Book Report: Benjamin Franklin – An American Life
Author: Walter Isaacson
Pages: 493
Publication Date: 2003
Date: 3/31/25
I chose to read this book for several reasons: 1) Benjamin Franklin has always been interesting to me for all that he did in the 1700’s, 2) A friend of mine recommended the book and 3) it was written by Walter Isaacson who also wrote the book about Steve Jobs that I liked so much.
The book starts out listing out his grandparents and how is dad emigrated from England to the US. Ben had ten older step-siblings and five other siblings. He was born 1/17/1706 and was apprenticed to his older brother James at the age of 12 to learn the printing business. During this time, he wrote editorials and letters to the paper under several various pseudonyms to comment on the issues of the day. He ran away at the age of 17, first to New York City and then quickly moved to Philadelphia when he heard there was an opening there. The governor of Pennsylvania encouraged him to go to London to buy another printing press and he set sail there in November of 1724. The deal had fallen through, so he stayed in London for 1.5 years working for various printing companies until he returned to the US in July of 1726.
When he got back to Philadelphia (his preferred & adopted city), he began working as a printer – printing a weekly newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette. In 1730, he fathered an illegitimate son, William, (the mother was never identified) and began living with Deborah Read as his common-law wife. They had a son, Francis in 1732 (died at age of 4) and Sally in 1743. He started printing Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1732 as a way to promote philosophy & virtue while making money at the same time. During his time as a printer, he established several associations – a Tradesman group called the Junto, a volunteer fire force, a tax to pay for constables, a militia controlled by the state and an academy that later became the University of Pennsylvania. He also became a Freemason. Ben retired in 1748 at the age of 42 to focus time on science & inventing.
From 1744-1756, he spent time learning about electricity & invented the Franklin stove, a flexible catheter, bifocals and lightning rods. He published multiple papers on electricity. He spent time writing about slavery, the future of the colonies, and started an academy that later became the University of Pennsylvania using the concept of matching funds – the first time this was ever used. He served on the Pennsylvania assembly, was a negotiator with American Indians on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border and became the top postmaster for all of the colonies (an appointment from London). While in that post, he drew up detailed procedures for running it and improved the operations so much that the delivery time from New York to Philadelphia was only one day. It was during this time that he came up with a plan for the US colonies to govern themselves, even though the plan would not be put into effect for another 30 years.
From 1757-62, he was in London attempting to renegotiate the taxes paid by the Penn family in Pennsylvania. Because the way the original land grant was structured to Willam Penn, he & his family did not have to pay any tax. This affected the income of the colony because so much of the state was owned by the family. This was unacceptable to Ben Franklin (currently the head of the Assembly) and they attempted to get it changed there. When it did not get changed, he went to meet with the King to see if he could accomodate his request. BF stayed in London for five years with some limited compromises on how taxes were calculated on new lands opening up on the western frontier. During this time, he researched his family geneology and was conferred an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Andrews. Thereafter, he referred to himself as Dr. Franklin. BF had conceived an illegitimate son, William. In 1760, William conceived an illegitimate son, Temple. Ironically, later in life, Temple would sire several illegitimate children. In 1761, Ben & William traveled to continental Europe, but made it back in time for King George III’s coronation.
From 1763-64, he was back in Philadelphia. He built a new home and also led a group against the “Paxton Boys,” a mob of 50 frontiersmen who had killed 20 peaceful Indians. They were marching to Philadelphia to kill the 140 that were living there. He stared a public affairs campaign as they worked their way towards Philly, to soften up public opinion. By the time they got close, BF & six other city leaders met them outside city limits and restored peace. He got into it again with the Penn family and another group asked him to return to London to present their grievances to the King again.
