Franklin: The Essential Founding Father [Hardcover]

James Srodes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2002

Historian and biographer James Srodes argues that without Ben Franklin we would still be British subjects. In this book, Srodes tells Franklin's incredible life story making full use of the previously neglected Franklin papers to provide the most riveting account yet of the journalist, scientist, politician, and unlikely adventurer. From London, Paris, Philadelphia to his numerous sexual affairs, Franklin's life becomes a panorama of dramatic history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Seasoned journalist Srodes (Allen Dulles: Master of Spies) charts Benjamin Franklin's "evolution from striving craftsman to daring diplomat, spy, and national master builder" in an account that situates Franklin as the "essential American." While acknowledging that the successful businessman, scientist, philosopher and social activist had his share of critics during his lifetime and after (D.H. Lawrence, for example, pronounced him "a sexual monster"), Srodes tends to grant such claims little time. Franklin's "malleable" temperament and the many talents he developed over his long life suited him well for his role as a catalyst for progress, Srodes writes: to Franklin, "the idea, not the sponsor, should be the point." When situating Franklin within the context of the conflicting public sentiments with which he had to deal New England and Virginian patriots, who disdained men from the middle colonies; William Penn's heirs, whom Franklin had to coax to share the cost of the French and Indian War; and the Quaker merchant elite, who considered Franklin's challenges to their ordered society dangerous Srodes approaches a more balanced portrait. Ultimately, the author contends, while other scientists and philosophers paralleled and even outdistanced Franklin, his greatest accomplishment was that he was the "ingredient that made change happen" and a man whose "best skills were to plot strategy in private and to write documents for public purposes." An extensive bibliography, some of it annotated, will assist interested readers in locating valuable primary and secondary sources for further study.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A journalist and author of Allen Dulles: Master of Spies, Srodes presents a biography of Benjamin Franklin in mostly favorable terms. He incorporates some heretofore neglected archival materials and concludes that Franklin was of much greater importance to the founding of an independent America than previous scholars have recognized. While his biography is enjoyable to read, the author's conclusions are overstated. Clearly, Franklin had a significant role in pre-Revolutionary America, especially as he encouraged the people to consider independence from England and as a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration. But his was not the only voice championing independence nor was it the most effective. Likewise, his presence at the Constitutional Convention was valuable, but he was not a critical player in the drafting of the document. Franklin was indeed a brilliant, energetic, and complex man, and one too often overlooked for his political accomplishments, which Srodes illuminates in a compelling fashion. Franklin may not be quite as great as Srodes portrays him, but neither is he as corrupt or self-important as his detractors suggest. The truth obviously lies somewhere in between. For those who have read David McCullough's John Adams, Srodes's Franklin provides an interesting complement. Libraries that already hold several other Franklin biographies might not need this one; however, if the other biographies are very dated, this is a fine way to upgrade holdings in this area. Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, PA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 435 pages
• Publisher: Regnery History; 1St Edition edition (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895261634
• ISBN-13: 978-0895261632
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,052,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Franklin: A New And More Elegant Edition, April 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Franklin: The Essential Founding Father (Hardcover)

"Oh, William!" his exasperated wife is said once to have chided Gladstone, the towering Victorian statesman, "if you weren't such a very great man, you would be an awful bore..."

Aware of his endless and rather priggish self-improvement schemes and aphorisms, which feature prominently in his Autobiography and his almanacs, the casual observer of American history might be tempted to dismiss Franklin along the same lines that Mrs. Gladstone used to characterize her husband.

It is such hasty judgments that James Srodes sets out to correct and explicate in his new biography* of Franklin (no mean task, by the way, since Franklin is one of the most researched and written-about figures in American history). For the very most part, Srodes succeeds admirably.

Mind you, in a long lifetime Franklin left plenty of material for any number of biographers: a copious record of ceaseless energy and remarkable accomplishments. For nearly 30 years, he unstintingly served the American cause.

Forever busily re-inventing himself, Franklin was a polymath: a very successful printer (in these internet days, it is easy to forget that printing was the leading edge technology of the time). Printing in those days also required muscular strength, drudgery and skill--all of which Franklin enthusiastically brought to the task. Printing too had to be done in daylight as doing it by candlelight produced too many costly typesetting mistakes.

An inveterate scientist and inventor (those of us who are weak in the sight owe bifocals to him), he went on to become a famous author, a skilled diplomat in Europe's largest capitals (notably Paris and London), a spymaster (though this has been less advertised), a propagandist and a military leader sufficiently skilled to incur the envy of George Washington. Amusingly, at 50, a taste for madeira and rum punch had given Franklin something of a tummy--but this did not stop him from taking command of a detachment of cavalry in one of the Indian wars.

In off-duty moments, he found time to be a glittering wit in society and a bit of a ladies' man--though not the philanderer that his enemies tried to depict him as. It is no wonder that Srodes calls him "the Essential Founding Father." Only Jefferson and John Adams are in the same intellectual league, he believes.

Distilling the enormous mass of material, Srodes describes Franklin's various (often comparmentalized) roles.

As a diplomat, for example, there is no doubt that he played the key role in securing help from the French and sympathy from some prominent people in England for his efforts to stop George III milking the American colonies.

