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He invented the wood-burning stove and the lightning rod, he wrote Poor Richard's Almanac and The Way to Wealth, and he traveled the world as a diplomat. But it was in politics that Benjamin Franklin made his greatest impact.
Franklin's political writings are full of fascinating reflections on human nature, on the character of good leadership, and on why government is such a messy and problematic business. Drawing together threads in Franklin's writings,...
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Why did Benjamin Franklin retire from business and become gentleman? Why did he admire the British Empire - and join the American Revolution? Why did he begin writing his Autobiography when he did? And how did the "first American" become an American in the first place? Renowned historian Gordon S. Wood spent ten years studying a legend. In this untraditional biography, he penetrates beneath 200 years' accumulation of images and representations to...
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"From one of our most accomplished and widely admired historians, a revelatory portrait of Benjamin Franklin's youngest sister and a history of history itself. Like her brother, Jane Franklin was a passionate reader, a gifted writer, and an astonishingly shrewd political commentator. Unlike him, she was a mother of twelve. Benjamin Franklin, who wrote more letters to his sister than he wrote to anyone else, was the original American self-made man;...
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There have been numerous biographies of Benjamin Franklin, including his own notorious autobiography. This is the most charming and captivating account of all. Every chapter is a bewitching gem, and Franklin lives and breathes on every page. This is the last book in Catherine Drinker Bowen's brilliant career. With this, she did not intend to write a full narrative biography. Instead she proposed to write "only what interested me about this most consistently...
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The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, which Franklin himself called his Memoirs, is the unfinished record of his life written between 1771 and 1790. It has become one of the most well-known and influential autobiographies in history, and has been praised both as a historical document and a piece of literature in its own right. William Dean Howells declared that "Franklin's is one of the greatest autobiographies in literature, and towers
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"A jewel of musical history-- the story of Ben Franklin's favorite invention, the glass armonica-- including the composers who wrote for it (Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, among others); Dr. Mesmer who used it to hypnotize; Marie Antoinette and the women who popularized it; its decline and recent comeback"--Amazon.com.
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"Renowned as a printer, scientist, and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin also published more works on religious topics than any other eighteenth-century American layperson. Born to Boston Puritans, by his teenage years Franklin had abandoned the exclusive Christian faith of his family and embraced deism. But Franklin, as a man of faith, was far more complex than the "thorough" deist who emerges in his autobiography. As Thomas Kidd reveals, deist writers...
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The bastard son of Benjamin Franklin, William Franklin, is named the new Royal Governor of New Jersey, but all he has achieved is threatened when the colonies, led by influential figures including his own father, begin the fight for independence--a cause he refuses to support.
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"Ben Franklin loved to swim and, at the age of eleven, he was determined to swim like a fish--fins and all. This ... account of young Ben's earliest invention follows the budding scientist's journey as he tests and retests his swim fins. That first big splash led Ben to even more innovations and inventions. Includes Franklin quotes, a timeline, bibliography, and source notes"--Amazon.com.
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Benjamin Franklin was one of the preeminent scientists of his time. Driven by curiosity, he conducted cutting-edge research on electricity, heat, ocean currents, weather patterns, chemical bonds, and plants. But today, Franklin is remembered more for his political prowess and diplomatic achievements than his scientific creativity. Franklin was a shrewd experimenter, clever innovator, and visionary physicist whose fame opened doors to negotiate French...
12) Newton's cannon
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Age of unreason volume 1
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In an alternate history in which science and magic coexist, a young Benjamin Franklin joins forces with Sir Isaac Newton in a desperate attempt to stop France's demonic King Louis XIV from obliterating England In 1681, in an England somewhat like our England . . . the great alchemist Sir Isaac Newton makes the remarkable discovery of a substance he calls philosopher's mercury, with which one can manipulate the four essential elements of the universe:...
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Discover the charisma and wisdom of one of America's most influential founding fathers in this new edition of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. Printer, scientist, statesman, and architect of the American spirit, Franklin's literary masterpiece is not just a historical document; it's a candid examination of colonial American life through the eyes of one of its most astute observers.
Franklin's Autobiography remains a cornerstone of American literature,...
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Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Schiff tells how Benjamin Franklin--seventy years old, without any diplomatic training, and possessed of the most rudimentary French--convinced France, an absolute monarchy, to underwrite America's experiment in democracy. When Franklin stepped onto French soil, he well understood he was embarking on the greatest gamble of his career. By virtue of fame, charisma, and ingenuity, he outmaneuvered British spies, French...
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Award-winning author Philip Dray delves into the lesser-known side of an American icon in Stealing God's Thunder. Benjamin Franklin, more often viewed as a statesman and founding father than as a man of science, challenged religion, science, and reason with his inventions. But in a time when everything was blamed on sin, it was the lightning rod- Franklin's attempt to control the heavens-that caused the greatest controversy.
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The Primary Source Readers series will ignite students' interest in history through the use of intriguing primary sources. This nonfiction reader features purposefully leveled text to increase comprehension for different learner types. Students will learn about the fascinating life and times of Benjamin Franklin. Text features include captions, a glossary, and an index to help build academic vocabulary and increase reading comprehension and literacy....
