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Book Review By David Loftus
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson

Born in 1706, apprenticed as a printer to his older brother James at age 12, Benjamin Franklin was already publishing pseudonymous satires by the age of 16. He lived a long life for his time, invented many useful tools as well as proved the connection between electricity and lightning, was the country's national postmaster as well as the publisher of the first novel to appear in the colonies, served his homeland as a diplomat to England and France, and accomplished a bewildering number of other things. He also had mostly poor or at best cool relations with his own family, carried on oral and epistolary flirtations with a number of younger women, and changed his mind about a number of significant issues (mostly for the better). A chairman of CNN and managing editor of Time magazine, Isaacson's 2003 biography of Franklin is balanced and tremendously readable, but somewhat facile; the reader doesn't really get to know the man under the myths, though he or she will learn an awful lot about this complicated Founding Father's activities and relationships.


Plot & Themes
job/profession:
Job/profession/poverty story Yes
Politician story? - Politician trying to reform
Period of greatest activity? - 1600-1899 -

Subject of Biography
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Ethnicity - White
Nationality - American

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 2 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK - France
Misc setting - Fancy Mansion
Century: - 18th century

Writing Style
Book makes you feel? - thoughtful - like laughing
Pictures/Illustrations? - A lot in color 11-15
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life? - 51%-75% of book
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