There might have been eventually an American revolution against George III without Franklin, but it would never have happened with the relative speed and efficiency for which Franklin's efforts set the scene. Without the support of the French King Louis's loans, Srodes judges, there may even have been no American Revolution and we would all be speaking with English accents.

Srodes imbues the run-up to the Revolution, when America had only a brief window of opportunity against the immeasurably-richer England, with considerable narrative tension. Srodes points out too, which may not be well known to general readers, that Franklin only slowly and reluctantly shifted from his loyalty to George III to become a supporter and architect of American independence.

As a diplomat, Srodes says, Franklin had the rare virtue of taciturnity--reserving his main thrusts for one-on-one meetings, a lesson that might be taken on board by today's politicians, diplomats and spin doctors.

As an inventor, Srodes sets enormous store by Franklin's work in the discovery and development of electricity--known to every schoolboy (or perhaps not to today's schoolboys) by the famous depiction of Franklin flying the kite with the key attached to attract lightning. Indeed, Srodes argues, Franklin may be said to have bestrided 18th century science in the way that Newton bestrode science in the previous century--a largish claim but certainly what regulators call "a rebuttable proposition."

Nor does our biographer who--after 40 years in the dismal craft of journalism has developed a keen eye for these things--neglect the Rube Goldberg or playful side of Franklin's inventions: the writing chair with a foot-operated fan, a mechanical arm to retrieve books from the top shelves, a press to copy letters and so on.

A keen supporter of the Montgolfier brothers' balloon experiments, the first balloon that crossed the English Channel carried a letter to Franklin in Paris. With more justification than Al Gore's claim to have invented the internet, this may well entitle Franklin to be hailed as the inventor of airmail.

Not above showmanship, neither, Franklin developed a long, hollow cane--the staff of which he filled with oil. Waving the cane over wind-rippled waters, Franklin would appear to calm the troubled waters--to the great amazement of his less-artful audiences.

Impishly, Srodes scatters his book with amusing and telling details. George I, who was on the throne when Franklin first visited London in 1724, was a German, who spoke no English. Robert Walpole, his Prime Minister, did not speak German. So the two were obliged to converse in Latin, which they had each learned (imperfectly) at school.

In the end, perhaps, Srodes' biography has the virtue of separating the Samuel Smiles, self-improvement Franklin from the man who had a wry wit, loved publishing anonymous hoaxes (echoes here of Jonathan Swift), mocked in print pompous church sermons or foolish legislation in Philadelphia.

In a masterly epilogue, Srodes reflects upon Franklin's achievements and his multitudinous characteristics which, he writes, "drove him to the heights he reached...He often seems to have lived the life of more than one man."

But we should leave Ben Franklin with the wry epitaph for himself which he composed after a near fatal bout of pleurisy. Srodes calls it "a sweetly-written thing." It goes:

The Body of
B. Franklin, Printer
(Like the Cover of an old Book
Its contents torn out
And stript of its Lettering & Gilding)
Lies here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be lost;
For it will (as he Believ'd) appear once more,
In a new and more elegant Edition
Revised and corrected,
By the Author...

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential book about the essential founding father..., September 23, 2002

By 

John T. Tyler, Jr. (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Franklin: The Essential Founding Father (Hardcover)

Mr. Srodes has taken a new look at Uncle Ben. And, that look contrasts rather sharply with the view of Franklin presented by, for example, David McCullough in his Adams book. Adams did not like Franklin--neither does McCullough, who has an entire index section labled "Franklin, Benjamin: JA's reputation blackened by..." Heady stuff that, I think that Srodes is much more balanced. For example, his chapter 'Dismal Days' provides the reader, whether casual or scholarly, with a perceptive analysis of the relationships between and Franklin, Adams, the Virginian, Arthur Lee, and their French hosts. Franklin fit the environment in which he had to function; clearly, Adams did not...or perhaps, could not. After reading what Srodes has to say, one can better comprehend why Adams became so unhappy with his diminished role. We should never forget that Franklin delivered the goods! This book is a must read for anyone desiring a new set of insights into Franklin's activities abroad on behalf of his country and especially, his critical role, is garnering the support from abroad needed to win our independence.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Biography of Benjamin Franklin, December 27, 2002

By 

LEON L CZIKOWSKY (Harrisburg, Pa USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Franklin: The Essential Founding Father (Hardcover)

This is an excellently researched and written book. Recently discovered documents, unseen for centuries, allow the author to more fully describe Franklin's critical role as a diplomat. This is a thorough biography that shows us the many sides of Franklin: as politician, as Scientist, as inventor, and as a most important figure in the creation of our nation.
Franklin was an early proponent of unifying the colonies, even advocating such before others considered uniting for purposes of independence from England. Franklin advocated creating a Governor General for all British colonies who could lead a unified colonial defense and attack against the French colonial army. Yet, the idea was rejected.
The book explores the many aspects of Franklin's life: such as his notable experiments with electricity that won him much respect and gratitude for publishing only facts he had proven and for describing how his results could be duplicated. We see Franklin as one who purposely did not care if high society saw him with his illegitimate son as a fellow diplomat. We further see his private torment as his son is imprisoned as a British loyalist, yet Franklin chose not to intercede on his son's behalf.
Ben Franklin is one of the great Americans of all time. This is a great biography of a great man. It is highly recommended.