Franklin on Franklin

by Franklin, Benjamin; Zall, Paul M.

• ISBN13: 9780813122014
• ISBN10: 0813122015
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-07-27
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky

Summary

"Read a chapter from the book. Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography ends in 1758, some thirty years before he died. Those three decades included some of the statesman's greatest triumphs, yet instead of including them in his memoir, Franklin spent the years continually revising his original text. Paul Zall has created a new autobiographical account of Franklin's entire life. By returning to a newly recovered early draft of the Autobiography, he strips away later layers of moralizing to reveal the story as Franklin first wrote it: how a poor boy from Boston used words and hard work to become America's first world-class citizen. To cover Franklin's career as a diplomat and as the only signatory of all three key documents of the American Revolution, Zall interweaves autobiographical comments from Franklin's personal letters and private journals. Franklin emerges as different from the common perception of him as a crafty "Man of Reason." His raw words reveal the bitter infighting among both British and American politicians and his personal struggle with his son's choice of the opposite side in the fight for the future of two countries. Without the veneer of second thoughts, his lifelong struggle to control his temper carries greater poignancy, as do his later years spent nursing his wounded pride. Susceptible to both fallibility and frustration, the honest Franklin depicted in his own words nevertheless remains an uncommon common man, perhaps even more so than previously thought.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
A Note on the Text	xi
Introduction: Ben Franklin Revising	1	(10)
Growing Up Bostonian January 1706--April 1722	11	(15)
Becoming a Journalist April 1722--September 1723	26	(5)
On the Road to Philadelphia 25 September--1 October 1723	31	(5)
Settling at Philadelphia October 1723--May 1724	36	(5)
A Prodigal's Return to Boston April 25--June 1724	41	(8)
Plotting to Deceive & Being Deceived June--November 1724	49	(10)
Living in London 25 December 1724--21 July 1726	59	(10)
Sailing Home 23 July--11 October 1726	69	(10)
Facing Uncertain Philadelphia Future 1726--1727	79	(10)
Venturing into Business May 1728--September 1730	89	(6)
Entering Business for Himself: 1729--1730	95	(8)
Finding Felicity in Philadelphia: 1731--1732	103	(17)
Promoting Virtue & Views: 1731--1754	120	(10)
Taking Care of Business: 1736--1739	130	(8)
Promoting the Great Awakening: 1739--1740	138	(8)
Promoting Provincial Defense: 1740s	146	(10)
Establishing an Academy: 1749	156	(4)
Retiring to Public Service: 1748--1753	160	(10)
Experimenting with Electricity: 1743--1753	170	(8)
Promoting a United Front: 1754	178	(16)
Soldiering on the Frontier: 1756	194	(11)
Making a Mission to London: 1756--1757	205	(13)
Lobbying in London: 1757--1762	218	(8)
Skirmishing with Parliament: 1757--1765	226	(6)
Coping in a Calm: 1766--1770	232	(8)
Agitating for All Americans: 1770--1774	240	(10)
Failing to Reconcile: 1774--1775	250	(9)
Forging Independence: 1775--1785	259	(11)
Free at Last: 1785--1790	270	(19)
Notes	289	(10)
Selected Bibliography	299	(4)
Index	303