From 1765-75, he started with discussions on amending the land grant to the Penn family to get them to pay more taxes. About this time, England passed the Stamp Act – a tax on newspapers, books, almanacs, legal documents and even decks of cards. He fought against it, but misjudged how anti-tax America had become. A mob, thinking he supported it, actually marched against his home in Philly in 1765. Fortunately, a group of friends intervened to stop anything bad happened. The Stamp Act essentially jump-started the independence movement with support from Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, Sam Adams and John Adams – all thinking and working collectively. BF soon realized which way the winds were blowing in the colonies and wrote thirteen articles attacking the Stamp Act over a three month period. He wanted the King to allow for representation in Parliament if they were going to tax the colonies, which was denied. In 1767, the Townshend Act created additional duties on glass, paper, china, paint & tea. In 1770, five Americans were killed in Boston by British soldiers, called the Boston Massacre. The Townshend act was partially repealed in 1770 on everything except tea, which led to the Tea Party in 1773 – destroying 342 chests of tea worth XX in today’s money. BF traveled in Northern England, Scotland & Ireland in 1771, researching his family tree as well as conducting scientific experiments on common colds, exercise, lead poisoning, canal shipping and the saltiness of the sea. Due to the times, BF was removed as the US postmaster and he fell out with his son William, who was acting governor of New Jersey since 1762 and an avid supporter of the King. His wife, Deborah, also died in 1774 in the US while he was gone. BF returned to Philadelphia in March of 1775. During the return trip, he researched the Gulf Stream and recorded ocean temperatures that are still referenced.
The Battle of Lexington happened before he got back to the US, with 8 Americans killed and 250 British soldiers killed or wounded. The Second Continental Congress convened in May and BF helps to draft the Articles of Confederation. After the Battle of Bunker Hill in June, BF came out as a Patriot in July. In 1776, he was an editor & signer of the Declaration of Independence. He took over the postmaster job for the US colonies. His son, William, was arrested by the Patriots and placed in a Connecticut prison.
BF left for France in October of 1776 as an envoy to France – seeking financial aid from and military alliance with France. He met with a great number of people, wrote letters and editorials and finally was able to sign an agreement in early 1778 – even though he was struggling with kidney stones and gout. More was still needed and got $30 million (in 2002 $) in 1780. Cornwallis surrendered in October of 1781 with assistance from France, who asked to help oversee the peace negotiations with Great Britain. BF finally did it without them in November of 1782. At the same time, William Franklin was released from prison and fled to the UK. BF continued working in France developing treaties with other nations. Thomas Jefferson replaced him in August, 1784 and BF left for England in May of 1785 to visit friends in England and as a test case to see if he was well enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean for home, which he did in July 1785.
After his arrival, he again was part of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 to create the new constitution and was instrumental in many of the negotiations and amendments. Ben became sick in 1788 and died in April 1790 at the age of 84.
Some interesting facts about Ben Franklin that I learned from this book:
1) He was an early believer in vaccinations through innoculation – especially for smallpox. Unfortunately, his one young son died of smallpox before he was able to be innoculated.
2) He is the person who came up with phrase “Snug as a bug in a rug.”
3) He created the Franklin Gothic font.
4) He crossed the Atlantic Ocean 4 different times. During these times, he was able to take readings that proved the existence of the Gulf Stream.
5) “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety” was attributed to him.
6) He invented bifocals, lightning rods and the flexible catheter. He established a tax to pay for neighborhood constables & volunteer fire fighters and established what later became the University of Pennsylvania.
7) While head of the PA militia, he had trouble getting his men to attend church. He then gave the chaplain the task of doling out the daily allotment of rum right after the services. Church attendance jumped.
8) London was the largest city in the world in the 1750’s with a population of 750,000.
9) 1/4 of all newborns born in Boston in the mid 1700’s died within a week.
10) In 1790, one in nine families owned slaves.
11) He was the only one who signed all three major documents: The Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.
12) In colonial America, it was sinful to look idle; in France it was vulgar to look busy.
I learned the following things that will increase my prospective for success after prison:
1) While not directly affecting me, there were two sentences in the book that rang true with me, which are listed below. I think it is very important that in the future, I encourage anyone I know to take the stand not to be involved in military or trade wars as the costs outweigh the benefits, thereby harming the nation as a whole.
a) All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievious.
b) There was never a good war or a bad peace.
2) Ben Franklin said, “Lost time is never found again.” I think no one realizes this more than inmates in a prison. I also think this is one reason that US laws are too restrictive, especially for first-time offenses or those involving people who are quite old. In these cases, extra mercy should be applied.
3) Ben Franklin developed the religious concept known as deism, meaning that each individual cold best discover the truth about God through reason and studying nature, rather than blind faith in received doctrines and divine revelation. But, he also believed that religious practices were beneficial because they encouraged good behavior and a moral society. As a result, his religious beliefs followed a hybrid deistic model that held that God was best served by doing good works and helping other people. I had never heard of this before, but I had come to this type of conclusion for my own religious beliefs. Thus, from this book, I discovered that I am a hybrid deist.
