false 58479 4 From the most respected chronicler of the early days of the Republic&#151;and winner of both the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes&#151;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&#151;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, <I>The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin</I> sheds invaluable light on the emergence of our country's idea of itself. 56948 2004 The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin total:205|5:43|4:102|3:51|2:9|1:0| 205 794 336 42 5 0 false false Mon Mar 02 17:46:25 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 17:51:46 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Feb 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 10:47:03 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 06:02:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:25:48 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:25:48 -0800 2009 Reviewers agree that Wood's new book makes a valuable addition to the recent spate of Founding Fathers literature. More of a study than a biography, the book follows the twists and turns of Franklin's life—from commoner to gentleman, from Royalist to Patriot—with great insight. Despite the title...

more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Nov 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 03 12:19:26 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 12:15:40 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Nov 30 07:37:11 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 30 07:43:18 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 08:31:03 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 09:38:45 -0700 2009 Walter Isaacson wrote a great one on Franklin a few years ago. If you want a straight biography (and a lengthy one), that's the book for you. Wood takes a different approach. Benjamin Franklin is in many ways the quintessential American: a self-made man, a lover of liberty, a champion of the common ...more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu May 26 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Thu Jul 31 05:30:52 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 25 06:10:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Jul 12 18:51:35 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 27 19:22:28 -0700 2008 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is mythologized to some degree, written as it was with varying degrees of jaundiced eye as he aged, that eye as well turned toward writing a work to affect the wo...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Fri Feb 08 15:06:50 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 08 15:07:16 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 true false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 17 18:18:46 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 05 15:34:12 -0800 2007
oops - wrong assignment;)

I learned that just about everything I thought I knew about Benjamin Franklin was wrong, or grossly distorted. While reading this book, I realized that I never formally learned much about him at all, oth...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Mar 28 13:01:21 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 28 13:08:02 -0700 2008
It details ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Aug 20 07:51:46 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 07:52:20 -0700 2009 1
The writing is good enough that I will read more Gordon Wood in the future, if his topic interests me....more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 14 07:09:26 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 14 07:11:21 -0700 2008
...and while I'm sure the new Isaacson biography of Franklin is terrific it's Amazon description screams populist re-hashing whereas these three all have intellectual axes to grind and are just fascinating. They always tell you in school how unl...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Sep 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 03 13:10:43 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 13:18:19 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sun Apr 05 19:22:04 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 05 19:25:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Feb 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 08 23:19:59 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 12 09:27:26 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 01 19:37:33 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 27 23:40:30 -0700 2009
One uncommonly known fact presented is that in order to win and sustain the admiration of t...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 12:46:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 12:48:32 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Thu Jan 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 13:01:33 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 09:59:57 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Mon Nov 12 13:08:08 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 29 06:50:41 -0800 2007 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2161904