The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
|
List Price: Our Price: $1.79 You Save: $10.21 (85%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Book Review: An Eighteenth Century Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a kind of time machine that puts you straight into the Eighteenth Century. Benjamin Franklin comes over as a fearless and open character, although he is at pains to present himself as a solid and successful businessman in the printing industry. He is very much a man of his time. He concerns himself with God and self-improvement, then after he marries he says how glad he is that he did not catch VD from 'certain low women' beforehand. This, certainly consciously, echoes St Paul's advice on why people should marry.
Within the text are probably whole layers of meaning and allusions to contemporary events and news culture that are lost on twenty-first century readers. He is certainly working within religious and classical traditions of what an autobiography should be: a conversation with God, carried on in public? or moral examples and advice to the young.
Sometimes he is having a laugh at the autobiographical and literary form itself. For example, it is a commmonplace of Eighteenth Century Literature that you-the writer-had no intention of publishing your book until you were prevailed upon by your friends or the public. Franklin opens the second section of his autobiography with a letter purportedly from a Quaker who says that a life of Franklin would be worth even more than 'all Plutarch's Lives put together.'This must have raised a laugh in his local club, his 'junto' as he calls it.
However, within the same pages, Franklin describes, clearly with pride, how he swims from Chelsea to Blackfriars in London-which is quite a physical feat, it being two or three miles. He is also at some pains to place much of his financial success on hard work, simplicity and the avoidance of alcohol. These aspects of his life would bequite important for his Low Church readers.
Interestingly-as negative examples- he reports that his London workmates routinely down six pints of strong ale a day, both at home and in the printing office. For his contemporaries, this was unusual from the point of view of the English printers being not just drunkards, but -for his audience- very old fashioned. English people in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuroes -including babies hence the phrases 'tiny tots' 'small beer' etc.- drank beer and ale as drinking street pump water was correctly suspected to cause disease.
Here, through the implication that beer drinking is old fashioned and unhealthy, especially when compared to American coffee drinking, Franklin is presenting his American readers with the idea that-once again- the Colonies, rather than being a backwater, are more modern that their British counterparts in the Imperial Capital of London.
At the heart of his political thinking seems to be the moral rather than political idea that with moral virtue-and thus God- on your side, you are unstoppable, and sees the United States' future greatness to lie in this.
He takes pains to connect political greatness with the moral quality and education of individual citizens, laying particular emphasis on literacy, and reports with pride how he helped to establish the first lending library in the United States, in Philadelphia.
As a moralist rather than a politician, his republican beliefs do not seem as universal as, say, those of revolutionaries like Robespierre or Tom Paine. For him, the American Republic seems to be uniquely American. At one point he is pleased to report, and say that it is an aspect of his success in life that he has dined with a king, and names him as the King of Denmark. Tom Paine would never have dined with a king, unless it were to poison him!
Now the non-PC bit as bang go his green credentials. The 1726 Journal has Franklin helping to kill and eat dolphins while travelling by sea. He says they are good to eat, and regards them as fish rather than mammals.
Enjoy this book!
Book Review: Mr. Franklin's Autobiography should be required reading today.
Summary: 5 Stars
I often lament the fact that we as humans are constantly reinventing the wheel, and if we were to read more biographies and learn from our forebears -- we would avail ourselves of much of their wisdom and knowledge. That being the case, "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" should be considered as one of the finest and best sources of autobiographical material upon which to build.
In fact, Mr. Franklin's autobiography is considered to be one of the very first "self-help" books by some personal productivity gurus today (and often referenced by them in their works). His autobiography is really a guide to proper living, industriousness, and of obtaining wisdom -- and I think it should be required reading for anyone who wishes to overcome bad habits and obtain good ones.
In addition, his principles of obtaining wealth through hard work should be mandatory reading for many in our financial sector today who brought about such calamity to the global economy through their greed, excess and obfuscations in the housing and stock markets.
Written as a book addressed to his son, Franklin tells an interesting story of how he rose from very modest beginnings in Colonial Massachusetts -- decades before the United States even existed -- to become one of the most highly respected people of his day. It is a remarkable life that he describes, and it is to the great benefit of the reader that he interweaves into his tales many nuggets of wisdom that he has learned the hard way.
One style of his writing that I particularly enjoy -- and which in some ways models the parables of Jesus -- is that he will often offer some bit of wisdom, and then explain and reinforce that wisdom with a story from his life (or vice versa). I have found especially helpful his advice on how to avoid being argumentative, while at the same time being more persuasive. Mr. Franklin also prescribes a set of Thirteen Virtues -- of which good moral habits can be systematically obtained and incorporated into our daily lives.
