Summary and Analysis of Benjamin Franklin: Based on the Book by Walter Isaacson
By Worth Books
()
About this ebook
Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.
This short summary and analysis of Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson includes:
- Historical context
- Chapter-by-chapter overviews
- Character profiles
- Detailed timeline of events
- Important quotes
- Fascinating trivia
- Glossary of terms
- Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work
In his thorough examination of one of America’s Founding Fathers, biographer Walter Isaacson explores the life and times of Benjamin Franklin and his legacy as a scientist, writer, diplomat, printing mogul, and voice for the common man.
Isaacson follows Franklin from young runaway teenager in Philadelphia, to the savvy statesman coordinating the Franco-American alliance during the Revolutionary War, to the wise, 80-year-old politician at the Constitutional Convention. In between, we learn about Franklin the person—his complicated relationships, his scientific curiosity and brilliant discoveries, and the civic-mindedness that caused him to found a library, a fire department, a university, and a hospital. Franklin’s principles of democracy and admiration for the middle class continue to be at the foundation of American society.
The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.
Worth Books
Worth Books’ smart summaries get straight to the point and provide essential tools to help you be an informed reader in a busy world, whether you’re browsing for new discoveries, managing your to-read list for work or school, or simply deepening your knowledge. Available for fiction and nonfiction titles, these are the book summaries that are worth your time.
Read more from Worth Books
Summary and Analysis of The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics: Based on the Book by Daniel James Brown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe American Reader: A Brief Guide to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary and Analysis of The Handmaid's Tale: Based on the Book by Margaret Atwood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary and Analysis of It Can't Happen Here: Based on the Book by Sinclair Lewis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary and Analysis of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance: Based on the Book by Angela Duckworth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary and Analysis of To Kill a Mockingbird: Based on the Book by Harper Lee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary and Analysis of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Based on the Book by Rebecca Skloot Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary and Analysis of Man's Search for Meaning: Based on the Book by Victor E. Frankl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary and Analysis of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History: Based on the Book by Elizabeth Kolbert Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary and Analysis of Thinking, Fast and Slow: Based on the Book by Daniel Kahneman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary and Analysis of 1984: Based on the Book by George Orwell Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary and Analysis of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story: Based on the Book by John Berendt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary and Analysis of The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—but Some Don't: Based on the Book by Nate Silver Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary and Analysis of The Kite Runner: Based on the Book by Khaled Hosseini Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary and Analysis of Profiles in Courage: Based on the Book by John F. Kennedy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary and Analysis of Outliers: The Story of Success: Based on the Book by Malcolm Gladwell Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary and Analysis of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success: Based on the Book by Carol S. Dweck, PhD Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Summary and Analysis of Benjamin Franklin
Related ebooks
A Benjamin Franklin Reader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: A Book of Quotations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leonardo Da Vinci - Summarized for Busy People: Based on the Book by Walter Isaacson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Shoe Dog: by Phil Knight | Includes Analysis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary and Analysis of Alexander Hamilton: Based on the Book by Ron Chernow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary and Analysis of Outliers: The Story of Success: Based on the Book by Malcolm Gladwell Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary and Analysis of The Wright Brothers: Based on the Book by David McCullough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Nick Bilton's American Kingpin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Jon Gertner's The Idea Factory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Outliers: by Malcolm Gladwell - The Story of Success - A Comprehensive Summary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Think Like Churchill Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Art of Virtue: Benjamin Franklin's Formula for Successful Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Misbehaving Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary, Analysis & Review of Ronald C. White's American Ulysses by Instaread Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lessons of History: by Will Durant | Conversation Starters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton & Edward Hutchings's "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary: How to Win Friends and Influence People - by Dale Carnegie Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Milton Friedman: A concise guide to the ideas and influence of the free-market economist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of The Innovators Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInside the Mind of Bill Gates Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEverything is Bullshit | Summary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Business Adventures: by John Brooks | Includes Analysis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
United States History For You
Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5U.S. History 101: Historic Events, Key People, Important Locations, and More! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Summary and Analysis of Benjamin Franklin
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Summary and Analysis of Benjamin Franklin - Worth Books
Contents
Context
Overview
Summary
Timeline
Cast of Characters
Direct Quotes and Analysis
Trivia
What’s That Word?
Critical Response
About Walter Isaacson
For Your Information
Bibliography
Copyright
Context
Walter Isaacson offers a complete view of the revered scientist, inventor, statesman, writer, humorist, and shaper of American consciousness, Benjamin Franklin. He outlines Franklin’s profound impact on American cultural values and his essential role in achieving the alliance with France during the Revolutionary War, and in negotiating peace terms with Great Britain in the aftermath. He also includes excerpts from many of Franklin’s most notable speeches and publications.
This history of Franklin’s life and the transformation of America from disparate colonies under British rule to a sovereign nation is both remarkably well-researched and uniquely accessible to a wide audience. Isaacson is forthright about Franklin’s flaws, noting the occasional lies or exaggerations in his Autobiography, his pride, his insensitivity to his wife, and his almost cruel unwillingness to make amends with his son. These details allow for a full, complex, view of a larger-than-life man, who was nevertheless still a man.
Franklin has had his share of critics over the years. His values and concerns have been derided as earthly and bourgeois, lacking in spirituality and romance. But with his thoroughly researched book, written with great respect and affection, Isaacson seeks to rescue Franklin from the history book caricatures,
by revealing the complexities that lurked beneath the pithy aphorisms and quirky science experiments, and to possibly correct the ledger.
Overview
Walter Isaacson covers the life of Benjamin Franklin, from his days as a young printer’s assistant crafting satirical essays under the moniker Silence Dogood,
to his role as the voice of reason that helped usher in the US Constitution. In between, Franklin plucked lightning from the sky as a scientist, ran a printing empire ousting all major competition, spearheaded community projects, came up with countless quotable sayings that continue to show up in everyday conversation, and served as a diplomat to Great Britain and France, arbitrating the most delicate of negotiations.
The American value system originated with Franklin, perhaps more than any other person. He was an antielitist who fought for a rising middle class, and he prized pragmatic humanism, industry, and a community spirit that functioned independently of any religious context. A fierce advocate for the common man, he was a champion of democratic principles, and, as a writer, the homespun
voice he used to write