National Bestseller 

He was the foremost American of his day, yet today he is little more than a mythic caricature in the public imagination. Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the pivotal figure in colonial and revolutionary America, comes vividly to life in this masterly biography.

Wit, diplomat, scientist, philosopher, businessman, inventor, and bon vivant, Benjamin Franklin was in every respect America’s first Renaissance man. From penniless runaway to highly successful printer, from ardently loyal subject of Britain to architect of an alliance with France that ensured America’s independence, Franklin went from obscurity to become one of the world’s most admired figures, whose circle included the likes of Voltaire, Hume, Burke, and Kant. Drawing on previously unpublished letters and a host of other sources, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands has written a thoroughly engaging biography of the eighteenth-century genius. A much needed reminder of Franklin’s greatness and humanity, The First American is a work of meticulous scholarship that provides a magnificent tour of a legendary historical figure, a vital era in American life, and the countless arenas in which the protean Franklin left his legacy.

Author: H.W. Brands
Paperback: 784 pages
Company: Anchor (2002-03-12) (2002-03-12)
ISBN: 0385495404
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Author: Dennis Brindell Fradin
Paperback: 112 pages ISBN13: 9780448424958, Condition: New, Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Company: Grosset & Dunlap (2002-02-18) (2002-02-18)
ISBN: 0448424959
List Price: $4.99
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Author: Maria Mihalik Higgins
Paperback: 128 pages
Company: Sterling (2007-08-01)
ISBN: 140273283X
List Price: $5.95
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Benjamin Franklin is perhaps the most remarkable figure in American history: the greatest statesman of his age, he played a pivotal role in the formation of the American republic. He was also a pioneering scientist, a best-selling author, the country's first postmaster general, a printer, a bon vivant, a diplomat, a ladies' man, and a moralist - and the most prominent celebrity of the 18th century. Franklin was, however, a man of vast contradictions, as Edmund Morgan demonstrates in this biography. A reluctant revolutionary, Franklin had desperately wished to preserve the British Empire, and he mourned the break even as he led the fight for American independence. Despite his passion for science, Franklin viewed his groundbreaking experiments as secondary to his civic duties. And although he helped to draft both the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, he had personally hoped that the new American government would take a different shape. Seeking to unravel the enigma of Franklin's character, Morgan shows that he was the rare individual who consistently placed the public interest before his own desires.

Author: Edmund S. Morgan
Hardcover: 368 pages
Company: Yale University Press (2002-10)
ISBN: 0300095325
List Price: $28.00
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Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character.

In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin's life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the spunky runaway apprentice who became, during his 84-year life, America's best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard's Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation's alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution.

Above all, Isaacson shows how Franklin's unwavering faith in the wisdom of the common citizen and his instinctive appreciation for the possibilities of democracy helped to forge an American national identity based on the virtues and values of its middle class.

Author: Walter Isaacson
Paperback: 608 pages
Company: Simon & Schuster (2004-05-04) (2004-05-04)
ISBN: 074325807X
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Filled with archival photographs and amazing fact boxes, this groundbreaking series introduces young readers to some of history's most interesting and influential characters.

Tells the story of the famous statesman's remarkable life, from his early childhood and upbringing through his scientific experiments, his politically active years in the U.S. and France, to his death and legacy.

Author: Stephen Krensky
Paperback: 128 pages
Company: DK CHILDREN (2007-12-17)
ISBN: 0756635284
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Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Author: Benjamin Franklin
Paperback: 152 pages
Company: CreateSpace (2011-11-23)
ISBN: 1453606122
List Price: $7.95
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The greatest statesman of his age, Benjamin Franklin was also a pioneering scientist, a successful author, the first American postmaster general, a printer and a bon vivant. In addition, he was a man of vast contradictions. This biography offers a compact and provocative portrait of America's most extraordinary patriot.

Author: Edmund S. Morgan
Paperback: 352 pages
Company: Yale University Press (2003-09-24)
ISBN: 0300101627
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From the most respected chronicler of the early days of the Republic—and winner of both the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes—comes a landmark work that rescues Benjamin Franklin from a mythology that has blinded generations of Americans to the man he really was and makes sense of aspects of his life and career that would have otherwise remained mysterious. In place of the genial polymath, self-improver, and quintessential American, Gordon S. Wood reveals a figure much more ambiguous and complex—and much more interesting. Charting the passage of Franklin’s life and reputation from relative popular indifference (his death, while the occasion for mass mourning in France, was widely ignored in America) to posthumous glory, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin sheds invaluable light on the emergence of our country’s idea of itself.

Author: Gordon S. Wood
Paperback: 320 pages
Company: Penguin (Non-Classics) (2005-05-31) (2005-05-31)
ISBN: 0143035282
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The Real Benjamin Franklin: The True Story of America's Greatest Diplomat. There are many Benjamin Franklins -- or at least he has taken on many different forms in the history books of the last two centuries. Some historians have shown us an aged statesman whose wise and steadying influence kept the Constitutional Convention together in 1787, while others have conjured up sensational tales of a lecherous old diplomat. Unfounded myths are now being repeated and embellished in school textbooks and educational television programs.

Which of all these Benjamin Franklins, if any, is real? This book is an attempt to answer that question. The Real Benjamin Franklin seats us across the table from the one person who really knew Benjamin Franklin -- that is, Franklin himself -- and gives him an opportunity to explain his life and ideas in his own words. Part I of this book details his exciting biography, and Part II includes his most important and insightful writings, all carefully documented from original sources.

Highly acclaimed by many, including Glenn Beck of the Fox News Channel. Published by the National Center for Constitutional Studies, a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to restoring Constitutional principles in the tradition of America's Founding Fathers. The National Center for Constitutional Studies...is doing a fine public service in educating Americans about the principles of the Constitution. -- Ronald Reagan, President of the United States

Author: Andrew M. Allison
Paperback: 504 pages
Company: National Center for Constitutional Studies (1982-08-01)
ISBN: 0880800011
List Price: $19.95
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