I've read a few reviews that criticize the latter half of the book as meandering and less interesting than the first half. This was not the case for me, as I found the second half of the book to actually be even more interesting than the first.
Unfortunately, the autobiography ends in the 1760s -- which is well before his death or the events that led up to the formation of the U.S. However, you do get a sense of some of the reasons why the American colonists felt aggrieved by the actions of the British crown in Franklin's description of the decades prior to the American Revolution. Also, I should warn that this work was written in the 18th century, so his style of writing reflects that. It's not in any way a problem, but you might want to have a dictionary nearby for some of the less commonly used words today.
Overall, "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" is an excellent read for anyone seeking to overcome bad habits, gain wisdom, and be prosperous in life -- or for anyone interested in American history.
Book Review: How can I give Benjamin Franklin fewer than five stars?
Summary: 5 Stars
In what began as a letter to his son in 1771, Franklin decided to share the "anecdotes of [his] ancestors" and impart some of his own wisdom learned during his life. But the crisis between America and Great Britain would soon put a halt to his autobiographical work. It would be more than a decade later, at the pleadings of his friends, that Franklin would again take up his pen and complete his memoir.
The first section, the letter to his son, is the best part of the book. Here, the plot drives the story with some divergences into his philosophy. He describes his modest childhood in Boston and his gradual ascent to civic leader in Philadelphia. He shares his many disappointments (friends who had deceived him) and his many accomplishments (establishing a secret philosophical club, a successful printing press, a public library, and the list goes on and on).
In the next half of the book, taken up at the requests of his friends, he delves deeper into his personal philosophy and describes his system to work on the 13 virtues he needed to perfect to arrive at "moral perfection." He notes the impossibility of this project but believes the pursuit in itself made him a better person. He also gives more details on his public works and his role in Pennsylvania's government. Despite divulging his thoughts on religion and ethics, Franklin seems more distant than in the first section, and I didn't get a good grasp on his life in his later years.
But what's most remarkable about Franklin's autobiography is his unpretentious writing style. He strikes a conversational tone, coasting through one anecdote to the next, or what he sardonically describes as "rambling digressions." Only toward the end does this charming tone flags a bit.
I strongly recommend this autobiography to people who've a strong interest in the Founding Fathers. People with a passing interest should try reading at least some background information on Franklin, because you won't get the full portrait of the man here. You learn little about his family or inventions, and the autobiography stops (quite suddenly) when he's in England for a dispute between the Pennsylvania Assembly and governor. Overall, though, the readability of the book for its time is astounding.
Book Review: Insights from America's original innovator
Summary: 5 Stars
Benjamin Franklin, one of history's most remarkable human beings, was born in Boston in 1706. Largely self-taught, he became a respected scientist whose experiments on electricity received international acclaim. He invented the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, bifocals, the glass harmonica, an odometer and more. He was a self-made man who became wealthy as one of America's first commercial printers. He was a respected civic activist, a leading author, a politician and a political theorist. Many of the wise maxims expressed in his immortal Poor Richard's Almanack remain relevant and routinely quoted. Franklin is considered one of America's most accomplished diplomats. He served as minister to France during the Revolutionary War. In that post, he engineered a vital political alliance with the French, winning crucial military and financial aid. We think that anyone who loves history will find this spellbinding autobiography a rare delight. Franklin was on intimate terms with many of the most famous individuals in prerevolutionary America. Indeed, he seemed to have personal dealings with virtually everyone of merit in the New World. His autobiography, written in the best of the archaic language of the time, is a literary classic. Don't deprive yourself of this singular opportunity to learn what the American colonies were like during the prerevolutionary era, as reported by the extraordinary genius who first conceptualized the idea of the United States as an independent nation.Book Review: Benjamin Franklin
Summary: 5 Stars
Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography is an excellent look into the mind of a very important figure in American History. This book is important both for the autobiography literary genre and for its historical context. It is infinately useful for historians, especially those looking at the early life of this highly public-spirited man.
There are also plenty of life lessons sprinkled throughout much of Franklin's writing, and his autobiography is no exception. Therefore it reads both as history, and a how-to manual.
The only shortcoming of this book is that there is not more of it. It ends before the revolution and his employment as an ambassador abroad, so we don't have the same material for the more important and tumultuous period of his life.
This book should be recommended for anyone interested in getting a closer look into the time period. If you want to learn more about Franklin's personality and motives there is no better person to tell you than the man himself.