a unified colonial defense and attack against the French colonial army. Yet, the idea was rejected. The book explores the many aspects of Franklin's life: such as his notable experiments with electricity that won him much respect and gratitude for publishing only facts he had proven and for describing how his results could be duplicated. We see Franklin as one who purposely did not care if high society saw him with his illegitimate son as a fellow diplomat. We further see his private torment as his son is imprisoned as a British loyalist, yet Franklin chose not to intercede on his son's behalf. Ben Franklin is one of the great Americans of all time. This is a great biography of a great man. It is highly recommended.

An essential book about the essential founding father...

Mr. Srodes has taken a new look at Uncle Ben. And, that look contrasts rather sharply with the view of Franklin presented by, for example, David McCullough in his Adams book. Adams did not like Franklin--neither does McCullough, who has an entire index section labled "Franklin, Benjamin: JA's reputation blackened by..." Heady stuff that, I think that Srodes is much more balanced. For example, his chapter 'Dismal Days' provides the reader, whether casual or scholarly, with a perceptive analysis of the relationships between and Franklin, Adams, the Virginian, Arthur Lee, and their French hosts. Franklin fit the environment in which he had to function; clearly, Adams did not...or perhaps, could not. After reading what Srodes has to say, one can better comprehend why Adams became so unhappy with his diminished role. We should never forget that Franklin delivered the goods! This book is a must read for anyone desiring a new set of insights into Franklin's activities abroad on behalf of his country and especially, his critical role, is garnering the support from abroad needed to win our independence.

Franklin: A New And More Elegant Edition

"Oh, William!" his exasperated wife is said once to have chided Gladstone, the towering Victorian statesman, "if you weren't such a very great man, you would be an awful bore..."Aware of his endless and rather priggish self-improvement schemes and aphorisms, which feature prominently in his Autobiography and his almanacs, the casual observer of American history might be tempted to dismiss Franklin along the same lines that Mrs. Gladstone used to characterize her husband.It is such hasty judgments that James Srodes sets out to correct and explicate in his new biography* of Franklin (no mean task, by the way, since Franklin is one of the most researched and written-about figures in American history). For the very most part, Srodes succeeds admirably.Mind you, in a long lifetime Franklin left plenty of material for any number of biographers: a copious record of ceaseless energy and remarkable accomplishments. For nearly 30 years, he unstintingly served the American cause.Forever busily re-inventing himself, Franklin was a polymath: a very successful printer (in these internet days, it is easy to forget that printing was the leading edge technology of the time). Printing in those days also required muscular strength, drudgery and skill--all of which Franklin enthusiastically brought to the task. Printing too had to be done in daylight as doing it by candlelight produced too many costly typesetting mistakes.An inveterate scientist and inventor (those of us who are weak in the sight owe bifocals to him), he went on to become a famous author, a skilled diplomat in Europe's largest capitals (notably Paris and London), a spymaster (though this has been less advertised), a propagandist and a military leader sufficiently skilled to incur the envy of George Washington. Amusingly, at 50, a taste for madeira and rum punch had given Franklin something of a tummy--but this did not stop him from taking command of a detachment of cavalry in one of the Indian wars.In off-duty moments, he found time to be a glittering wit in society and a bit of a ladies' man--though not the philanderer that his enemies tried to depict him as. It is no wonder that Srodes calls him "the Essential Founding Father." Only Jefferson and John Adams are in the same intellectual league, he believes.Distilling the enormous mass of material, Srodes describes Franklin's various (often comparmentalized) roles.As a diplomat, for example, there is no doubt that he played the key role in securing help from the French and sympathy from some prominent people in England for his efforts to stop George III milking the American colonies.There might have been eventually an American revolution against George III without Franklin, but it would never have happened with the relative speed and efficiency for which Franklin's efforts set the scene. Without the support of the French King Louis's loans, Srodes judges, there may even have been no American Revolution and we would all be speaking with English accen