The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin

The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin PDF Author: Lorraine Smith Pangle
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801886669
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Franklin's political writings are full of fascinating reflections on human nature, on the character of good leadership, and on why government is such a messy and problematic business. Drawing together threads in Franklin's writings, Lorraine Smith Pangle illuminates his thoughts on citizenship, federalism, constitutional government, the role of civil associations, and religious freedom.

The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin

The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin PDF Author: Lorraine Smith Pangle
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801886669
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
Franklin's political writings are full of fascinating reflections on human nature, on the character of good leadership, and on why government is such a messy and problematic business. Drawing together threads in Franklin's writings, Lorraine Smith Pangle illuminates his thoughts on citizenship, federalism, constitutional government, the role of civil associations, and religious freedom.

Benjamin Franklin and the Politics of Improvement

Benjamin Franklin and the Politics of Improvement PDF Author: Alan Craig Houston
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300152396
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
This fascinating book explores Benjamin Franklin’s social and political thought. Although Franklin is often considered “the first American,” his intellectual world was cosmopolitan. An active participant in eighteenth-century Atlantic debates over the modern commercial republic, Franklin combined abstract analyses with practical proposals. Houston treats Franklin as shrewd, creative, and engaged—a lively thinker who joined both learned controversies and political conflicts at home and abroad. Drawing on meticulous archival research, Houston examines such tantalizing themes as trade and commerce, voluntary associations and civic militias, population growth and immigration policy, political union and electoral institutions, freedom and slavery. In each case, he shows how Franklin urged the improvement of self and society. Engagingly written and richly illustrated, this book provides a compelling portrait of Franklin, a fresh perspective on American identity, and a vital account of what it means to be practical.

The Political Trial of Benjamin Franklin

The Political Trial of Benjamin Franklin PDF Author: Kenneth Lawing Penegar
Publisher: Algora Publishing
ISBN: 0875868517
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Benjamin Franklin, it seems, was a reluctant revolutionary. In tracing the course of his political transformation, this book will explore the social and political understandings and misunderstandings that both sustained and divided Britain and its colonies in North America. At the center of the story is Benjamin Franklin's decision in late 1772 to use a cache of personal letters that had fallen in his lap in London for revelation in Massachusetts - essentially a Wikileaks for 1772 - and the consequences of that decision for himself and for the cause of an amicable settlement of differences between the colonies and the British government. The personal side of Franklin's life in London is explored fully enough for the reader to appreciate both his strong attachment to the place and the inevitable sense of loss from which he reluctantly retreated in the spring of 1775 upon his departure from Britain and return to Philadelphia. In the tradition of narrative history, this book combines two main stories, each one complementing the other. Woven into the chronological and social history is a tale with an air of genuine suspense and mystery about it, revolving around Franklin's publication of private correspondence with political ramifications. The "leak" was a shock to all, and had consequences for the prospect of avoiding a deeper rift with Britain, a cause Franklin pursued with increasing frustration in the last few years before the American Revolution. There are notable editorial innovations in the book. The appendices contain full transcripts of significant documents of the time (a first) as well as a thorough exploration of the mystery over the identity of Franklin's source for the Hutchinson letters. A practical 'time-line' is included showing major correlative events.This work will fill a partial void in the late colonial period in American history and will deepen our understanding of the role of the American with the most extensive experience of British political and cultural sensibilities of the time.

Benjamin Franklin Unmasked

Benjamin Franklin Unmasked PDF Author: Jerry Weinberger
Publisher: American Political Thought
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
"Taking the Autobiography as the key to Franklin's thought, Weinberger argues that previous assessments have not yet probed to the bottom of Ben's famous irony and elusiveness. While others take the self-portrait as an elder statesman's relaxed and playful retrospection, Weinberger unveils it as the window to Franklin's deepest reflections on God, virtue, justice, equality, natural rights, love, the good life, the modern technological project, and the place and limits of reason in politics and human experience. Along the way, Weinberger explores Franklin's ribald humor, usually ignored or toned down by historians and critics, and shows it to be charming - and philosophic.".

