Table of Contents

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of America

CHAPTER TWO

Pilgrim's Progress: Boston, 1706-1723

CHAPTER THREE

Journeyman: Philadelphia and London, 1723-1726

CHAPTER FOUR

Printer: Philadelphia, 1726-1732

CHAPTER FIVE

Public Citizen: Philadelphia, 1731-1748

CHAPTER SIX

Scientist and Inventor: Philadelphia, 1744-1751

CHAPTER SEVEN

Politician: Philadelphia, 1749-1756

CHAPTER EIGHT

Troubled Waters: London, 1757-1762

CHAPTER NINE

Home Leave: Philadelphia, 1763-1764

CHAPTER TEN

Agent Provocateur: London, 1765-1770

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Rebel: London, 1771-1775

CHAPTER TWELVE

Independence: Philadelphia, 1775-1776

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Courtier: Paris, 1776-1778

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Bon Vivant: Paris, 1778-1785

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Peacemaker: Paris, 1778-1785

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Sage: Philadelphia, 1785-1790

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Epilogue

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Conclusions

Cast of Characters

Chronology

Currency Conversions

Acknowledgments

Sources and Abbreviations

Notes

Index

About the Author

Walter Isaacson is the bestselling author of biographies of Jennifer Doudna, Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. He is a professor of history at Tulane and was CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2023. Visit him at Isaacson.Tulane.edu.

Reviews

The Washington Post Book World The most readable full-length Franklin biography available.

The New Yorker Energetic, entertaining, and worldly.

The New York Times In its common sense, clarity and accessibility, it is a fitting reflection of Franklin's sly pragmatism....This may be the book that most powerfully drives a new pendulum swing of the Franklin reputation.

The New York Times Book Review A thoroughly researched, crisply written, convincingly argued chronicle.

The Washington Post Book World The most readable full-length Franklin biography available.
The New Yorker Energetic, entertaining, and worldly.
The New York Times In its common sense, clarity and accessibility, it is a fitting reflection of Franklin's sly pragmatism....This may be the book that most powerfully drives a new pendulum swing of the Franklin reputation.
The New York Times Book Review A thoroughly researched, crisply written, convincingly argued chronicle.

Following closely on the heels of Edmund Morgan's justly acclaimed Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson's longer biography easily holds its own. How do the two books differ? Isaacson's is more detailed; it lingers over such matters as the nature of Franklin's complex family circumstances and his relations with others, and it pays closer attention to each of his extraordinary achievements. Morgan's is more subtle and reflective. Each in its different way is superb. Isaacson (now president of the Aspen Institute, he is the former chairman of CNN and a Henry Kissinger biographer) has a keen eye for the genius of a man whose fingerprints lie everywhere in our history. The oldest, most distinctive and multifaceted of the founders, Franklin remains as mysterious as Jefferson. After examining the large body of existing Franklin scholarship as skillfully and critically as any scholar, Isaacson admits that his subject always "winks at us" to keep us at bay-which of course is one reason why he's so fascinating. Unlike, say, David McCullough's John Adams, which seeks to restore Adams to public affection, this book has no overriding agenda except to present the story of Franklin's life. Unfortunately, for all its length, it's a book of connected short segments without artful, easy transitions So whether this fresh and lively work will replace Carl Van Doren's beloved 1938 Benjamin Franklin in readers' esteem remains to be seen. Agent, Amanda Urban. (July) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.