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The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin

Audiobook
Nonfiction: Biography
Unabridged   10.5 hour(s)
Publication date: 05/24/2004

The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin

Available from major retailers or BUY FROM AMAZON
Audio CD ISBN:9781565118867
Digital Download ISBN:9781598873238

Summary

Gordon S. Wood, a leading historian of the revolutionary era, gives a convincing reappraisal of Benjamin Franklin and his remarkable life.

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Product Description

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 find the historical Franklin. He places his subject's amazing life in its 18th century context and shatters forever the comforting stereotypes: homespun patriot, cracker-barrel philosopher, folksy founder, genial self-improver. Groundbreaking and riveting, this book is a must for anyone interested in American history and the roots of American character.

Reviews/Praise

“. . . a fascinating portrait of Franklin, not only as a forefather but as a man.”
      —Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

GORDON S. WOOD is a professor at Brown University and a renowned scholar of the early American republic. Among his books are The Radicalism of the American Revolution, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize, and The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787, which garnered a Bancroft Prize. Professor Wood's scholarship has also been honored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Historical Association, and the Huntington Library, where he was a recipient of the Fletcher Jones Distinguished Fellowship.