Benjamin Franklin, Politician

Benjamin Franklin, Politician PDF Author: Francis Jennings
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393039832
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
With this in mind, Francis Jennings sets forth some new ideas about Franklin as the "first American." In so doing, he provides a new view of the beginnings of the American Revolution in Franklin's struggle against Thomas Penn. By striving against Penn's feudal lordship (and therefore against King George) Franklin became master of the Pennsylvania assembly.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin PDF Author: Benjamin Franklin
Publisher: Google Auto-narrated Demo
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
Franklin's Autobiography has received widespread praise, both for its historical value as a record of an important early American and for its literary style. This work has become one of the most famous and influential examples of an autobiography ever written. This title is based on the Harvard Classics edition.

Benjamin Franklin in London

Benjamin Franklin in London PDF Author: George Goodwin
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300220243
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
An account of Franklin's British years.

Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution

Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution PDF Author: Jonathan R. Dull
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803230338
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
The inventor, the ladies? man, the affable diplomat, and the purveyor of pithy homespun wisdom: we all know the charming, resourceful Benjamin Franklin. What is less appreciated is the importance of Franklin?s part in the American Revolution:øexcept for Washington he was its most irreplaceable leader. Although aged and in ill health, Franklin served the cause with unsurpassed zeal and dedication. Jonathan R. Dull, whose decades of work on The Papers of Benjamin Franklin have given him rare insight into his subject, explains Franklin?s role in the Revolution, what prepared him for that role, and what motivated him. ø The Franklin presented here, a man immersed in the violence, danger, and suffering of the Revolution, is a tougherøperson than the Franklin of legend. Dull?s portrait captures Franklin?s confidence and self-righteousness about himself and the American cause. It shows his fanatical zeal, his hatred of King George III and George?s American supporters (particularly Franklin?s own son), and his disdain for hardship and danger. It also shows a side of Franklin that he tried to hide: his vanity, pride, and ambition. Though not as lovable and avuncular as the person of legend, this Franklin is more interesting, more complex, and in many ways more impressive.

The First American

The First American PDF Author: H. W. Brands
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307754944
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 785

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Book Description
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the pivotal figure in colonial and revolutionary America, comes vividly to life in this “thorough biography of ... America’s first Renaissance man” (The Washington Post) by the two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War. "The authoritative Franklin biography for our time.” —Joseph J. Ellis, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Founding Brothers Wit, diplomat, scientist, philosopher, businessman, inventor, and bon vivant, Benjamin Franklin's "life is one every American should know well, and it has not been told better than by Mr. Brands" (The Dallas Morning News). 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. Look for H.W. Brands's other biographies: ANDREW JACKSON, THE MAN WHO SAVED THE UNION (Ulysses S. Grant), TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS (Franklin Roosevelt) and REAGAN.

Benjamin Franklin's Intellectual World

Benjamin Franklin's Intellectual World PDF Author: Paul E. Kerry
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson
ISBN: 1611470293
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
This volume attempts to throw fresh light on two areas of Benjamin Franklin’s intellectual world, namely: his self-fashioning and his political thought. It is an odd thing that for all of Franklin’s voluminous writings—a fantastically well-documented correspondence over many years, scientific treatises that made his name amongst the brightest minds of Europe, newspaper articles, satires, and of course his signature on the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution—and yet scholars debate how to get at his political thought, indeed, if he had any political philosophy at all. It could be argued, that he is perhaps the American Founder most closely associated with the Enlightenment. Similarly, for a man who left so much evidence about his life as a printer, bookseller, postmaster, inventor, diplomat, politician, scientist, among other professions, one who wrote an autobiography that has become a piece of American national literature and, indeed, a contribution to world culture, the question of who Ben Franklin continues to engage scholars and those who read about his life. His identity seems so stable that we associate it with certain virtues that apply to the way we live our lives, time management, for example. The image of the stable figure of Franklin is applied to create a sense of trust in everything from financial institutions to plumbers. His constant drive to improve and fashion himself reveal, however, a man whose identity was not static and fixed, but was focused on growth, on bettering his understanding of himself and the world he lived in and attempted to influence and improve.